FROM THE PRESIDENT Fall 2011 Hello Classmates--
What a delight it was to be back at Wellesley recently when your new officers met at Alumnae Leadership Council. Memories of our fabulous 55th Reunion were everywhere – the campus was even green and lush as it was last June
At Council, we heard about many exciting Wellesley initiatives such as: 50% of the students now study abroad and they, as well as those doing research in various fields, share their experiences with the entire community at a special all-College conference. The college is encouraging us to become more tech savvy in all our communications with classes and clubs. The Alumnae Office will bail us out when necessary.
Your class officers had many and varied discussions and have come up with some interesting plans for the next 5 years:
After a discussion regarding the economy and health issues, we decided to pursue multiple mini regional/area reunions -- with the goal of connecting as many classmates as possible with each other and with Wellesley. VP Barbara Booth Moses will be in charge of this initiative. She notes that we will be actively seeking volunteers to help us attain this goal. “Please, raise your hands (contact her at: bmoses@alum.Wellesley.edu) and have some fun in the process!”
Our Secretary, Dorothy Paulonis Zenie, urges you to return the enclosed postcard to her. "Your classmates (and I) want to know what you’re doing, thinking, reading, etc. If you have moved to a retirement community, or have any tips for others about how to do it successfully. Have you taken up any new hobbies? Do you belong to a Wellesley Club? A book club? Have you reconnected with anyone from Wellesley? Would you like to? Have you heard any good jokes lately? Without YOU, there is no news and that isn’t good news. Help us all stay connected.” Please return the card ASAP.
Joan Ward Lasley, Treasurer, reports, “The class ended its fiscal year well in the black. We receive interest monies from our Life Member investments which appear to be sufficient to cover all our expenses for the coming five years. Many thanks to our former treasurer Ellen Gartner for a job well done.”
Web Manager Toni Holland Liebman appeals to each of us to check the website a few times each year. "While photos of old reunions might not change, we do hope to have new items on other pages. For the Happenings Page... I need info about you and yours...ie. publications, lectures, exhibits, performances, etc. I can only keep this website updated with your help.”
But we have bigger news for those connected to the Internet. Your officers voted to institute a new service called "Listserve" which has been successful in keeping other classes connected. It will give us the opportunity to “chat online among ourselves about an endless variety of topics,” says Mimi Gorn Tausner, who has agreed to implement Listserve for us and will send additional information at a later date.
Mitzi Drucker Jonas, our Wellesley Fund Rep., writes that “Annual Giving has been renamed “The Wellesley Fund.” New Wellesley Fund dorm reps are Arlene Gumbiner Block, for Claflin, Carolyn Evans, for Stone, Liz Flower Crowe, for Tower East, and Fay Butler Greene and Joan Werthan Shayne for Tower West.
Final figures for 2011: our Class raised $455,000+...with, most importantly, 82.5% participation! There were 55 Durants ($2,500 and up).....a record! ---'56 Wellesley Rah to Bev Baldwin McCoid and the Special Gifts Committee. Also special "kudos" to Louise Fleger Bishop and Trudy Gibson Kelley of Davis and Susan May and Sylvia Lucas Miller of Shafer and all the classmates in those two dorms for reaching 100% participation.
Planned Giving Chair, Anne Colby Zachos, wraps it up so well when she says, "Many of us are still on a Wellesley high after our 55th Reunion. As I get older, I wish we could have these wonderful opportunities to reconnect more often. We were reminded repeatedly at reunion of Wellesley's gifts to us: the finest of educations, ideas we would never have known otherwise and an enrichment of spirit every time we walked across the campus. Most of us were changed dramatically by our four years.”
"Life is more complicated in this new century, but we do have an opportunity to see that Wellesley continues to offer young women of promise those same gifts we received. A Charitable Gift Annuity is a wonderful way to give. Our Class receives 100% gift credit and we receive quarterly checks at an average gift annuity rate of 6.8%. I am always both surprised and pleased when those checks arrive and I am proud to think I'm giving to Wellesley."
All our best wishes to you for the Holidays…. and here's to keeping connected to each other and to Wellesley -- '56 RAH!
Carolyn Montgomery
Wellesley College - Class of 1956
sresident:
President:
Carolyn Montgomery
Vice President:
Barbara Booth Moses bmoses@alum.wellesley.edu
Secretary:
Dorothy Paulonis Zenie dzenie@yahoo.com
Treasurer:
Joan Ward Lasley jwlasley@embarqmail.com
Annual Giving Rep.
Mitzi Drucker Jonas
Planned Giving
Anne Colby Zachos
ListServe Administrator
Miriam Gorn Tausner
Website Manager:
Toni Holland Liebman
Class Officers
with email links
