Hi there everyone……it’s been a long time since I’ve updated the site. Grad school’s been quite intense and, to be honest, Culver hasn’t been in my immediate thoughts a whole lot. This site’s been more or less sitting around collecting dust. If you’re interested in getting it moving again or just want to say hi, drop me an e-mail. (mrflora at goculver.com)

Here’s something interesting though. As many of you know, Culver announced it was pulling the plug on its aviation program this winter. This didn’t come as a huge surprise to many I’m sure, but a lot of us were definitely hoping the academy would find a way to put planes in the air again.

That was not the case however.

John Buxton, Culver Academies’ current and 12th head of schools, wrote a letter to aviation alumni and supporters back in January that I just stumbled across today. In it he explains the official reasons for closing down the program. As I found it quite interesting, I thought I’d post it online.

Dear ____________:

At its fall meeting, the Board of Trustees voted to discontinue the Aviation program at Culver. A general announcement of this decision has not been shared with the alumni or the student body, but an announcement will appear in the next edition of the Culver Alumni Magazine. I am writing so you have advance notice of this and so that you will not be surprised when the formal notification is made. You have been close to the Aviation program at Culver, and you need to understand why we have reached this very unfortunate conclusion. Obviously, the tragedy that occurred on August 10, 2005 was extremely difficult for the school, the staff, and the families involved. The accident led to 12 months of intense examination and questioning and a thorough analysis of every aspect of our program. We had all of our planes examined; we did benchmarking with other aviation schools; we worked with the FAA and the NTSB closely as we tried to get answers to our questions; and we worked closely with the insurance company to see what the future might look like. In the final analysis, it was clear that it would be too great a commitment of assets to one program in order to bring aviation back to Culver as we have known it.

You may know that this past summer we offered a ground school program for aviation students. We created a state of the art aviation lab so students could participate and practice in a “virtual” environment. The program was actually quite successful even though no one left the ground. We provided transportation for students to travel to local airports for their flight training, but most students seemed content to work in the lab for their training, knowing that they would be able to pursue individual pilot lessons after they attain the age of 16.

In the meantime, we have thoroughly researched the cost and the limits for insurance coverage, the costs of new planes, the cost of relocating the airport and runway operation farther away from the Woodcraft Campus. We concluded we were unable to conduct the program at the level we would want with the protection we would need. Clearly this is a financial more than a philosophical decision.

I imagine you will be disappointed, but I certainly hope you will understand and support our decision. I wanted you to know that this decision to discontinue the program has been reached and that the official announcement will be coming out in a few months.

I hope this letter finds you well, and I appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely yours,

John N. Buxton

What do you think of the letter?  Any thought son aviation getting shut down? Suprised?

DISCUSS THIS IN THE FORUMS

As noticed by intrepid GoCulver denizen Higginbotham79, Culver has posted a full QuickTime video of this last summer’s graduation exercises up on their web site for all to enjoy. If you’ve never been able to attend a graduation ceremony (I’m looking at some of our international campers) perhaps this will give you an idea of what they’re like. The video file takes a little while to load but looks quite nice. It opens with last summer’s reg. commander CKocian (also a go culver denizen) calling the corps to attention for the national anthem and posting of the colors, includes remarks from Mr. Knight and Mr. Mayfield, the awarding of the Commander’s Cup and a few other honors and then the handing out of diploma’s to all the graduating first classmen. There’s no better way to relive those last exhausted, bittersweet moments of a Culver Summer.

Watch Culver Upper Camps 2006 Graduation Ceremony Video

Discuss Video in the Go Culver Forums

Left Culver this morning finally…took me quite some time to write my comment sheets and get the barracks squared away this year. This week I’ll be running errands from my parents house in Michigan and trying to post up retrospectives about Company Two from this last summer for people to read/hopefully enjoy.

If you have any pictures from this past summer on your digital camera or computer you can upload them to our photo gallery for people to enjoy. Lets try to get more pictures from this summer in the galleries.

Also, spread the word about the forums to people getting home from the summer. lets start getting people on here and getting some discussion going about camp and what people are up to now that they’re home.

Comm. Relay came and went last Wednesday with Company Two marching to the lake at the end of it all.

The finish went: Naval 2, Naval Band, Naval One, Naval Three, Naval Four

On Friday at the awards ceremony the final banners for the boys units were announced. Naval Two brought home the naval and athletic banners, there was a tie for the military banner (never seen that before) between Naval Band and Naval Four, and the Tuxis Banner went to Naval Four.

