President's Letter November 2003

Hello again, Fellow ‘60s and partners!

The gatherings just get better and better! With the camaraderie of Chicago still glowing, our Fall mini-reunion in Hanover was a rousing success! Read all about it in Denny's newsletter and Ken's Class column (both also on our Class web site). While on the subject, mark on your 2004 calendars our next Fall mini-reunion: Friday October 8 to Monday October 11, 2004 (Columbus Day). Plan to extend your pleasure by taking Thursday afternoon off as well to avoid the Friday traffic, participate in all our interesting Friday programs and enjoy New England 's colors at their peak! Since we started combining part of our early Fall mini-reunion with the surrounding classes of ‘59 and ‘61 two years ago (to get critical mass for our “intellectual activities “ on Friday and for socializing on Sunday), attendance has increased for all three classes and next year the classes of ‘57, ‘58 and ‘62 have expressed interest in joining. The Truly Great Class of 1960 has helped start another Dartmouth tradition!  

Dartmouth saw this greatness as well! At the class officers weekend in September, 1960 was proclaimed the Class of the Year! Rather than enumerate the accomplishments cited in the proclamation here, I'm enclosing the text of the imposing plaque (which you can admire at any Class gathering). Suffice it to say that cited therein are our Class activities and communications, our Alumni Fund successes, the spectacular Chicago celebration, our well-attended gatherings, our truly useful Class projects and our award-winning web site, etc., etc.; all clearly documenting that it is the efforts of many Class members in many different ways that have built the fine spirit and results we all enjoy. Kudos to every Class member!  

A word about some of our projects. A large part of our Class meeting was spent with the students we've sponsored. Two of our scholarship recipients, Ben Schwartz ‘06 (a leader in student government) and Daniel Peebles ‘07 (just arrived from Rome , Italy ) shared their accomplishments and plans with us; our other two current scholars, Tanisha Keshava ‘05 and Brenda Whited ‘04 had scheduling conflicts. We will have a scholarship student in each class in perpetuity from our endowed fund. Bob Kenerson stays in touch with all our Class scholars, including the ones that have graduated, and I've enclosed some of their recent exchanges with him, plus other information from the college. Our athlete, first year student Caroline Ethier of Matagami , Quebec (“six hours north of Montreal , where only French is spoken”), is a Forward on the championship Women's Ice Hockey Team; she overwhelmed us with her determination to win! Three of our graduated Dorm Art winners (Tim Zeitler, Meredith Esser and Mike August), who were selected to intern for a year as instructors in Studio Art, shared with us how valuable it is on their resumes that a piece of their art was purchased for the Dartmouth collection. As one classmate observed, if anyone has concerns about the future, just consider what these students have accomplished and plan to do next. And be generous in helping fund these projects when you send in your dues!  

Now for a couple of additional topics that merit your attention and possible response:  

Jay Emery , our loyal, brave and hardworking Treasurer reported at our Class Meeting that we ran an operating deficit in our Class financials last year, unusual for our Class. Although small (@ $3,000) and not an immediate threat to our solvency (see enclosed statement showing $64,509 in Class Assets as of 6/30/03 , some of which is earmarked for committed projects), the deficit is likely to continue unless we take some action. The reason for this is that the cost of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, which is sent to almost all classmates but paid for out of the Class treasury, has increased significantly. As Jay told you in his dues letter last fall, the cost of each annual subscription went from $13.88 to $19.43, a jump necessitated by eleven years of no increases. The magazine is clearly worth that to those who read it (my blind test of Linda yielded a $24 relative value), but it now consumes almost half of our annual dues of $40. Although we'd be ok if everyone paid their dues, only about 2/3rds of our classmates do so (still at the high end of all classes). Most classes have attempted to increase the number of classmates paying dues, as we have, but none have had much success. Some have gone to higher dues (e.g. ‘59 is $59, ‘61 is $61) but we'd like to avoid that as long as we can. Recognizing this, and the fact that the increase has dented many treasuries, the college has established a set of guidelines for classes to use in carefully pruning the list of Magazine recipients; at our Class Meeting we decided to basically follow them, but with an extra bit of care. We will send a letter to any classmate who has neither paid dues for the last 5 years, nor contributed to the Alumni Fund or any other area of the college for that period, nor participated in reunions, class events or other college activities during that time; the letter will explain our situation and ask the classmate to respond by paying dues or contributing to the Alumni Fund or joining in a class activity or even just telling us he'd like to continue receiving the Magazine but can't contribute. In addition, several classmates have offered to review the list of those who will receive letters and attempt to contact them to personally invite them back into the fold. We'll leave everyone on the Magazine list until next June; those who don't respond by then will continue to receive all our Class mailings (Newsletters, notices of events, etc.) and other mailings from the college plus have access to our Secretary's Class Notes and other material via our web site, but will be deleted from the Magazine mailing list. With this plan we will probably continue to run a small deficit next year (unless we get a significant response to the dues request) but will get back in the black by the following year.  

At our various gatherings the suggestion often comes up that we have a Class trip, but until now there's never been a volunteer to make it happen. Bob Jervis, who has been teaching Ecology and related topics in Vermont for many years (and has led a number of Field Trips), has organized one for us! See the enclosed tantalizing description of a Desert Ecology Field Trip to Arizona , March 30 - April 8, 2004 ; if you haven't visited the Grand Canyon or other parts of this enchanted land, this is your opportunity! Only 12 lucky classmates can be accommodated, response due to Bob by December 30.  

A final note. As a half-dozen of us manfully marched the Class banner down Main Street at homecoming on October 24 (it wasn't snowing on us like last year; it had done that the day before) John Goyette mourned the moving of our annual mini-reunion to the earlier part of October and suggested we re-poll the Class to see if there was sentiment for moving the event back to homecoming weekend (October 28 next year). As we're already in the planning stages with the other classes for the October 8 weekend (Yale football game) we need any reactions to this as soon as possible (but don't respond unless you plan to come).  

Thanks for all you do for our Class!