Skid Heyworth Luncheon

Skid Heyworth '70, USNA Alumni Association VP of Communications Speaks at Chapter April 2004 Luncheon

Skid Heyworth ’70, Vice President of Communications for the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association visited Atlanta for the Chapter April luncheon.

Skid enlightened the assembled alumni about the state of the Alumni Association’s communications vehicles in years past and present.

His first recollection of the state of the art years ago was a mixed lot of Intel 286-based computers, an antiquated electronic bulletin board system, and a hand full of disparate databases that held various pieces of alumni information. He called that system the “battleship”… big, old, and slow to respond to course changes.

He credited past Alumni Association CEO Ron Mariott with bringing the Alumni Association out of the computer stone ages and into the current century with new and state-of-the-art computer systems and equipment.

Next Skid took some time explaining the state of the Alumni Association’s three main communications vehicles, Shipmate Magazine, the USNA.COM web site, and ;the group e-mail server database.

There is now an enterprise wide goal of obtaining a consistent look and feel throughout all communication media, and a clear trend toward “webifiing” everything (putting content on the web site). The trend toward electronic communications media such as web sites and e-mail is based on the overwhelming benefit of the increased speed of communication. Whereas Shipmate Magazine has a six-week time delay, the web site is real-time. The second something is posted, it is immediately available to everyone.

The hand full of disparate databases is now just one database, running on dedicated servers, that holds all alumni information. The antiquated electronic bulletin board system is now a group e-mail list server called “Flash” that can instantly communicate with 30,000 alumni at the click of a mouse button. The Alumni Association web site contains a wealth of information on not only the Association itself but on all Alumni Association Chapters worldwide, plus much more than can be listed here. If you haven’t spent time on the site recently, take a look around one day. Particularly look at the “Alumni Only” section of the site. What’s there will surprise you. Did you know that you can look up any alumnus by last name and class year, or sign up for a lifetime e-mail address?!

Though much is moving toward electronic media, don’t be worried about Shipmate Magazine! A survey was conducted which indicated that over 75% of alumni still prefer to receive a printed hard-copy Shipmate. As such, that’s the way it will remain. Noteworthy is the fact that the Naval Academy is the only college in the country that has ten issues a year of their alumni magazine! That will also remain the same. Most other colleges have around four to six issues a year.

In coming months Shipmate Magazine will undergo some changes. The Alumni Association hired professional publishing agencies to review and critique Shipmate Magazine and create a plan for improvements in process, design, and content.

When these changes are in effect, future Shipmate issues will have themes. Each feature article in the front portion of the magazine will support that main theme. This, as opposed to feature articles that were about a mix of unrelated subjects. Class notes, still the most popular portion of Shipmate, will remain the same.

Skid closed by saying that the communications infrastructure that is currently in place at the Alumni Association is now a space shuttle as compared to the battleship that he found when he first got there.

Many thanks to Skid for making time in his schedule to visit the Atlanta Chapter and keep us up to date.

The following alumni attended the luncheon: George O'Connell '35, Charles Hill '42, Jim Ravenel '45, Jim Hatch '47, Meyer Rose '48, Duff Young '49, John Stark '51, Perry Stephens '51, Mike Nassr '54, Bill Rentz '55, Jim Todd '55, Dale Herndon '56, Mike Miller '56, Hal Morrison '61, Alex Daunis '63, Tony Womble '63,Joe Frazar '65, Bob Snelling '65, Jim Slemenda '66, Paul Borer '70, Skid Heyworth '70, Mitch Rowland '71, Bob Schultz '71, Lee Whitfield '71, Steve Frederick '72, Mike Lores '74, Ben McMillan '74, Mario Maddox '85.

Click on a thumbnail image to view a full sized picture.

Skid Heyworth '70, USNA AA VP of Communications, addresses the assembled alumni.

Chapter President Bill Rentz '55, presents Skid with his personalized Atlanta Chapter apron (while trying to disguise that we got his name spelled wrong on it!)

Some of the luncheon crowd.

Visitor and alumnus from Providence RI, Alex Daunis. Alex was in town for a wedding and looked us up on the web!