And Special Order 19 was read off…announcing Company Two as the winner of the 2006 “E”. Another trip into the lake…

With yesterday’s softball and basketball games, week two of athletic competition officially began on the boys side at Culver Summer Camps. Time to look back at the first week of camp for super 2.

Tuesday June 27: Last second Heroics lift two over band

Last Tuesday night Company Two’s basketball team took the court for the first time against the Naval Band in one of the more memorable CSS basketball games I’ve ever seen. The Band squad, coached by Mr. Dees and friends, ran a crack zone defense and showed some fairly ill ball-handling skills. They went up early but Company Two, led by Second Classman S. Meeker’s perimiter shooting and some timely free throws held it nearly even at the half.

The second half saw the lead change hands a few times which really worked the cheering sections of both the naval band and company two into a frenzy. Band had their drum line pounding away from the sidelines while Company Two busted out the old Atlanta Braves-style Tomahawk cheer to preserve their voices.

Naval Two’s coach, Mr. Monahan called a timeout with 20 seconds left on the clock and his team down by two points. Things looked more than a little grim as Company Two started up the Tomahawk Chop. On the next play however naval 2 inbounded the ball to Meeker, who managed to evade some tricky defenders, find a spot just outside the 3-point line, and drain a so-ugly-it-was-beautiful shot to put super 2 ahead by one as the game clock ran down. Phew. Company 2 rushed the court and shook hands with the Orange Crush. It was a nice way to start off the summer (though I wouldn’t have minded a slightly less stressful outcome). …Read the rest of this entry…

Just got off the phone with Mr. Knight a few minutes ago and Awesome One still needs a head counselor for this summer.  Are there any college graduates out there who would be interested?

I’ve been hearing various things that sounded promising and was scratching my head as to how this opening could still be there but apparently there have been a few people who have backed out even after signing contracts, which is unfortunate and understandably frustrating for Culver.

Anyway, the job would pay around $3000, staff training starts this Sunday the 18th of June but at this point I think Culver would be somewhat flexible with start time if there’s someone who’d be a good fit who is seriously interested.

So let’s put our heads together on this one.  Are there any brothers, friends, colleagues, alumni, parents, who might be interested in doing something like this during the summer?

If so have them call Culver at 1 574 842 7000 and ask for Coleman Knight.

Any takers from among the Go Culver community?  From our rabid alumni base?

The Tuxis Program has long been a crucial part of Culver Summer Camps, providing every Culver Upper Camper the opportunity to earn a medal to wear with his or her dress A by completing a series of merit-badge style accomplishments as set forth by their Culver Summer Camps Tuxis Director. Third classmen may earn their bronze tuxis medal, second classmen have their silver to work towards, while first classmen set their sights on the gold tuxis. Each of these medals is progressively more difficult to earn with the understanding that moving up in rank at Culver means you have to perform at a higher level.

But how hard is it to earn you Tuxis medal? And how have the Tuxis standards fared over the years? Should there be more testing involved? less testing? more sports? less? What about those pesky Tuxis essays people work on, or their Tuxis collages.

I’m curious to hear what you think about the general level of challenge to the TUXIS program. In fact I’m starting a new poll on the front page about it, so weigh in with a vote there and your comments in the thread in Main Guard.

Finally to adress the questions about changing Tuxis standards I present to you an honest goodness 1920 Silver Tuxis Sheet that I tracked down using our new Ebay section just last week. What do you think of the point requirements? Any of them stand out? Let’s take a look…

…Read the rest of this entry…

The Great Race, Communications Relay, Pegasus Drill, and Final Ball won’t be the only things going on during the last week of camp this summer for Culver Military Academy Summer campers, staff, and parents. They, along with select Woodcrafters and Specialty campers, will also be asked to fill out a new survey commissioned by the Culver Summer Schools Alumni Assocation in order to guage the effectiveness of Culver’s current marketing efforts, processes, and curriculum.

The surveys are being funded by the CSSAA, produced and conducted by Indianapolis-based Loyalty Research Center, and will be overseen by the CSSAA Program and Student Life Committee. The questions posed to campers, staff, and parents will be a little different for each group and parents will have the option of filling it out online.

According to Stan Mefford (CSSAA board member WC‘71 NB‘74, the surveys are meant to “see how good of a job Culver is doing with its summer programs” and will be examined very closely by the Culver Educational Foundation, CSSAA, and the Culver Summer Schools and Camps Administration. “The CSSAA board believes that it is important to see what our customers see, to understand why people come to Culver and who they are demographically,” says Mefford.

