Hello.
The 2020 Reunion is 11 months away.
We have, as of this date, updated 185 classmate’s email addresses which means they will be receiving these monthly updates and the announcement of our website as soon as it is ready. The website will have a list of all the classmates we have not been able to contact. Maybe you will know some of them.
Actually, 185 is quite good at this point, and we know of at least twenty who have been contacted but have not responded with their email address. Maybe they are worried about security. Just so you know, I have your email address and yes, you are at risk of being harassed by me, but only me. As I share spreadsheets with people helping in the classmate search, I strip out the email information so even they don’t have it. If someone contacts me wanting Mary's email, I will ask if I may send Mary their address instead.
On the website there will be the opportunity for you to publish your bio, pictures and whatever contact info you want. I would appreciate having your address, telephone and email address for future reunions, but will only make public the info that you tell me to. It would be nice to publish what City and State you live in, but even keep that to yourself if you wish.
In the future I will send a form for your biography. Start thinking about what you’d like to share, and the photos you’d like to share. In addition, there might be a photo page for each of the five decades that we have been running around unsupervised. So start looking for your favorite picture of each decade to share.
So… the website. Ten years ago we used a reunion site from MyEvent.com. It was adequate but didn’t have much style. So this time I wanted to use Squarespace.com, they have nicely designed templates and are pretty easy to use. Easy, if you know their lingo and easy if you can find the directions you need in their incredibly huge amount of “support” articles and videos. So after several rocky attempts I finally made strides in exactly the direction I wanted to go, but then the site began slowing down and photos would be missing, different ones every time I refreshed the page. I’m pretty certain the site will not be able to support the number of photos I intend to post. Then funny things started happening to my emails, I began being unable to send. Notices would say I was not connected to the internet and yet I was receiving emails. Occasionally some of outgoing messages were sent, even though I was told they were not. I thought it was my internet provider but they say everything on their end checks out. They said I should switch from business to residential service and that I should buy new modem and router, which I bought and set up, but when I called to activate it they said I could only use the modem they provide. I returned the new modem, reinstalled the old, still have intermittent service and am so exasperated that I am headed off for a week at the private little beach on Grand Traverse Bay (shown at right).
So, three things:
1. I could use some help if you are experienced in the field of website design, or have a grandchild who is.
2. Now is the time to plan your vacation in Michigan before or after next year’s reunion.
3. I will be thrilled if this email finds it way out of my computer and into yours.
Wood
