President's Letter April 2007

Dear Classmates and Special Others.
            By now, 396 classmates should have received our class’s first list serve communication by e-mail.  As many of you know, we had a “glitch” in the system.  Individual responses were only supposed to be returned to me or to Walter Daniels, our web master.  Some of you received replies from every classmate who responded.  Other classmates did not.  Whatever the reason, Walter has corrected the problem.  Despite some irate messages about being flooded with unwanted mail, we can be pleased that 151 replies have been recorded or 38% of the 396 classmates with an e-mail address of record with the college.  In my opinion, that is a remarkable response rate.  I also received some heart warming responses from classmates who were pleased to hear and share news from other classmates.  If you have not registered your e-mail address with the college, I am hoping that you will.  You can register, receive a Dartmouth e-mail address, and not reveal, for example, your A.O.L, Yahoo, or MSN e-mail address.  I am registered with the Vox Alumni Network (VAN) as Kenneth.E.Johansen.60@alum.dartmouth.org which protects my MSN e-mail address.  You can register by going to the college website, www.dartmouth.edu and clicking on the link called Resources for Alumni.   On that page simply click on Alumni Directory and follow the instructions to update your profile. 

As I promised in my list serve e-mail of April 12th, I have attached a reply form to gauge your opinion of receiving our class newsletter via e-mail or regular mail.   Denny Goodman, our class newsletter editor, and I would like to hear from as many classmates as possible.  The replies from the April 12th e-mail indicated that 91 classmates were willing to receive Denny’s class newsletter by e-mail.  There were 42 classmates who simply acknowledged receiving the message and 17 classmates who adamantly desired to receive a paper copy via regular mail.  We are not trying to exclusively go to e-mail distribution of the class newsletter.  We are exploring ways that might save the class printing and postage costs.  In the future, we may have a combination of both e-mail and regular mail communication.  The newsletter is always available for review on our Class of 1960 web site.  The color pictures there are outstanding in comparison to the paper issue.  Meanwhile, I want to thank everyone who responded to the April 12th message.  By way of this letter, I am looking forward to replies from those who did not respond or who do not have e-mail addresses registered with the college.  You can return the attached form or reply to me by e-mail at kejohansen@msn.com.  Oops, I just gave up the confidentiality that Dartmouth promises to anyone with an e-mail address on record there.

It will probably be late April or early May when you receive this letter, but in the near future you will be getting information in Denny’s newsletter about two upcoming events.

1. Homecoming on October 19 and 20, 2007.  John Goyette has agreed to serve as our new mini-reunion chair, a position that Roger Hanlon expertly and efficiently filled for many years.  John and Roger are working together as a transition team in putting together our Friday evening reception, Saturday tailgate party, and our Saturday evening class dinner in the Webster Room at the Hanover Inn.  Watch Denny’s summer newsletter for additional details and reservations.
2.  Our 70th birthday party is scheduled for May 1 to May 4, 2008 in Boston.  Gene Kohn, Dick Foley, and Axel Grabowsky are hard at work in planning the event.  Gene has called on all greater New England classmates for help in developing the activities and locations for the party.  Again, watch Denny’s newsletter and your mail for specific details.

The election for a college trustee and the election for Alumni Association officers end on May 15th.  If you have not yet voted, I urge you to read Jim Adler’s comments and analysis about the election on our class web site, www.dartmouth.org/classses/60/.   Also, read the profiles of the candidates on the Dartmouth College web site.  Then, please vote.

We still need to form a planning committee for our 50th reunion in June of 2010.   Please let me know if you are interested in participating.