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President's Letters

President's Letter

January, 2011

Headlines

New Class Website Launched

France Mini-Reunion Raises $25,000 for CSF

Annual Giving Headed for 61% Participation

Happy New Year to all '69ers and Families!

New Class Website -- If you're reading this letter, you already know about the first headline. Jeff Kaplan has been working round the clock getting our new site ready for prime time. If you've poked around a bit I'm sure you'll agree it's pretty awesome. It's also more secure than our former site, with a number of areas of the site (like the Class database and the financial transaction pages) password protected. Now it needs your help, because any site is only as good as its content. Here are some of the things you can do:

• Establish a login username and password by clicking on First-time sign up in the Login box at top right corner of the home page. If you already have a TigerNet account, you can use the same username and password for convenience if you like.

• Everybody loves pictures -- help fill out our photo album collections. Just click on the Photos button to the right to see our present photos and instructions for submitting yours. We're looking for reunions, mini-reunions, class events, shots taken on campus, etc. Particularly fun would be more pix from our undergraduate days.

• Got a blog? Submit your link to the Webmaster. Your classmates will enjoy seeing what you are up to and have to say.  If you'd like to be interactive, we'll even provide a "comments" button.

• Send news items for posting on the site. You can also submit Class Notes to the Secretary for the PAW via the site.

• Try out our secure payment facility by paying your dues if you have not already done so. Can't remember if you've paid? By February 1 you'll be able to click on My Profile and hit the Payments tab to find out. To see how easy it is to pay your dues online click here. 

• Give us suggestions. We hope that the site will become a much more central clearing house for Class news and transactions than it has been in the past and this is only possible with continuous improvement and your support.

  
  

  
  

France Mini-Reunion -- Fifty-two classmates and spouses experienced what many of us felt to be the trip of a lifetime in '69's first overseas mini-reunion -- the France Invasion of September 2010. Organized (and the word gained new meaning) by Dick and Marian Bott with plenty of assistance from Jesse Okie (Chef de la Cuisine), Bruce Freeman (Chef du Personnel), Dan Harman and Curt Kehr (Chefs de la Communication), George Sheridan (Ministre de la Culture), and the Charriers (Factotums Généraux), the main excursion lasted eight days and took us from Paris, through Giverny and Bayeux, to the invasion beaches of Normandy and finally to Mont St. Michel. To top it off, through the combined generosity of the Forbes family and the trip participants, over $25,000 was raised for the Class of 1969 Community Service Fund. Click here for the full trip report.

Community Service Fund -- Board Chair Chuck Freyer reports as follows:

This has been a banner year for the Class of 1969 Community Service Fund (CSF)! You have already heard about our new partnership with the University Pace Center, which has helped expand our visibility on campus. Largely as a result, the number of undergraduates applying for PICS (Princeton Internships in Civic Service) internships for summer 2010 increased by 20% to 417! Responding in kind, we plan to fill 75 internships in 2011, matching our past high water mark. The interviews occur in February and the successful applicants will be announced later in the spring. Helping us to do this is an unusual gift which combines the generosity of the Forbes family with that of the classmates and spouses who went on the extraordinarily successful France trip early this fall. All of us at CSF are most grateful to those classmates and the Forbes, as well as all the rest of you who have sent in checks or used your dues check-off to contribute. Through the partnership with Pace, and by giving up our office space, we have cut costs to the very bone. Virtually all donations go directly to funding internships, but even so, 82% of the applicants in 2010 did not get placed in an internship.

Our plan for the future is simple: grow to meet the demand. Doing this means expanding our outreach to younger classes and regional associations. We now have board members from the Classes of 1967 1970, 1971, 1977, 2001 and 2006 in addition to 1969, and we expect a representative of the Princeton Club of Philadelphia to join shortly. So please keep the dollars coming, and if you have an idea for a new internship--particularly in the legal or medical fields--let us know. CSF is a grand legacy for the Class of 1969 and one we can all be proud to support.

Annual Giving -- Bob Axelrod reports that '69's Annual Giving campaign is off to a great start. Contributions received to date from 150 classmates have taken us more than halfway to our goal of $269,000. Participation by as many of us as possible is an important focus of this year's campaign. Last year, as you know, we beat our 40^th reunion participation rate, an extraordinary accomplishment. Our participation goal this year is 61%; to reach it, we need 300 more contributors. Please join your many classmates who have already given generously. You can use the class web site to contribute today. Bob is always looking for volunteers to help in the solicitation effort. Please contact him if you wish to learn more.

Upcoming Events

• Alumni Day, February 26. Click here to see the full spectrum of activities planned by the University and to sign up. The Class will be represented in the Memorial Service procession this year by Alan Meyers. We will hold our winter dinner that evening at the Nassau Club (6 Mercer Street) with cocktails beginning at 6:30 pm. Further details to follow.

• Magic Night, March 11. Lynn Shostack's annual celebration of the David Gardner Magic Project has become a highly anticipated University event and a cherished part of the Class calendar for classmates (and children and grandchildren) within striking distance of Princeton. Watch for invitations.

• '69's 42^nd Reunion, May 26-29. Click here for planned Class events.

• Springfield Mini-Reunion, October 14-16.  Watch for details.

   

Other Items of Interest and Importance

• The powerful classmate database engine on the site (accessible through the Classmates button) will make it much easier to organize regional events. Click on Class Officers | Regional VPs at the top of the page to see our regional organization. Clearly it has some holes. Please contact me if you would like to fill one of those holes. We are fairly solid in the mid-Atlantic, New England and Chicago. Beyond that it's open season. Become a Regional VP -- you'll be glad you did.

• David and Étel Fisher joined the France mini-reunion for the Paris portion and we learned a bit more about their exceptional work leading the Princeton Alumni Association of Germany and the Princeton German Summer Work Program. The Work Program is similar to the CSF in that it engages alumni deeply in the lives of current undergraduates. PAAG is another important alumni initiative founded by members of the Class of 1969. Click here to learn more.

• The team of Paul Sittenfeld, Bruce Rosenberg and Pam Meyerson has begun making arrangements for our next mini-reunion -- Springfield, Illinois the weekend of October 14-16, 2011.  Rooms are booked at the Abraham Lincoln in the heart of historic Springfield.  Watch for further updates and registration information.

The rest of the Class officers join me in wishing all of you the very best for 2011.

J. William Charrier

President