GWHS Alumni Association - Progress Report
May 12, 2010
For those of you who have already paid, thank you! We encourage all of you who are coming to take advantage of our early bird registration - ending May 31st - so we can get you thru the registration line faster. Plus it we don't really want to have a lot of money on hand! You have
three choices on payment: $25 Alumni Association Membership which includes Admission and meal at the Reunion. $15 is Admission and meal (12 years and older) and $5 is for Admission only. Logon to: http://www.whittellreunion2010.com/advance-tickets.html to pay in advance.
Also, please go to: http://www.whittellreunion2010.com/rsvp.html and put in your RSVP. You will also be able to indicate what size t-shirt you would like. Only 46 days until the Reunion and things are starting to get busy! To date, the Ridge Tahoe has been the only hotel to guarantee rates. They have been awesome to work with and we encourage you to make your reservation asap. There is a delicatessen onsite that is open from 7am to 9pm if you were concerned about being at the top of Kingsbury and not able to get food/coffee easily. If you would like to make your reservation there please logon to http://www.whittellreunion2010.com/ridge-tahoe-special-group-rates.html for more details.
Diana Hames is donating an enlarged framed 1962 All Class photo to thereunion to be auctioned off. If you have anything you would like to contribute, please let us know.
Details on overflow parking will be forthcoming when we iron them out!
Lastly, thank you to the people who have signed up to volunteer. If youcould offer at least one hour during the event it will help this reunion be more successful. If you would like to volunteer, please drop me ane-mail and I will compile the list.
All our best,
Whittell Reunion Committee
March 31, 2010
Well, it's been a while since I've written an update. If you've looked at the web site lately,I'm sure you've noticed that there's been a lot going on. Advance tickets are now available. We've filed our incorporation paperwork but are only now about to file the non-profit paperwork with the IRS. We're looking at a t-shirt design for the reunion. The RSVP list is growing. I hope to get it updated again tonight. There's also a 1973 yearbook that I have to try to get uploaded. We're getting some help to add a view cart button to the Advance Tickets page to make it a little easier to buy your tickets. I still have a lot of work to do to get the business sponsorship program set up and online. We're continuing our bi-weekly conference call meetings. The next meeting is Saturday, April 3 at 5 PM and anyone who is interested is welcome to join us. To log in to the conference call just dial (605) 477-2100 and enter Participant Access Code: 956025# when prompted. It's that easy so we hope to see your there.
February 07, 2010
Sorry that it's been a month since my last update. Since then, we have filed the paperwork to incorporate the alumni association as a 501(C)(7) nonprofit organization. We are currently waiting for our paperwork to be approved so that we can open a bank account. We've held two conference calls to discuss food & beverages, ticket prices, parking, activities, T-shirts, entertainment, etc. We hope to have many of these details finalized in the next couple weeks at which time we will post that information online and make advance tickets available. We're discussing association membership dues which will help fund alumni association activities and offer members discounts on those activities. We're also looking at business sponsorships. More on that later.
I tried to record the first conference call meeting that we held so that I could make the recording of that meeting available here but I wasn't able to get the record feature to work and, truthfully, I haven't had time to figure it out. However, we invite anyone who is interested to participate in our next conference call which will be held Sunday, February 21 at 5 PM. To access the conference call, dial 605-477-2100 and enter the access code 956025# when prompted.
In an effort to try to contact as many alumni as possible, we will be going through all past yearbooks to create a list of everyone who ever attended Whittell High School. Our Facebook page has 324 members as of today so, if you throw in spouses, family members, teachers, staff, parents and a lot of other Whitelleans that have gotten the word from other sources, we're probably looking at an attendance of 800 or more people. I'm hoping for 1000 or better. We're making progress on making this reunion the party of the decade so this is one event you don't want to miss. We hope we'll see you there.
January 17, 2010
Well, we're still not officially organization yet but we do have our first temporary officers and directors. (See "Links" page under Alumni Association) We've been looking into setting up the Alumni Association as either a "support organization" through the school district or as an independent non-profit organization. We're still investigating both options and hope to reach a decision soon, depending on what options may be available to us and the details of each option.
Also, we have set a date for the first meeting of our officers and directors. This first meeting will be open to all officers, directors and all others who have already offered to help with the reunion.
I've gone back through all the old e-mails I have and created a list of people who indicated they would be interested in helping with the reunion. I'm going to be sending those people invitations to join our first meeting but I feel like I've missed a couple people who have already offered to help. If you're one of those people and you don't get an e-mail invitation to participate in our first meeting, please know that I didn't skip you intentionally. If you' offered your help in the past but didn't get an invitation to the first meeting, please contact me so that I can get you the conference call info. We definitely can use your help. If you are interested in helping but have not yet let us know, we encourage you to do so.
This first meeting will be recorded and the access information posted here. Beginning next month, meetings will be open to all alumni to participate.
Oh, and something suddenly dawned on me, I've been deleting the previous week's update and posting a new update every week but I just realized that people may not check the web site every week so, from now on, I'll leave the previous updates and just ad a new one so that anyone that's interested can go back and catch up on what we've been doing.
We're making progress but we can always use your help. Use the contact form below to let us know you're willing to lend a hand.
January 10, 2010
Well, we're not set up as an official organization yet but we have our first officers and directors, pro tem. At my urging Diana Hermann (Hames) has agreed to serve as President/Director, pro tem. Connie Fent (Johnson) has agreed to serve as Secretary/Director, pro tem. Yours truely, Bob Fox, will act as Treasurer/Director, pro tem. Donna Wilson and Nina Edgemon will be our first student alumni Directors, pro tem and Susan Spencer our first faculty alumni Director, pro tem.
We intend to hold voting for our first elected officers and directors by secret ballot that will be included with your reunion ticket or available on request through the web site so we encourage all alumni interested in a position as officer or director to let us know. Nominations will close May 15th to allow us time to prepare and print ballots.
We've been looking into setting up the Alumni Association as either a "support organization" through the school district or as an independent non-profit organization. We're still investigating both options and home to reach a decision soon, depending on what options may be available to us and the details of each option.
Also, we have set a date for the first meeting of our officers and directors. This first meeting will be used to get ourselves organized, establish duties of officers and directors, and to discuss what needs to be done and who will be responsible to do what. This first meeting will be open to all officers, directors and all others who have offered to help with the reunion.
I've gone back through all the old e-mails I have and created a list of people who indicated they would be interested in helping with the reunion. I'm going to be sending those people invitations to join our first meeting but I feel like I've missed a couple people who have already offered to help. If you're one of those people and you don't get an e-mail invitation to participate in our first meeting, please know that I didn't skip you intentionally. If you' offered your help in the past but didn't get an invitation to join the first meeting, please contact me so that I can get you the conference call info. We definitely can use your help. If you are interested in helping but have not yet let us know, we encourage you to do so. This first meeting will be recorded and the access information posted here. Beginning next month, meetings will be open to all alumni to participate.