Though the impact of the information gleaned from these surveys may not be felt for some time Mefford says the results will eventually be used “to understand the perception, market more precisely, and to improve the summer programs.” According to him “the CSSAA board believes that Culver’s summer program has no equal throughout the country” and has commissioned this survey to understand how Culver can continue in its excellence in their summer programs.

What do you think about this? Leave a comment.

Mr. Thompson had it on.

Major props to Miss Tewell for adding this.

What do you think DISCUSSION LINK?

Today’s Staff Profile comes from the Tuxis side of things:

Name: Mr. Orochena
Position: Tuxis Program Assistant Director
College/Winter Employment: University of Pittsburgh
Home Town: Beaver, Pennsylvania
Nickname/s: yes, but not for this audience
Favorite Quote: Live for Today!
Last Good Book You Read: I dont have time to read any books besides school text books
Favorite Culver dance song: Sweet Home Alabama
Favorite Shack Snack: I LOVE IT ALL (beacuse it tastes better than the food upstairs)
Favorite Spot on Campus: On the WATER!
Best Part of Working at Culver: The People!

If you will be working at Culver this summer in ANY capacity and would like to have your profile included on the site Contact Me.

With the online component of the 2006 Culver Parents Association Auction coming to a close today at noon (!) we should take a look at some of the cool stuff up for bidding still (better late than never eh?). In no particular order, right now you could be placing bids on (you’ll have to register with the auction site to see item details):

…Read the rest of this entry…

Planning on visiting Culver this summer for Homecoming?

If so, post a “yep, I’ll be there” in my new Homecoming 2006 thread over in the alumni forum.

You can take a look at the event schedule here.

Anyone live nearby and willing to put people up?

Anyone driving in from out of town and able to give people a ride?

If we can help people find places to stay and ways to get to campus that’d be delightful.

Welcome back for part two of our Summer 2006 Preview. Yesterday we took a look at some of the announcements Culver’s made about the Naval Program for this coming summer.

Today we’re going to be looking at what the Culver Academy has so far let out about the Aviation Program this summer. When you’re done reading through be sure to post a comment to the Summer 2006 Preview Thread over in the CulverTalk forums.

Tomorrow we’ll be talking Tuxis!

As expected, in the wake of last summer’s tragic incident, Culver will be shaking things up in the Upper Camp Aviation Program this year, largely out of necessesity. The air fleet will, in all likelihood, remain grounded throughout the summer pending the findings of the FAA’s ongoing investigation. More »

Last Wednesday I and all other returning Sr. Counselors received a letter from Tony Mayfield, Director of Culver Summer Schools and Camps, that included several really exciting announcements for this upcoming summer 2006. I’ve written them up along with my thoughts and will be sharing them here on GoCulver.com piece by piece each day all week long.

Today we’ll be looking at developments for the Naval School, on Wednesday we’ll be looking at the latest word on the Aviation Program for this summer, on Thursday stop by to get a glance at rumored changes to the Tuxis Program along with some historical context and suggestions for a few extremely important things Culver should address in the program, and finally on Friday we’ll be running through the rest of Mr. Mayfield’s announcements including news of some big changes for Woodcraft and course offerings.

If this doesn’t get you pumped up for this summer I don’t know what will.

Let’s jump right in to looking at what’s in store for the Naval Program this summer! When you’re done head on over to the CulverTalk discussion thread for this series of articles to post your thoughts on the announcements. Some of them should get people talking.

Click to read Summer 2006 Preview Part 1: the Naval Program

Boardmember Jimi_Kephart82 recently posted this in the Main Guard Aviation Thread. It seems Culver has perhaps looked into his aviation idea:

“Well I talked to Lisa at Eagle AIr, and it looks like my email to Mr Mayfield helped. He called them and asked for a proposal on flying.
They dont think that the FAA will allow them to fly to Culvers airport, but maybe they can fly to Starke county or Plymouth and arrange transportation.

We need all Aviation fans and students to email Mr Mayfield about this program and especially the parents to see if we can work this out.

I am an older alumni, you current cadets need to get your parents to email Mr Mayfield if they are wanting to try to use this solution.

www.jseagle.com is the alternate airfield’s web site if you’re curious.

and you can get Mr Mayfields email from Culver.org”

You heard the man. Culver’s aware of the idea and looking into it somewhat at least. If you want planes in the sky this summer write to Mr. Mayfield. You can look him up on Culver Connect (check the link on the sidebard to the right down below) or just write to summer@culver.org

Posted by Mr. Flora at 2:36 PM