February 10, 2002

Hello everyone. I'm sorry you haven't heard much out of me since October. Reason # 1 is I had too much work to do in November and December to do much communicating about the reunion. Reason # 2 is I had a ruptured aneurism of the lower aorta on New Years Day and was recovering from surgery for much of January. I'm okay. Back to work and everything. But it's just another reminder (as if we didn't have enough of them) that we're not 18 anymore and stuff like this can happen to any of us at any time.

I have taken care of the most important things covered in the October 7 announcement and the October 14 announcement.

The forms required by Great Reunions have been mailed to them. Since most of you did not supply any input on the choices we had to make, I did the best I could on my own.

Item 1

You can see the modifications I made for the Invitation form (click the link to read it). With a little assistance from my wife (who said, "You're not going to go to a function on the Queen Mary not dressed right are you?!") I decided to go along with Quila's vote for "Coat and Tie." Sharyn has had some communication with people who threatened not to come if it were formal, but I trust normal business attire will not upset too many. If you think "coat & tie" is not descriptive enough, let me know very quickly so I can get in touch with Chris at GR before it goes to the printer.

Item 2

 list of suggested questions  -- I could not think of four worthwhile questions to ask that would get the committee any valuable information to use for the reunion, so I decided to use the space for informational purposes and to try to get people to register at websites where we can stay in touch in the future. Incidentally, the first of the two URL's on the questionnaire is the new link for the TCHS Delphi Forum. The link I gave you in the October announcements is no good (although for awhile it will tell you the correct one). If you're not signed up there, please do so. Once you're registered and can reach the start page, you will find links to the two alumni photo albums and to the other TCHS bulletin board at Yahoo. Follow Mike Cook's instructions and sign up at Yahoo too.

The second URL < www.tchsalumni.org > has been registered and will be operated by our newest committee member, Rees Clark (60), out of his own commercial server in Washington. It is in its fledgling stage right now, but it has a lot of potential with that very easy to remember URL. Rees says every TCHS alumnus can have an e-mail address that will forward to his or her own real e-mail address, permitting all TCHS alums to stay in touch in the future without revealing to the world our true e-mail addresses. It will allow the easy creation of mailing lists, and hopefully can become the umbrella site for the other TCHS alum websites I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Perhaps Rees will give us all a tutorial (because I've visited the site several times and still can't quite figure out how to register).

Sharyn has agreed to be the contact person for door prize donations, and she is listed as such in the questionnaire.

Item 3

The graphic. Both the Invitation Form and the Reservation Form are going to use a TCHS graphic at the top. You will recall that I considered the one they put on the samples to be quite lame. I decided rather than having GR go with our old crudely drawn Rams Head in a circle from the Sixties to have them use the classier logo of the Nineties. Here it is.

Item 4

The contract has been signed (I didn't realize I hadn't done so last fall). Anyway, that will allow GR to go forward and actually set up a reunion website that has more information than it does at the moment. (I am sure Chris or Karen will be contacting us for content, or if not, we can contact them.)

I hope I didn't blow one item. As in the past, the GR contract allowed us to add up to $1 to the cost of the reunion to cover the committee's expenses. I elected not to do so in the anticipation that our costs would be minimal and that we could share any unanticipated costs among ourselves or put out a coffee can at the reunion for contributions. I just didn't want to have a slush fund to administer after the reunion. If there is strong sentiment that we should have such a fund collected through GR, contact me instantly and I'll talk to Karen about it.

Don't forget to save the List of Contacts and Deadlines to your own hard drive if you haven't already done so (for Netscape browsers that's done by right clicking the link above and choosing "Save Link As" then selecting an appropriate directory on your hard drive to put it -- the Desktop will do: you can move it later). I think the first task we have to do right now is compile a list of deceased classmates (to assist GR in not sending out materials to those we know are gone). Would the various class members on the committee confer with their fellow classmate members, compile the information for their own class, and get it back to me by March 1? (Sharyn and Mary Jane, could you do it for '62?)

Item 5

Click here for an updated roster of the reunion committee (it's complete now including adding Rees Clark). Save this to your hard drive.

Still here,
Dick

--
Richard A. Curtis (RememberClifford)
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