On Point

West Point Association of Graduates: Becoming the Most Connected Alumni Body in the World with Robert McDonald and Todd Browne Part 2

Episode Summary

This episode features part 2 of a discussion between the honorable Robert McDonald, the new Chairman of the WPAOG Board of Directors, and Todd Browne, the president and CEO of AOG. Bob and Todd continue to speak about their shared vision for the future of AOG as it continues its mission to become the most highly-connected alumni body in the world for members of the Long Gray Line. They go over the efforts WPAOG is making to coordinate and encourage alumni connections and help provide a clearer path for what’s ahead.

Episode Notes

This episode features part 2 of a discussion between the honorable Robert McDonald, the new Chairman of the WPAOG Board of Directors, and Todd Browne, the president and CEO of AOG. Bob and Todd continue to speak about their shared vision for the future of AOG as it continues its mission to become the most highly-connected alumni body in the world for members of the Long Gray Line. They go over the efforts WPAOG is making to coordinate and encourage alumni connections and help provide a clearer path for what’s ahead.

As a highly distinguished leader and civil servant, Bob shares insights and his vision for AOG. Complementing his vision, Todd discusses more immediate strategies AOG is implementing to ensure growth, connections, and valuable services to members of the Long Gray Line. Their efforts are geared towards supporting the US Military Academy and Margins of Excellence that drive West Point to continue to be the world-class institution it’s been for over 150 years.

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"On the aspect of keeping people connected, and all these programs. I mean, it's not just to keep people connected for the sake of being connected. If we are successful at keeping them connected, then this grad network is really helpful to its fellow graduates. I mean, that's really, that's really the essence of what we're trying to do. You know, make it so that the, the network serves its fellow members and the academy. In the final analysis, that's really what we're all about." - Todd Browne

“The alumnus, the graduate is at the center. It’s the desires of the graduate that are driving the infrastructure, the system. It’s not somebody imposing something saying “here’s what we think you need to do.” It’s really the graduate who’s at the center. And that’s really what service is all about.” - Robert McDonald

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Episode Timestamps

(01:55) - What Does WPAOG Do?

(07:00) - Giving Back to the Community

(10:00) - Important WPAOG Projects

(15:50) - AOG Facility Support

(25:00) - Morale Welfare Recreation

(27:40) - Vision of 2030 Plan

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Links

Todd A Browne LinkedIn

Robert A. McDonald LinkedIn

West Point Association of Graduates

On Point Podcast

Episode Transcription

Todd Browne: [00:00:00] Hello. My name is Todd Browne, class of 1985. President and CEO of the west point association of graduates. Our mission is to serve west point and the long gray line with a vision to become the most highly connected alumni body in the world. We're proud to present the WP AOG broadcast network, expanding existing connections between graduates with diverse content assessable from anywhere in the world.

This communications channel offers an exclusive look at the extraordinary lives of our graduates while keeping you up to date on AOG services, ways to engage and advance at our rock bound, Highland home, our 2030 strategic plan advances, our alumni body's remarkable record of service to west point and to one another.

And this broadcast network is one more way to keep us all informed and connect. If you would like to participate in this broadcast network in any [00:01:00] capacity, please email us initiatives@wpaog.org. Thank you for listening as we unlock the power of the long gray line.

Narrator: Welcome back to. In this episode, we will continue our discussion between the honorable Robert McDonald, the new chairman of the WPAOG board of directors and Todd Browne, the president and CEO of AOG. Bob McDonald graduated west point in 1975 and is a highly distinguished leader and civil servant. He served as chairman and CEO of the Procter and gamble company.

And as the secretary of veterans affairs, In part two of this discussion, Bob and Todd will continue to speak about their shared vision for the future of AOG, as it continues its mission to become the most highly connected alumni body in the world for members of the long gray line, they go over the efforts.

WPAOG is making to coordinate and encourage alumni connections [00:02:00] and help provide a clear path for what's ahead. Now here's your host, Ian Faison

Ian Faison: So Todd, I'm sure you get this question kind of a lot of like what, what does west point AIG, uh, do exactly, because I think, you know, there's a lot of grads that are a little confused by that, and we've kind of talked through a piece of that already, but there's another piece of this that we haven't talked about yet.

So what is it, what does west point. 

