Pictures are Still Coming!

More pictures have been added to the Hoover web site. Click under “blogroll” on the right of this page on “Hoover 40th Reunion web site” then on “pictures” on the yellow tag. Or just CLICK HERE. I have the class picture that I need to scan first that will also go up. Thank you to everyone who has emailed their pictures from Friday and Saturday. I don’t know if I can put names with the pictures, they didn’t come to me with names… Also thank you to those who have sent suggestions already for next time.

This is a picture of Nancy, Patty and Sallie at Tom Ham’s on Saturday August 24.

I would like to figure out how to put more pictures right here on this site. I know it can be done, I just haven’t had a block of time to sit down and figure it out. If anyone knows how and can explain it to me let me know. I have a few pictures here, but I’m not sure how I did it. It may look like I know what I’m doing but I just keep learning as I go along.

Nancy

Would you like to Contribute to this Site?

It is really easy to make comments on this site, all you have to do is register. If you would like to add “Posts”, not just “Comments”, let me know after you register and it can easily be set up. Also if you would like your website linked on the “Blogroll” just send Nancy your url and it can be added.

Planning for the next one

Well it is all over and time to think about planning the next one. If you went to the reunion either or both nights please let everyone know your ideas of how to improve for the next time. Just register to be part of this discussion and add your comments here for all to see. Or privately by clicking here. Should it be planned again by a company? Should a committee do it? Are you willing to be part of that committee? Or just any type of feedback is needed.
Although we put out contact information sheets at the actual reunion on Saturday night and Friday night, we still only got about 55 back. The hardest part is finding and keeping valid contact information. So this site is going to be here for anyone to forward to others who may have missed it all and want to be on the address list for or know about a next reunion.
On the sheets passed out at the reunion was a place to enter biographical information. This is different from the one being sold by the reunion planning company. This one will be free. It will be put into PDF form so you can print out your own booklet.

If you would like to be included in it please send an email with your information. I plan to add pictures from the reunion also, so if you took some good shots please go to the Hoover Reunion web site and email them to me, and I will include them in the booklet and on the Hoover Reunion web site and you may see some on this blog!

Again, thank you all for coming to the reunion and helping to make it such a success!

Nancy

Reunion Weekend

It was so good to see everyone on Friday and Saturdays nights.  It really looked to me like everyone had a good time. I had many concerns about the reunion planning company which did not come to pass thankfully.  They really did fulfill their obligations and I have no complaints.  I hope there were some old friends who were reunited, I know I met some new friends. So it is all finished for another 5 years.  Pictures are still coming.

40th Reunion

I received another email from classmates and I looked at the page where they list events. As I scanned the list of events for our class it looked like I personally had planned everything. For the 2 picnics I was only the messenger. The computer program is set up so that it looks like I am “the organizer”, but I’m not. My paid membership in Classmates will be expiring next week and I won’t be renewing for now. I felt the site was too cumbersome (like you had to pay to send emails and actually use the features). I think if everyone on classmates finds their way to this site and uses the features here, for free, the same thing can be accomplished. That is, staying in touch and finding out about events. I am going to set this up so that in order to leave a comment you must register. The reason for that is to hopefully cut down on spammers. I hope all Hoover alumni, from our class and others from the sixties will join in and add comments to this site. Please even if you don’t choose to register and write things just check back once in a while. If you read about this on Classmates and didn’t go to the reunion, and you don’t think anyone has your email address, please go to the other website for the 40th reunion and send me an email. I am compiling a list of current emails for our class. Hopefully by 5 years from now it will contain everyone who is interested in being contacted for future events.

I realize not everyone wants to be contacted, In fact I would guess most don’t really care about these things. But some do and this is the launch of a way to do it. Five years ago there was no such thing as a web site like this, at least I didn’t know about it. Five years from now who knows what will be available, this will probably be obsolete.

The reunion begins tomorrow night at the Hilton Harbor Island cocktail lounge. it continues Saturday night at Tom Ham’s Lighthouse at 6:30 pm. If somehow you are just finding out about it go to the Reunion planning website for all details. If you are coming bring a camera and you can add some pictures to this site. They also have a way to put videos on this blog.

