TCHS Alumni News Begins Third Year

Dear Fellow Alumni: Here's a progress report on TCHS Alumni News. (http://www.tchsalumni.org) MAGAZINE SCHEDULE: We update the magazine as news reaches us. We try to post major articles at least monthly, so if the "news" gets a bit stale, it's because you haven't told us what you're doing. Corrections and brief notes are added continuously. TOP STORY OF 2004: A group of citizens, alumni and students is organizing a 50th anniversary celebration in October 2004 for the TC schools, which incorporated following an election in 1954. The anniversary has its own site (hosted by us in cooperation with our service provider Alumni Management Services), and we'll cover major stories and planning events in TCHS Alumni News. Keep your contact data current to learn details. Assuming the usual five-year relocation of US families, between 50,000 and 100,000 students have passed through the TC district. It could be quite a party. We urge you to sign their guestbook at http://www.tcusd50.org and to participate in the event; they're looking for support of all kinds. DIRECTORY MAINTENANCE: We've now registered about five percent of the estimated number of alumni. We need your help to grow and to sustain the accuracy of our records, so it's time for the occasional, joyous?, ceremonial laying on of hands with respect to our mailing list. I hope you'll take a moment to inspect the information that's on line at http://www.tchsalumni.org and make corrections as needed. It's a lot easier than in the past. To review your listing, Go to the Directory Find your class list Click the small document icon following your name Click the blue pencil to sign into the directory Type your password * Examine the data and make any needed changes by overtyping Save the changes * If you have never logged into the directory, or if you have forgotten your password, just click the Lost... link on the login form, and the system will send a new password to your registered contact email address. If you don't receive it, the most likely cause is that you've changed your email address without notifying us. (One hour detention.) Write to the editor. Sigh... (NOTE: If you're clinging to that old copy of Netscape 4.x, we make no promises as to the functionality of the editing tools. Our site, like most others, assumes that readers are using a modern - post-2001 - browser.) Obsolete addresses will be reported by the wonderful world of email servers, and we'll post the MIA names in the magazine. We hope you'll look in and help us find people who've changed their address with out telling us. (Shame, shame...) FORUMS MESSAGE BOARD: Some alumni registered only in the Forums, a feature that has been discontinued due to low participation. Those who registered only in the Forums are effectively isolated from the rest of the alumni association at this time. Please take a moment to register in the main Alumni Directory at http://www.tchsalumni.org by following the Join Us link. Registration takes just 3-5 minutes. It is our plan to replace the orginal Forums feature with a new bulletin board that will be integrated with the news sections of the magazine. This will allow readers to "pick up the threads" of conversations. MISCELLANEOUS REGISTRANTS: We have a few people who've registered but who may not be alumni. If you're one of them, please let me know, and we'll move you to the Friends of TCHS section of the directory. Thanks for your interest. SEND NEWS: Because alumni are scattered around the world, there's no other central point at which we can all meet. TCHS Alumni News earnestly hopes that you'll begin to update your personal listing frequently. You can also send news to the editor by email using the Send News tool in the Table of Contents. We're interested in births, marriages, offspring, and all the other important moments that your classmates and friends want to learn. To that end, we'll be adding a "Transitions" feature, in which you can post brief notices. This is intended as a supplement to more complete stories, not as a replacement. TELL YOUR FRIENDS: Also in the TOC is a link to Invite a Friend. TCHS Alumni News has no link to missing alumni except YOU. If each of you recruits one person each month this year and next, we'll register all living alumni. Remember, registration is confidential and spam-free. Your email address and other contact data are not published. JOIN THE ASSOCIATION: TCHS Alumni News Assn. publishes the alumni magazine and directory. The publishing tools are designed to survive the founders. That survival, however, depends on your support. There are some real costs associated with the publication. These include oversight, Internet and telephone costs, list management, and the occasional expense like registering as a non-profit and banking fees. Eventually we want to hire a professional editor part-time to put some additional zing into the magazine and to chase news more aggressively. All net proceeds are donated to TCHS Alumni Dollars for Scholars®, which we established in 2003. TCHS Dollars for Scholars is intended to become an endowed fund that will benefit alumni and their families. Yes, that costs money, too, as there are certain minimum requirements to operate a fund uder the Dollars for Scholars umbrella. To make all that happen takes money. When you join TCHS Alumni News Assn., your $19 annual dues both defray expenses and support the scholarship fund. If half of you were to join the association, our most critical annual expenses would be paid. If all of you did so, we'd be in the black and ready to start really building the scholarship fund. Thank YOU! to all who have joined already and especially to those who have made additional donations to help us launch this effort. BUILD YOUR OWN ALUMNI SITE: If you're feeling really 21st century, why not create your own alumni web site and abandon those Christmas card letters forever. Our web host has a great system called Sitemaker that lets you make a site with only minimal technical skills (you're reading this; you can do it). The association receives a monthly donation from our host for each active site. Net proceeds from alumni web sites go to the scholarship fund. More information is in the magazine. Here's an example: (http://home.tchsalumni.org/tchsdemo/). The appearance is entirely adjustable; make your site your own. BECOME AN ASSOCIATE EDITOR: If you live close to other alumni, if you live in Temple City, if you stay in touch with classmates, if you take pictures of reunions..., you could be a contributor, a class coordinator, or even an associate editor of TCHS Alumni News. Please write if you're interested. SHARE YOUR IDEAS: Please write to the editor and tell us what you'd like to see included in the magazine. It can be a pet project of a few people, or it can become what you want it to be. THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION! I'm sorry if this is too long. My principal hope is that you'll update your contact data and stay in touch with your friends and classmates. Sincerely, Rees Clark '60, Editor TCHS Alumni News

Reader Comments

Discuss this article in the forums!