The Gentlemen at Arms Alliance was formed after I spoke to the Fisher House about our project. They told me that as much as they need help, the Center for the Intrepid needed our help even more. I came into contact with a man from the center named Matt Krause. Though Matt is in New York, he works for the Center and has personally dealt with the repercussions of the war. Matt has worked with me via phone calls, e-mail, and through various other people to help our group create something special. With his help and a large staff at the Center for the Intrepid San Antonio, we created the Gentlemen At Arms Alliance. We decided that we would not just work with the Center but also with other organizations to promote the welfare of the soldiers and their families.

After much discussion, our group decided to host a benefit concert to raise money. Since you assigned this with some joy intended, we figured if we could give back to the community, we might as well have some fun with it. Since the conception of the idea for the Gentlemen At Arms Alliance, I have done a lot of work to ensure that this event [benefit concert] can occur. The work done thus far includes: emailing companies, bands, organizations, and venues; meeting with sponsors; and setting up the Gentlemen At Arms website. I have emailed a myriad of bands, ranging from many different genres of music, to try and book them to play at this benefit. Venues have been contacted to try and isolate a place for the benefit to take place. I have been talking with different companies to get them to sponsor the event. I have talked to various organizations about using their particular charity and asking for their approval to use their name at the benefit and on the website.

I met with sponsors, trying to gain an understanding on what they are willing to contribute to the benefit. Whether it just be monetary support for a charity and their recognition in that effort, or if the sponsor wants to produce a product that will be sold at the event, and trying to figure out how much of the proceeds from the products will be donated and where the money goes. I have begun to setup a more permanent website for the Gentlemen At Arms Alliance. I grew discontent with the first website due to the inability to put what I wanted on the website and this new hosting has permitted me to have greater flexibility in getting the website to match the designs that I have in my head. The new host also allows for more bandwidth so that more people can view it and more information can be displayed on the page at one time. This eliminates many of the problems some people have been having when viewing the website.

I have also had much trouble finding a venue that would host our event for free, as well as a venue that would be big enough to hold up to a 1,000 people. Some of the companies I have called were extremely unprofessional and others hung up on me before I could explain my reason for calling. However, I did find that speaking to the person in charge, face to face, is much easier. Though it can be a bit nerve wrecking, the efforts seemed to pay off more and they seemed more willing to listen to me. I have also found that there are just as many people willing to help a good cause as there are willing to shut you out. I found this truly inspiring and it fueled my drive even more.

As far as group work goes, I have had a bit of a hard time getting my group involved. It was not so much that they did not participate but more that I had to basically drag information out of them. I had to ask several times for the information that they had found while researching. Perhaps I was not persistent enough. I sent e-mail after e-mail and text message after text message asking them to please send me what they had done while I was absent and did not get any response. I asked them to please work on the PowerPoint presentation and divide things up to be taken care of. When I got no response, I sent them a list of things to each research. I still did not get a response until I was actually back in the classroom with them. It was then that they finally shared what they had done. They had divvied the research up and decided on a format for the presentation, but did not have concrete information. Tzul, instead of sending me his information, sent me the URL’s from which he got the information. This is helpful, however, I did not have the time to do the research all myself, being the entire reason for which work was divided.

For a couple days, things were slow with planning the benefit show because Matt was speaking with venues, personally, and trying to find us a place to conduct. Tzul made the comment, “It does not feel like we are doing much.” This upset me. No, that day we could not do much as far as the planning stages went in finding a place to host. But, I asked the members of my group, numerous times, to call places and look for a host, as well as someone to donate food, decorations, or even just to sponsor us. I understand that it was harder for them to find sponsors simply because I have a lot more connections than they do, but they did not do what was asked of them. Stephanie did, however, call Blue Bubble Ballroom, who never answered their telephone.

Stephanie has been fairly diligent in not only doing what she could, but also in doing what I asked of her. She called several different venues and tried to contact as many bands as she could. Unfortunately, most of the bands did not respond and I think this discouraged Stephanie. She did her research, even though it was not a large portion, it was still vital and very important to the presentation because it was the problem as well as the solution. Her ideas were solid and her sources were valid. Though she knew her information, she seemed rather unsure of herself when discussing which slides she would present. Stephanie is very shy but has a great energy. Once she in her comfort zone, she works better. The only problem I have found with Stephanie is getting her to talk. She’s so very quiet and gentle that it’s hard to get her to talk about her ideas. She also has a hard time pulling things together in words. In theory, she places things together in her mind, but in words, she has a difficult time. I ended up helping her write what she would say for her slides simply because she could not put sentences with phrases.

Justin works all the time and has not had much time to devote to this project, or much time to meet. He has helped with research pertaining to how to help the veterans as well as alternative ways of helping our cause. He never responded to my e-mails and responded to very few of my text messages. He did however, find some very enlightening information. Though he had been sick and missed the important days of planning and review, he caught on very quickly. He seemed to know exactly what he planned to say about each of the slides he was assigned and seemed ready to present with great enthusiasm. His sources, however were a bit questionable and we had to find new ones. Justin worked very hard trying to find us bands to play, many of which he personally knows. Regrettably, they all needed a time and a date, which we could not have until we found a place.

Tzul is very opinionated. He expresses concern for the soldiers and their families on a personal level which is rather inspiring. At the same time, he can be very brash. He can be almost cold to the feelings of others, though he means well. He wanted my friend’s mother, who lost her son two months ago, to speak at our concert. Initially, I could not believe how inconsiderate he could be to assume that she would even want to. It took me a while to realize that he was really trying to make this benefit concert something deep; he wanted not only to touch people but to get to their core and make them feel. At first, he did not do much concerning the concert itself. It was very hard to get him involved in calling or emailing venues or bands. He seemed more concerned with other things in his life. I found this frustrating because he had been so adamant on making a difference and touching people. In this past week, he created a pamphlet to hand out to the class. His efforts have been limited up until this point and he really wanted to make the pamphlet informative. He has spent much time collecting information and pictures for it.

I feel as though my group has been more interested in their grade with the presentation itself than the doing something to make a difference. I have noticed this more in the males, than in Stephanie; Tzul says he wants to make a difference but when the time comes to call or connect with someone, he chooses not to. Stephanie does really want the concert to happen and has made an effort to help. But, when I went to meet with the owner of the White Rabbit, I asked if any of the group wanted to come. None of them did. All three members said that they wanted to go with me to the Center for the Intrepid to speak about the benefit, but when the time came they opted out. I am not sure whether this was due to lack of interest or lack of time. After discussing changing the benefit date to later in the year, everyone seemed relieved and much more willing to be a part, offering to speak to other bands and more popular people. I think that their interest is pure, but they are struggling to complete their work just as I am.

Putting together this benefit has been both a lot of work and a learning experience. It would seem that the emails with bands, venues, companies, and the various charity organizations have been endless. The meetings have been few, and have seemed to have gone well. The website construction has been an arduous task, but one that is making great progress. All of these tasks make up the bulk of what I have personally done for this benefit.


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GAAA Events to This Point is a derivative of the Gentlemen At Arms Alliance.}