Graduation Day 1967, Friends

Here we are standing in the courtyard of the old Hoover, I wonder what it looks like there now.

Would you like to post on this “Blog”?

I have set this up but I don’t need to be the only one adding all the entries.  Let me know by commenting here if you would like to be on the list of “bloggers” for this Hoover blog.  Did you graduate in 1967 from Hoover High in San Diego?  Then you qualify!

Nancy

Check here after the reunion for ways to improve for the future. With the internet is is easier than before to keep in touch. Anyone is free to orchestrate and plan the next reunion. Until someone volunteers for the job I will keep this website available for planning the next one.

I’m not exactly sure how I ended up as the main person doing this, I really tried to get out of it at first. I didn’t even realize that my name was listed as the contact at the Hoover Alumni Association. People started calling me and wanted to know when the reunion was. I said there wasn’t one yet, would you like to plan one? It seems I wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to be the one to plan it. So I asked Laura Lou at the Hoover Alumni Association for advice and she said a lot of classes were hiring professionals to do the planning and gave me a recommendation. This was all 5 years ago. In case your were wondering why we had a 36th instead of a 35th that is why. No one who had been on the committee previously wanted to be in charge. Finally I just called Sallie and said, I’m getting calls, should we just hire a company? We decided why not. So we hired the recommended company, Golden State Reunions and they did it all. If it is one thing I have learned it is ” you can’t please everybody”. There are always complaints. Usually the vocal people are the ones with a complaint and not a compliment. We got some complaints, not too many, things like the music is too loud, the music isn’t loud enough and it is too expensive.

Well this time we decided to use the exact same company for the 40th reunion. They changed their name to Elite Reunions. The jury is still out on how well they will do. At the time this is being written I have only had a few complaints, mainly too expensive, and what about Sunday. We’ll see what comes up after the weekend of the reunion. After the reunion please send in your feedback, what went right, what went wrong, so the next one will be better.

The reunion company is expected to do the following:

Search for addresses for all 800 plus alumni, send out announcements/invitations, keep an updated database of all responses, they are not allowed to share any information unless given explicit permission from the alumni. Contract with the venue and pay for the deposit, provide all decorations, nametags etc, man the doors, collect on site payments, deal with any issues between the restaurant/hotel/caterers, hire and deal with the DJ, and that is just for the main event.

The Friday night cocktail party was planned by us. It is a keep it simple, just show up event. We didn’t plan anything else, we just didn’t have the time or energy for more. We asked for volunteers to plan something for Sunday, we did get a couple of people who expressed the desire for something, but no takers on the planning.

A couple of people volunteered to help with decorations but I expect the Company to do that.

So the question is, for the next reunion do we want to hire a company again or do it ourselves? If we hire a company it will be more expensive. If we do it ourselves we need more “ourselves”. I would think that with the size of our class there must be some pretty talented individuals who can do a lot of things. Such as, the most important thing in my opinion,

1. Deciding on the venue, should it be a dinner, a BarBQue, a picnic, a cruise, a brunch, a cocktail party, some or all of the above.

2. Searching for all the addresses and maintaining a database. Is there anyone willing to take on that responsibility for five years from now, starting now and keeping it current?

3. Printing out and mailing announcements and invitations.

3. Signing the contract with the chosen venue/caterer and giving them a deposit if needed.

4. Collecting all prepayments and payments at the “door”.

5. Arranging for any entertainment, music, etc.

6. Arranging for any decorations

7. Bookkeeping

8. Answering all questions, putting up notices, general “customer service”

9. Be in charge of planning a cocktail party.

10. Be in charge of planning a Sunday event.

11. Designing and maintaining a web site.

12 Proofreading everything for grammatical errors ( just kidding…I know there are errors in this)

If anyone has any interest in any of the above categories and wants to plan the next reunion Please step up!

Any and all feedback is welcome., the number 1 question being, should the next reunion be handled by a company or by ourselves? If by ourselves we need to fill all of the above positions and maybe some more.

Waiting to hear from you,

Nancy

Welcome Hoover Grads!

Hello all Hoover grads and welcome to our blog. I have set this up as a way for everyone who is interested to be able to communicate easily and openly about our class and any future reunions we may wish to have. Or any topic really.