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The First Meeting - State of the Reunion
I am at the moment working on setting up the next meeting, to take
place during the last week of October.
At the first meeting, we got to know each other and established a
general direction. Among other things, we also identified that our biggest challenge would be locating
as many of the alumni as
possible. We also achieved a clear consensus that, if at all possible
we would like to try and make
this reunion a little more than just a get together for drinks and
chicken and talk. Although talk would
remain by far the greatest element. (For more on this subject see
Michel Girodo's "Full Monty" on
Rick E's Feller site. This is what we would like to try and achieve
and I believe it can be done. Like
Michel says, "If we build it, they will come".)
At this next meeting I'm hoping that we will be able to initiate
a structure, including the establishment
of smaller committees to parcel up and work on different aspects
of this project. The first item of
business will be the formal establishment of a chairman and other
officers. We should also be able
to set up banking arrangements and advance the creation of a master
list of all Feller alumni to help
with the search efforts.
Our biggest and ongoing challenge is the location of alumni. This
will remain a major objective and
preoccupation right up to the actual reunion itself. More people
have become sensitized to this
imperative and an encouraging number of people have been located
since our first meeting. Not
everyone located has actually had their names added to the list
yet, so the real number is a little
higher than the official list on Rick Elger's site. If this pace
can be kept up or even improved (nudge,
nudge), we should have a respectable percentage of the alumni located
in time for our reunion.
At the first meeting there was some discussion about possible avenues
of free advertising and
publicity. Michel Girodo undertook to compose a letter for this
purpose but nobody was really
tasked with taking it any further, as we only had so much time.
There have been excellent
suggestions on this subject from different sources including Rick
Elger and Vincent Pons, two
individuals who each have a lifetime of experience in television
and broadcasting from two different
aspects. I'm hoping this next meeting results in some kind of Search/Advertising
committee with a
specific mandate to explore and exploit as many avenues of publicity
as they can. (There's more
information on this subject on the Yahoo site)
We will also need to determine how we will go about funding the expenses
of these reunion planning
activities. I believe that most of you would agree that those members
contributing time and effort
should perhaps not also be expected to personally bear the expenses
incurred in the process. Any
suggestions on this subject would be appreciated.
Many people are ready and willing to contribute. Some are working
individually on their own
initiative, others are waiting on standby, "they also serve", perhaps
waiting for an overall plan to
emerge. We're not all that organised at the moment but hey, we got
started and I think that in itself
was a huge step. Hopefully, at this upcoming meeting we will be
able to put some structure to this,
identify the major challenges we have to face and get committees
started on strategies for dealing
with them.
One challenge that's concerning some people is the fact that we don't
know how many people might
come to the reunion. Unfortunately, unless we can find someone to
tell us the future, we're not
going to, either. We could determine how many we have at the moment,
but then hopefully,
everybody is going to keep working, expressly to keep changing that
number as time goes on, with
no idea of where it might finally get to. But, I believe we should
and can find an approach that will
enable us to keep adjusting to the changing numbers until as late
as we possibly can and then at
that point take an educated guess, commit, and finalise the last
details. If we set up and organise all
the aspects that will be essentially unchanged by the numbers, and
as much of the rest of it as we
can, namely, check to see how late we can keep our options open
for different size halls, and find a
caterer who can give us flexibility as late as possible, we should
have no serious problem with the
unknown numbers.
Stated in a more corporate manner, I'm hoping to convince the group
that if we can get all the rest
of the ducks lined up, the mechanisms and available options all
laid out, and we have only the
changing quantities to accommodate, we should be in a good position
to 'bring it home' to
everyone's satisfaction.
This may be my last report as Chairman, but one way or the other
there should be more information
here early in November.
Ian St James
class of 62