Todd Browne: I also outline what we do by talking about our mission, right? Serve west point and the long gray line. We've talked quite a bit about serving the long gray line, but maybe we should talk a little more about service to west point. And really that is focused on three areas.

One is fundraising. The second one, you know, after we fundraise, we manage the endowment, we manage all the gift funds. And finally, the one that people probably know the least about is that we provide, uh, all the, uh, [00:03:00] privately funded buildings to west point. So many people see the new buildings that are going up that are gift funded.

The AOG actually builds those and provides them to the government has completed projects. A lot of people are aware of our fundraising activity, but managing the endowment, you know, the, the endowments doubled in size over the last five years. So really there's been a ton of growth there through the generosity of our, uh, Greg.

And I 

Robert McDonald: would say that those things that we give to west point enhance the cadet experience from provide cadet experience. That is well above. What would otherwise be funded by the government? For example, when I was a kid. I was an exchange students at Belgium military academy. A lot of times these study abroad programs are funded by the Aug.

And I would argue in many ways that, um, you know, you learn to deal with people [00:04:00] of other cultures, uh, by living abroad. So it's, that's kind of a fundamental program for an army. 

Todd Browne: Yeah, the, you know, uh, our fundraising, we usually talk about that. Uh, we call it the margin of excellence programs in many of our graduates are tracking the, the history there, but prior to say, 1997, which was the first fundraising campaign for west point.

There were many of these programs didn't exist. What we call the AADs or the internships that allow cadets to go overseas and to do capstone type projects, uh, with industry, those are all funded through the margin of excellence programs and it, they could add. So when you talk to them, many of them say that those are some of the most important experiences they have is as cadet.

So the idea behind the margin of excellence programs, you know, the fundraising is to make the 47 month experience for the kid. That's the [00:05:00] best it can be to produce the best officers for the army. The other key point is to compete with all the other tier one universities and all those tier one university.

R a raising money to ensure that they have the best curriculum and facilities and we need to do it to compete. 

Ian Faison: Yeah. I think this is one of those things that I kind of mentioned at the top, how you just don't really know who's paying for what, when you're going through us point. Right. You're like, I don't know.

You know, I, I know that a bunch of the, you know, parents made a bunch of the brownies and the cookies that I'm meeting, but beyond that, I don't know, who's paying for a single thing. And I think there's just a lot of confusion. 

Todd Browne: Yeah, that's true. And we have a concerted effort at the AIG now to try to help educate cadets current cadets.

Uh, so that they have an understanding of the opportunities that they have that have been funded, you know, with private [00:06:00] funds and one just because, you know, we want them to appropriately thank the people who make that possible, but also to encourage kind of a culture of philanthropy so that, uh, in the future, uh, when they have the ability to give back, they also.

Ian Faison: Bob. Do you think that this is something that like, as, as you talk about like the service to Westpoint and how important, what AOJ does that this is something that like, A lot of your peers, you know, understood earlier in their careers or were able to, to connect in that way. Cause I feel like, you know, a lot of times like, you know, my peer group, you know, you're just starting a family.

You're like trying to figure out your way in this world. As I mentioned earlier, you're, you know, you're trying to get to, you know, be a director level or something like that or, or whatever. And you kind of might forget about. You know, why it's important that what west point does to serve or what AIG does to serve west point?

Robert McDonald: [00:07:00] No, I think you're writing and then you, you would not be alone. I mean, all of us when we were younger and growing up with our families, uh, it leads to a, uh, somewhat of a myopia and I don't mean. And then discriminating way, but it means leads to my opiate. We didn't realize these things were, were available or, or were necessary and, and who was doing them?

Uh, you know, I think about the west point society of Cincinnati, which I've been a member of and, and the work that they do in the community to train leaders, they use the Westport. Leadership development program and they train leaders in, in society. In Cincinnati, they train minority leaders, they train, uh, leaders who, you know, from impoverished families, my wife and I, um, have funded a conference at west point called a conference for leaders of character, because we believe that the naughty problems of the world aren't going to be solved by.

One country alone. [00:08:00] It's going to take people from around the world, working together. And one way to create that cohort is to bring people together at west point. Certainly talk about the purpose and values and have the behavioral science department, baby science and leadership deferment, do some training and get these young people to work together across boundaries, um, on these.

