Class Council Holds First Meeting
Class of ‘69
Class Council
Minutes, February 15, 2020
Still energized by last Spring’s memorable 50th Reunion, the first official post-Reunion Class Council meeting was called to order by Secretary Art Segal at 4:00 PM EST on Saturday, February 15, 2020.
Attending were Andy Schnier, Art Segal, Bill Newman, Bruce Mazo, Dan Seiver, Dave Howorth, Derry Allen, Harold Mancusi-Ungaro, John O’Leary, JP Jordan, Ken Brown, Ken Davis, Mike Folz, Mike Baum, and Wayne Willis. Also attending was the official from YAA for our Class, Jennifer Julier.
The gathering allowed the newly reconfigured Class Council, Reunion Chairs, and Class Officers to start planning a new agenda of Class activities, gatherings, interactions, and communications, focused upon facilitating and maintaining connectivity and future shared experiences.
At our request, our YAA official, Jennifer Julier (jennifer.julier@yale.edu), outlined the supportive and administrative role the YAA plays in facilitating and managing Class activities, above and beyond the 5-year reunion cycle. The YAA can provide event coordination, financial oversight, accounting, and communications. It can help facilitate events such as mini-reunions, class dinners, group travel, and faculty presentations at on-campus gatherings or regional events. Jennifer is our main contact for Class activities, and her colleague Cristina Hall (cristina.hall@yale.edu) will provide logistical help for specific mini reunions or other events.
The Class representatives discussed their own personal interests, volunteering goals, and ideas for possible events of interest to classmates. The discussion enumerated a scope of possible activities, from real physical gatherings to online “virtual” interactions such as listserv discussions, the Yale1969.org website and related Class Newsletter. The members discussed the pro and cons of regional gatherings composed of potential educational fora, cultural events, and possible multi-class coordinated events. Topics for consideration as foci for Class gatherings included estate planning, health and medical topics, travel, exercise, and post -retirement well-being.
Jennifer Julier recounted prior classes’ experiences highlighting successful planning tactics and guiding the group away from event types and venues that were historically poorly attended.
Bill Newman and David Howorth were introduced as 55th Reunion Chairmen.
Wayne Willis reported that Class email communications basically come from three sources: (1) the listserv, which propagates messages from any of the 120-ish members of the Listserv to only those 120-ish classmates, (2) email blasts from YAA, which goes out to all members of the Class for whom Yale has a valid email address, or (3) the Class Newsletter, which sends summaries of new stories appearing on Yale1969.org to the 725 classmates who are “subscribers” (people for who we have emails who have not opted out of receiving the newsletter).
Ken Brown, our Treasurer, reported on the Class Treasury. After subsidies to hold down the cost of the 50th Reunion (including the magnificent ClassBook), the balance of the account is at a level where some support for Class-wide events or communications is fiscally viable, without jeopardizing our ability to prepare for, and subsidize. the 55th Reunion as needed.
Adjournment after 75 minutes followed a broadly supported commitment to a second conference call in 3 months (mid-May) allowing participants time to respond to ideas discussed during our call, to investigate areas of interest that could and would support Class gatherings, events, and mini-reunions and to chart a organizational path forward for interested ‘69ers.
Arthur Segal,
Secretary