Washington Post Correspondence

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

Records of communications between any member of the VMI Marketing and Communication's Office, The Superintendent's staff, the Board of Visitors Staff, and Mr. Tom Watjen with the Washington Post on the subject of the BOV Special session, Maj Gen. Wins' contract, contract extension, new contract or related topics. This is to include such communications to provide the Washington Post Maj. Gen. Win's statement of March 6, 2025 and Mr. Watjen's resignation letter and the email to the VMI Faculty, staff, cadets, VMI Alumni Agencies, etc. of Maj. Gen. Wins' statement. I am willing to accept incremental delivery. At the minimum VMI should be able to provide the communications involving how the Washington Post became aware of, requested, and were provided Mr. Watjen's resignation letter and the Superintendent's Statement on the BOV decision not to renew his contract immediately as these stories were just published recently with those documents.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Tom Nash, a citizen of Virginia, in coordination with Anonymous.

I have the following questions on what you released as it appears that it maybe INCOMPLETE:

1. The Email on Feb 26, 2025 12:19 PM, starts, "Thanks so much for reaching out," but I cannot find that initial contact. Was a formal FOIA request submitted? Was it by email? If so, please provide a copy(ies). If this initial request was by phone or other means where there is no record of it please let me know.
2. The Email on Feb 26, 2025 12:19 PM, says, "I will get back to you as soon as possible on the other items we discussed," and at 2:19 it says "I should have most of your original requests shortly." - I do not see any records showing what those original requests were or any follow-up with what those items were and when they were provided. Please provide the missing documents or explain.
3. The March 5, 2025 11:313 email states, "I am getting updates on your other queries," but the results or the nature of the queries themselves seem to be missing. Please provide or explain.
4. There is nothing in the file about FOIA charges. Were they not charged for this? That would explain it.

Thank you, and I look forward to your prompt response.

Also, on the pages with the texts, one in the blue bubble starting "No. It can still be accessed..." and "Right, thanks..." show they were EDITED. Please send the original wording as required by the FOIA.

Thank you for the response. It just appears from the FOIA responses that there was communication and coordination with other VMI staff members and MG Wins that was not provided in the response.

Hi,

Thanks so much for your help with this request! I really appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Anonymous