Problems. It's really, I think the only way we're going to solve some of the problems that unfortunately my generation is in generations before me are leaving younger people. 

Ian Faison: Yeah. And you know, one of the things about these moments that matter is kind of the ebbs and flow of where you are in your personal journey and kind of where AIG can support you versus where you can support IOG.

And I think that. Putting the information in these kind of moments and understanding that that kind of ebb and flow is really important because I think there's just a lot of times where you're just like, I need help. I need support. Like I need someone else looking out for me. And [00:09:00] there's other times in your career where you're saying like, Hey, I'd like to give back.

I'd like to, uh, you know, give time, money, effort, resources, whatever that is. And it just, it allows for a much different kind of, you know, decision matrix. 

Robert McDonald: Yeah, I think, you know, really the giving back doesn't necessarily depend upon age and it also doesn't necessarily need to be entirely monetarily. Uh, you know, I can see where, for example, a lot of the entrepreneurs who are younger.

Can be great resources to the faculty. And I've seen this happen where the faculty may call on them to talk about entrepreneurship, uh, within the classroom. Some of the work that some of my classmates are doing around the systems engineering center and the work that's going on to. The systems engineering capability in cyber warfare.

It's surprising sometimes who can add the most value reminds me of my time at [00:10:00] Proctor and gamble, where we talk about being a democracy of ideas. It didn't depend how long you'd been with the company or what your title was, but it was how big was your idea? And some of the younger people have the biggest ideas.

I think. 

Ian Faison: Todd, is there anything, um, in terms of like any projects or things that you've been particularly proud of over the last few years in ways that EOG has been able to serve west point? 

Todd Browne: We we've talked a little bit about Sally port, which is the platform for the, both the groups, you know, classes and societies and shared interest groups to manage their membership, communication and event registrations.

And then. Individual individual aspect of that, which is grad Lincoln. We're very proud of that because I think. Moved us to a place where we can leverage our technology and automation to provide a service that every grad can take advantage of. A couple of the other things that have been really well [00:11:00] received by graduates are this thing called the rock bound Highland home program.

And the whole idea of that was to welcome all graduates as they return to west point. And one of the. Negative aspects, you know, that came out of the kind of post nine 11 error is that graduates had less access, uh, to west point, you know, from getting on post, to just being able to walk around and hang out.

And so we put in place this program that helps you get on post. That provides access to all the, you know, the morale, welfare recreation things at west point for all grads. And then finally has these insider tour. And it's really critical to keeping graduates connected that they want to visit west point.

And they, when they do visit west point, they have a good experience. And then we've talked about. You know, kind of our new and more robust career [00:12:00] services program. That's probably the other major thing that I think folks graduates have embraced and it's doing great work. The feedback we get is amazing.

We now have initiatives as part of our 20, 30 strategic plan to kind of build on all these things and take them to the next level. We talked about the career services program. Well, the next level that's is called a transition navigator and it's to go beyond, you know, a placement to look at more comprehensive, uh, needs of, of grads know, just beyond getting a job.

They have other questions, you know, family considerations, uh, you know, what about my spouses career, my kids, what about the school systems and, and, uh, you know, geographic considerations. So that'll be the next step transition navigator. And then when it comes to, you know, encouraging graduates to visit, uh, we have [00:13:00] a really big.

Project, I'll say that's part of the 20, 30 strategic plan is called the Hudson valley project. And it's a little bit of a departure from what the AIG has traditionally done, but it's, uh, the idea behind it is to try to improve the, uh, kind of the vibrancy and the attractiveness of the town of Highlands Highland falls outside the gate.

And again, it directly supports, uh, you know, our mission, you know, serves the west point. Uh, part of the, uh, superintendent strategic plan is of course, is to recruit cadets and staff and faculty. That's what they call line of effort three in their strategic plan. It directly supports that. And then it supports the other part of our mission serving the long gray line, because you know, our grads want to visit.

They want to come back to west point and it's important for them. To have a good experience. And we talked about the moments that matter. It directly supports this moment, that matter that's called the homecoming. So [00:14:00] the idea behind that is to, you know, help improve the town on the border of the academy and the linchpin.

