Senior Banquet

USNA1985
Tue, 27 May 2008 12:49:34 +0000

First, don’t be too harsh on your BGO. BGOs not being able to attend awards ceremonies/presentations happens all the time (in fact, it’s happening to me next week when I have to be away on business and will miss the ceremony for three of my students). Remember, we are all volunteers and most of us have full-time jobs and busy lives outside of our USNA commitments. That doesn’t mean we don’t take them seriously, just that we may not be able to attend every event we’d like to.

In most regions, the Area Coordinator or someone he/she designates will help find a BGO to cover an awards ceremony if the regular BGO can’t attend. Obviously, the earlier you can contact your BGO or AC the better. Explain the date and time of the event, the formality, and how long the presenter will be expected to stay. Most schools try to arrange for the military presentations to occur early (or late) in the event so that the military presenters don’t have to spend 2-3 hours at an event for which they’ll make a 2-minute presentation.

Another option (not ideal but better than nothing) is to ask the representative for NROTC (if one is present) or even the rep for one of the other SAs to help out. Most of them will be happy to do it. They may give you and the audience some good-natured ribbing (and I do mean GOOD-NATURED) but, ultimately all of us respect our fellow SAs, their grads, and their appointees. I’ve made a presentation in the past for another SA and was pleased and honored to do so.

USNA gives us “talking points” for the presentation. Most BGOs tweak those and/or try to personalize them in some way.