Members present: Bob Adams, Bart Dunbar, Henry Marcy, Bill Markus, Ken Marshall, Betsy Peterson, Liia Vilms HAA Representative present: Sienna Leis, HAA Director of College Reunions and the person at Harvard assisting us with our 60th Reunion
Members NOT present: Heidi Fiske, Ron Goodman, David Ries, Jane Simon, Steve Weddle, Margaret Bancroft
NOTE: Quite unfortunately, Heid Fiske and Jane Simon tried to attend the meeting via dial-in speaker phone, but were unsuccessful due to technical difficulties
Liia Vilms agreed to be the Radcliffe ’60 Reunion Co-Chair.
Ken Marshall has agreed to be the Harvard ’60 Reunion Co-Chair.
PLEASE NOTE: SPECIFIC DAYS, TIMES AND VENUES (EXCEPT FOR THE HOTEL) HAVE NOT BEEN CONFIRMED.
Henry stressed that the most important responsibility of 60th Reunion Planning Committee members is to contact classmates directly to urge them to attend our Reunion and contribute their wisdom (and biographical information) to our 60th Anniversary Report. Henry & Jane will attempt to organize this direct contact endeavor. The first notice for our 60th Anniversary Report goes out on July 8, with an absolute deadline for submissions of October 18. The red books will be mailed out to ALL classmates (for whom a valid address exists) a few months before our Reunion.
Not surprisingly, the discussion ranged all over the map on specific aspects of our 60th Reunion.
We agreed that the Crimson Society Reunion, which will occur on Wednesday of Commencement Week 2020 for the first time, will not influence the planning effort for our Reunion. The Crimson Society Council has not yet met … and full implementation may take more than a year or two. However, if the Council comes up with something really exciting for 2020, we may try to take advantage.
The cost of our Reunion is an important consideration, though, for those from outside of the Greater Boston Area, lodging and travel, over which we do not have control, are likely to be the larger cost factors. We will have a full package cost that we will attempt to keep well below $500 and a series of less-than-full-reunion packages for those unable to attend our entire Reunion.
The group decided to begin the reunion on Monday evening (rather than early Tuesday afternoon), but with a very soft launch. Those attending our reunion and needing a place to stay overnight will be housed (in part because MIT’s and Harvard’s commencements are the same day) in DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Hotel Boston – Cambridge at 400 Soldiers field Road (on the Boston side of the Charles River at the Mass Pike’s Allston interchange). Accordingly, we will begin our Reunion with a post-dinner gathering in a space reserved for us by the hotel. Libations will be available on a cash basis.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will have our Reunion headquarters, tentatively, at the Smith Campus Center (formerly the Holyoke Center), a center of University life. Tuesday arrivals will be greeted here.
Special tours of new “stuff” at Harvard will occur on Tuesday morning for those interested. Tour ideas include Allston with its new engineering building and innovation labs, etc.; the Harvard Art Museums, the newly renovated houses, the Smith Center, etc. Especially knowledgeable people – administrators, faculty, students -- will be tour leaders.
We will have lunch Tuesday in a tent on campus.
Following lunch, with ample time for classmate interaction, we will adjourn to Memorial Church for the 3:00 PM Memorial Service honoring our deceased classmates. Note: the time has NOT been confirmed. The names of all those who matriculated with us in September 1956, and are now deceased, will be read. Henry contacted Fred Ford concerning having the Harvard & Radcliffe Classes of 1960 choir sing at the Memorial Service. Fred will poll some of the core group to assess the potential … and Henry and Fred will be in contact mid- July.
Following our Memorial Service, we will have our Harvard & Radcliffe Classes of 1960 photograph taken on the Widener Library steps.
Then, we hope (not yet confirmed) to move to Lowell House (which opens after renovations for the 2019-2020 academic year) where there will be spaces for classmate interaction before dinner and where we may have a program featuring a prominent Harvard faculty member.
Dinner Tuesday evening is also tentatively scheduled to be at Lowell House.
We did not discuss Wednesday’s program in specific terms. Ideas include the Boston Children’s Chorus performing for us again, an “open microphone night”, something about issues at Harvard today, a session of Crispr technology, “a State of Our Classes” report, etc., etc.
We plan to have a clambake dinner on campus Wednesday evening, possibly connecting @ 8:00 PM with the Harvard Band and Glee Club concerts in the Tercentenary Theatre.
We talked about having a breakfast on Thursday morning, but with Commencement at 9:45 AM, the Tree Spread @ 11:30 AM and the HAA Annual Meeting at 2:30 PM, it seemed breakfast would be too much. However, we may arrange for our own breakfast room/area at the hotel for those not rushing off to Commencement Day activities.
There will be a separate program/dinner for Radcliffe ’60 classmates on Thursday evening.
The 60th Reunion Planning Committee’s next meeting, which may be via a conference call, will be in mid-September. As is obvious from the above minutes, much fleshing-out of Reunion activities remains to be done.
Henry will put these minutes on the Harvard ’60 website – http:h1960.classes.harvard.edu – to enable classmates to determine what is being planned … and to encourage input into the planning process.
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