We can go into a long discussion, but really, as we've studied it, the thing that we think is holding back the town in the biggest way is the school system. And so, uh, the first thing we're going to try to do is put in place an afterschool program because what's preventing people from wanting to move to Highland falls is the school system.

So if we can improve the school system, that'll make the town much more. And ultimately encourage folks to want to live there, especially our 5,000 civilian employees in. So there's a big opportunity for kind of a trickle-down economy from the employees at west Westpoint to help improve this. You know, I can kind of go on and on Ian, if you, uh, if you don't stop me.

So I'll, I'll, I'll pause there. Uh, if you have any other questions about that, we 

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Ian Faison: Yeah, it's just so amazing. I mean, there's so many things that are kind of in the works and, you know, I, I mentioned it that's at the top of the show that there's just so many cool things going on, and 

Robert McDonald: I think it'd be helpful if Todd talked a little bit about some of the.

Buildings and facilities that we've recently turned over to the academy, like the new writing center, like the new athletic, the Anderson athletic facility. These are all going to make a huge difference. And certainly some of the facilities have led to a better performance by our athletic teams. 

Todd Browne: You know, when we talked about the service to west point part of our mission and, and, uh, the privately funded construction.

So the AIG has provided over $300 million worth of construction of privately funded construction over about the last 20 years. A good portion of that has been in support of athletics and the [00:17:00] Princeton review several years ago listed our athletic facilities as being, you know, one of the tops in the country.

And I think that that really was important to our ability to compete, you know, We talked about competing for the best candidates, but facilities are really important. And those of us who have been, uh, you know, who have kids who. Gone on the college tours, you know, the facilities always matter and they matter to, you know, the cadets that are intercollegiate athletes and they may not matter to all the other cadets.

So, uh, Bob mentioned a few of the recent ones, uh, the, the past a year or so we have finished the, uh, St the questioning center, which, you know, supports the cadet club, the equestrian club and the local community, the, uh, Anderson athletics center. Supports three teams, uh, sprint football, volleyball, and the softball team.

And that was, uh, an amazing project, a, a kind of a gut renovation of an 18 hundreds building [00:18:00] that we needed to leave the exterior up for historic reasons, but we basically built a whole new building inside of it. Kind of a state-of-the-art for those three teams, but we're also working right now on a project to renovate the facility that's used by the, the glee club, the cadet glee club and the west point band.

Those sorts of things just would not happen if they were dependent upon government funding. Those are buildings that have. Provided full stop, but we also provide gift funding to some of the government construction projects. The major one right now is called the celiac, the cyber engineering academic center, which is primarily is government funded, but we're providing margin of excellence funds for options to that building, which includes sort of.

A lot of the gee whiz engineering maker-space kind of stuff. If you will, to make it a, uh, you know, sort of a first class facility. 

Robert McDonald: So my [00:19:00] class is 53. Union gift is we're currently raising money for the celiac. 

Todd Browne: Very exciting in my class. I'm 10 years behind we, our gift is to support the what's called the M sack.

Right. We have a lot of acronyms, which is the math science engineering center. And, uh, so, uh, at least our two classes have gotten behind those projects, those a brick and mortar type projects. Yeah. I mean, 

Ian Faison: w like what, what goes into that, that, uh, that type of, uh, commitment and, uh, and that decision making, because it seems like there's, you know, there's a, there's a, uh, a laundry list of things that, that need to happen at Westbourne at any given time.

And like, how does, how does someone choose what to sink their teeth into? 

Todd Browne: Yeah. Well, the first key point is that the, you know, the AIG raises money for what the superintendent determines are his needs, the Academy's needs, and those needs are aligned with the [00:20:00] academy strategic plan. So once the academy has designated something as a need, then the AIG, you know, proactively markets it to potential donors, both individuals and classes.

And corporations and foundations, et cetera. So it's the last two years the academy has been going through its process to determine its needs that are part of the current fundraising campaign. Bob mentioned early on that we're have started a new campaign, which will go for the next seven years. And, uh, the goal of which is about 600 million.

So it's purpose driven for specific strategic needs of the we're really 

Robert McDonald: fortunate in that, um, general Williams. Who's an outstanding superintendent, has a great relationship and great respect for Todd and the association of graduates. I think every board meeting I've been at where he's been [00:21:00] available, he's come and spend time with us.

