Air Force working on going nonprofit

Air Force athletic director Hans Mueh and academy superintendent Lt. Gen. John F. Regni were in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday, continuing their push to have the athletic department recast as a nonprofit corporation.

On Wednesday, they met with staffers from the House Armed Services Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee to discuss legislation for the plan.

On Thursday, Regni gave a status report during a meeting of the academy's Board of Visitors (akin to a board of trustees).

Mueh and others have been attempting to change the department to a nonprofit corporation so it can generate more revenue and more easily use donations.

Among other things, that would allow Air Force to offer more competitive contracts to coaches.

Mueh said Thursday night there are plans to send vice athletic director Brad DeAustin and an academy lawyer to Washington in early December to finalize the wording for the legislation. Mueh said he hoped the legislation would be approved by March 2009.

"If everything works the way we think it will work, that will be the target date," he said.

Once the legislation passes, the academy will be authorized to function as a 501(c)(3) state chartered corporation. However, Mueh said it would take "a year, maybe two years" for the department to make the transition.