I’m happy to say that of the 161 classmates on my high school class's list, 82 belong to our class Facebook group. Of the remaining 79, we have recently-confirmed e-mail addresses for 39, and confirmed snail-mail addresses for about 10.
I knew pretty much everyone I went to
school with, and I want to see every single one of them at our upcoming 30-year
reunion. I want to see them, visit with them, celebrate life’s “ups” with them,
commiserate with them about life’s “downs,” and just generally have a good
time. I am helping with the reunion (and have helped with the 20- and 15-year
events as well). We didn't do a 25-year but had an unofficial 26-year gathering,
mostly of classmates still living in the area (although -- and I think this is REALLY cool -- the event was initiated and attended by a classmate who lived several states away).
If you did the math above, you noticed it is off by 30. We have no confirmed contact information for those thirty. When it comes to getting reunion
information out to classmates, having current contact information is critical,
but please remember that every class member (including those on the reunion committee) is equally absorbed in life.
No one has time to track people down; nor
should we have to.
FOR THE LOVE OF COMMON COURTESY, PEOPLE, no matter where
you went to high school or what year you graduated, please do your class
reunion committee the favor of providing your current contact information and
updating them when it changes.
And we really don’t want the postal
address. In the time since our 20-year reunion, the continuing computer
revolution has caused practically everyone to acquire at least an e-mail address,
if not a membership in an online social network such as Facebook. Even those
who don’t have internet, computers, or smart phones of their own can access
e-mail at the local library, a friend or relative’s house, or in some cases at
work.
On the subject of postage, I refuse
to snail-mail information to an unconfirmed postal address. With a fresh, crisp
dollar bill in hand, we can’t even mail three forms out! I feel very strongly
that, in this day and age, nobody (not even the reunion fund itself) should
have to incur the cost of the paper, printing/photocopying, envelope, stamp,
and PREPARATION TIME it takes to snail-mail class reunion information. For the 15- and 20-year events, we mailed out an
information sheet to every address we had kept from before. MANY came back
undeliverable. That's a lot of money and time wasted.
And please don't be so pitiful as to
believe that you're "not invited" or that nobody from high school is interested in seeing you after all
these years. First, you are a member of the class, so you are automatically invited. Our reunion committee absolutely does not send out invitations -- only information, and only to those for whom we have confirmed contact information. And second, YOU'RE NOT IN HIGH SCHOOL ANYMORE, and neither are any of the people you went to school with. Go to your high school reunion. You will most likely come away from the event with a different perspective regarding many of your classmates, not to mention valuable new
or renewed friendships.
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