And the, the synergy between an alignment between his strategic plan for 2030 and our strategic plan for 2030 is virtually identical. I mean, it's, it's, um, some really outstanding work being done. So we're certain that what we're working on is important to him and important to the needs. So many of the facilities at point.

Well, they have great history are also old. Uh, for example, when I was a, um, a yearling, we went out to camp Buckner in the summer. A lot of camp Buckner was built by German POW's in world war two, and it really needed some work in order to be up to the standard of today's army. And that was identified in the transition work that was done when general Williams came on board.

And, uh, we've talked a lot about that at our board meetings, right? 

Todd Browne: Yeah, that's right. And the [00:22:00] great news, you know, I talked about that term, the margin of excellence programs, and AIG only raises money for things that go beyond the core requirements of the academy. And so core defined as any CRE core CRM ERP, right.

Anything that's required to receive either. You know, degree or your commission, our core requirements that the government should fund and those things beyond the core can be funded with gift funds or the margin of excellence program. And the great news is the experience it was before. Has been synergistic.

And, uh, right now the government has committed to funding about $2.5 billion worth of facility work at west point. And, you know, we're just use facilities as the example, but you know, that's going on with all the programs also, but the facilities are really easy to see and [00:23:00] understand. So, um, you know, the, the government.

Has funded about $600 million project to renovate all the barracks, taking down one a year for renovation, they're getting ready to do a program, a program to. Update all the academic buildings over a number of years, that's going to be about a billion dollars. Bob mentioned the renovation of, uh, camp Buckner, uh, as is, as the soup says, you know, uh, built by German POW's for German.

POW's instilled looks the same finally. Uh, you know, they're going to get after that project, which is another major project. We mentioned the sciatic already two years ago, the academy built its first new. Barracks. And so the total of all these government projects is about 2.5 billion. So the government's pulling its weight.

And the great thing is when you add on the private support, that's what [00:24:00] allows the academy to remain competitive and, and produce great leaders for the, for the nation. 

Ian Faison: That's incredible. I did not know about the, uh, about the German. Uh, POW's that's as crazy. Some. Maybe might not, maybe not my favorite memories of west point or at Buckner.

That's, I'll say 

Robert McDonald: that. Well, remember you, you can come to west point now on the rock bound Highland home program and others, and you can use the welfare facilities that exist, like, like the lakes, like the ski slope, like the golf course. That's one of the benefits that a, the dog is. 

Ian Faison: I love that I took my wife a few years ago.

She'd never been. And, uh, and it was a real gray, cloudy day, a rainy cloudy day. And I said, babe, this is exactly the type of day that you want, you needed to come on. Uh, so you know, what, what the gray feels like, but we got to go back to the golf course. That's a great, [00:25:00] that's a great. Let her loose and balls and the trees like I did when I was a cadet.

Robert McDonald: It's a narrow golf 

Ian Faison: course. Yeah, sure. Is. Especially 

Todd Browne: with a slice. It's really great that the Academy's leaders, you know, have agreed to put our graduates in sort of a special status to allow them to use all those MWR facilities, like all the active duty folks. And, um, you know, when they come back, they can, they can take advantage of those things and, and, and many do.

Uh, so you know, that's one part of the rock bound Highland home program. 

Robert McDonald: Okay. You may want to explain MWR for those who may not know what it is. 

Todd Browne: So MWR, which stands for morale welfare recreation is the non appropriated fund. Uh, entity on all military installations that provides, you know, support for recreation and fun things.

You know, like the bowling alley, like the ski slope at west point, like [00:26:00] the outdoor recreation, you know, at west point there are many, many lakes. And there are opportunities to go to, you know, rent boats and trolling motors and fish and, you know, kayaks and all that sort of thing. But really it's the, it's the recreation opportunities.

Uh, and those are available to grads at west point. Sometimes I joke if you come on Saturday night to the bowling alley and disco bowling, which is a lot of fun, you know, with the. Disco ball, et cetera, while you're out there. At least my kids really like to do it, but 

Ian Faison: my roommate just was, uh, was teaching at west point at the past few years and got some real lunker bass at, uh, at, uh, at Alaska, those little girls.

So, um, I, I know that there's, uh, there's all sorts of stuff to do that I never, I never thought about, but it's like, this stuff is fun to fun to talk about, because I think there's so much of this stuff that like, I mean, I didn't know, uh, And, uh, and I think a lot of folks don't know, 

Todd Browne: well, if you, you may not remember, but there's this place called round pond, which is one of these recreation [00:27:00] facilities.

And, you know, you can camp there, you can rent these little cabins that they have. You can park your RV there and all that, that, uh, is available to graduates. Yeah. 

Robert McDonald: And by the way, you don't have to be in the 50th reunion class to participate in the March back. Right tie any alumni class can participate.

And, uh, we had quite a few people marching back the summer. 

Todd Browne: That's right. The, the academy limits to, to 250 graduates. And as Bob mentioned, we fill that up every year and then we further limit. Two 50 grads from the 50 year affiliation class, just because we don't want to. You know, bump out all the other grads who want to do it, especially those who have children in the, in the class.

You know, that's, that's a really great experience for a parent to be able to do the March back with their, with their son or daughter. Well, before we get out of here, 

Ian Faison: Uh, I do want to wrap with, with a little bit of, [00:28:00] uh, of the vision of the 2030 plan. Bob, we'll start with you. What are you, what's next? What are you excited about?

Some of your you're a big, hairy, audacious goals and 

Robert McDonald: whatnot. I think delivering. The plan about connections and as Todd and I have talked, we think we're just scratching the surface in the kinds of initiatives that can grow organically from alumni that better serve alumni. So I'm, I'm eager over time to identify what those may be and then nurture them and, uh, and support.

Secondly, obviously is the, uh, the fundraising campaign, the $600 million that we're trying to raise for, uh, to support the academy program over the next seven years. And by the time we get to 2030, You know, maybe even before we'll probably have an endowment that will be overpaying dollars and, um, [00:29:00] that's really, really serious stuff.

And I should say for all the graduates listening that we have, uh, just a terrific investment committee formed of over a dozen graduates. All of whom are financial professionals. So in their private lives, they're running huge endowments already. Like the endowment for the university of Chicago or the endowment for Principia university, or they endowment for the Minnesota teacher's union and they donate their time to help.

Run the endowment, a Westpoint, which has done extremely well extremely well. And then third, I think is we continue to build a board which is diverse and, uh, and full of talented people right now on the board. We've got obviously a diversity of classes. A diversity of gender, diversity of, uh, race. We have, um, we have, uh, a partner at a big accounting firm.

We have a former CEO of a Michelin [00:30:00] tire. We have just tremendously talented people who have decided to use their talents to help us point. And I'm, I'm inspired by that. And I want to obviously keep that trend going. 

Todd Browne: Totally. What about you? Well, you know, Bob covered a good part of what my primary goal and vision goals and vision would be.

I'll just comment a little further on the aspect of keeping people connected and all these programs. I mean, it's not just to keep people connected for the sake of being connect. Um, if we are successful at keeping the connected, then this, uh, grad network is really helpful to its fellow graduates. I mean, that's really, that's really the essence of what we're trying to do, you know, make it so that the, the network, uh, serves its fellow members and the academy in the final analysis.

That's [00:31:00] really what we're all about in a, it goes back to what I mentioned earlier. Keeping people connected and providing service. That's what the AOGs. 

Ian Faison: Okay, Bob, any final thoughts for, well, 

Robert McDonald: I thought Todd just said it so well, I just want to thank Todd for his leadership because the progress we've made over the last few years in the EOG under Todd's leadership has been fantastic.

I'd also like to thank the board members for their contributions. And of course the academy leadership led by general lambs. It's just so important that west point continue to be the beacon of, of what. Uh, in our country and that we continue to develop the leaders of character that our nation needs, uh, whether it's in uniform or out of uniform.

And I'm totally committed to that. And I know Todd is, I know our other directors are, and that's really, what's important to me. Wonderful. 

Ian Faison: Todd, Bob, thank you so much for joining. We really appreciate it. It's been an awesome conversation and obviously, uh, everybody go, [00:32:00] go to west point aig.org to learn more about all 

Todd Browne: the goings on Ian big, thanks to you and Caspian for hosting us today.

Absolutely, 

Ian Faison: of course, anytime. 

Narrator: Um, point is a production of the WPAOG broadcast network. Please take a moment to rate and review the show and join us each week for a new episode. Thank you for listening.