Committee Information / Data

AS OF MAY 19^TH, 2016

From the numbers I am seeing that are responding to the newsletter about a possible Reunion 55 I am a little more enthused about proceeding with such a venture.  It is too early to make or arrive at a firm conclusion and I am not doing that, just stating an opinion based on what I see right now. 

Statistics… Don’t you just hate STATISTICS?

REUNION 55 INTEREST POST CARDS
CLASSMATES	STATISTICS	THOUGHTS
260 Newsletters and Post Cards sent out of the 262 we know.	99% of our classmates that we have addressees for and we can reach	This is a very high number in that we had 388 classmates, 70 have passed away, and 56 we do not have addresses for nor any idea where they might be.
? of Newsletters and Post Cards returned without forwarding address	No forwarding addresses…
88 Classmates have responded	33% of our classmates we can locate responded	Not near as many as we had wished for but it is still early.
172 Classmates have not responded	66% either have not responded and a few were returned	Can only assume they are not interested enough to even  return the Post Card
Of the 88 Classmates	62% of those responding did express interest or 21% of those 260 classmates	Even this 62% expressing interest would shrink as many voiced opposing views as to when, where and what this event should be.
Of the 88 Classmates	37% expressed “no interest” in a Reunion 55 or @ 13% of those 260	A few stated they would be interested in a Reunion 60, some positive thinkers.
Of the 88 Classmates	1% of those responding just cannot make up their mind	Am a little surprised this number is not larger.
Total number with spouse interested in Reunion 55	88 have been identified	Of course this number includes the ones expressing only interest in picnic or dinner.  Not all are for weekend event but about half are.
We have been notified of 4 classmates that have passed away	4% of those responding were by surviving spouses

I believe it is still too early to make a decision.  Again, Betty and I agreed we would give our classmates a month to respond and at the end of a month we can pretty much assume if they did not answer by then they will most likely not answer at all.  I would also conclude the majority of them that did not answer would not be interested in attending a Reunion 55.

Jimmy Kramer

 

Newsletter to Friends and Classmates follows:

REUNION 55 INFORMATION  -  5/19/2016 

Recently Betty Mickelson Held, David Parhalo, Paul Crawford and I began investigating the possibility of holding a Reunion celebrating our 55 year after graduation from Largo High sometime next year (2017).  It is important you know this is a very time consuming task requiring many hours of work.  We developed a newsletter “Our Times” along with a Post Card requesting your level of interest and desired activities.  We printed and mailed out 260 letters to our friends and classmates to the last known address we have for you.  So far we have received 82 Post Cards with your desires noted, in addition we have received 4 emails from folks that quickly misplaced their Post Cards, and 4 telephone calls (2 telling us about a classmate which passed away and 2 stating their interest).  This is a 34.6% response to the mailed information.  Right now the responses are running about 66% of you are “interested” and about 34% “not interested”.

We are going to wait another two weeks before closing this first effort and determining if there are enough interested for us to proceed with planning for Reunion 55 or just closing this effort down.  We are keeping accurate records of those of you responding.  We intend to keep those that have responded and are “INTERESTED” informed of further plans or cancelation of this effort.  If you did not take the time of five minutes or less to respond then we will assume you are “not interested” thus there is no need to waste time and money keeping you informed.  Again, this is a lot of work so we will have to take your non-response as an answer of “not interested”.  We always wish for 100% participation but are really pleased with 50% of those we have notified.  God Bless you and we look forward to hearing from you.

With Love,

Jimmy Kramer

 

Newsletter to Friends and Classmates follows:

WE REMAIN WINNERS IN EVERY ASPECT - Our class is to be congratulated on their fifth consecutive win of the coveted “Most Attendees” trophy awarded to the Class for the most classmates in attendance of the Largo Area Historical Society’s “Cracker Supper”.  The Cracker Supper is the only annual social gathering put on by the Largo Area Historical Society to not only bring the local area members and friends together for an evening of food and fun but any and all profits are utilized to support their mission.  The charter mission of this group is “Working to preserve Largo’s past for future generations”.

 

are now wondering if you have updated your email address in the past few years.  About half of you that are on our Class website have email addresses on there that bounce or are not correct any longer.

Each mailing we make through the Post Office now cost us a little over three hundred dollars ($300.00).  As you can guess we go through a lot of money quickly and have not decided anything as of this date.  I hate this as much as you or maybe even more because I am the messenger delivering the bad news.  Upon sending out this request for information from you we are now broke just like your Government.  The only difference between us and the Government is we do not have the credit, power to barrow money or the capability to print money.  This leaves us in kind of a quandary as communicating with you again and letting you know how many of your friends and classmates responded to this message and what future plans might be.

We realize not all of you are well or have a bank account full of money but with that said we are also running on empty.  Any and all donations would be appreciated to continue with this investigation and future communications.  To help reduce this cost please check the box on the post card if your email address is correct on our website.  If it is not correct it would really be helpful to us if you did correct it and bring it up to date.  This very well might be our only way to communicate with you in the future.  

I hesitate to say it but we can always utilize donations to assist us in covering the cost to investigate, organize and report our findings.  If you can find it in your heart and wallet to help us out please forward your check to our Mr. Paul Crawford.

Paul Crawford C.P.A.

1226 Turner Street, Suite B

Clearwater, FL 33756

Telephone # (727) 441-9435 or (727) 441-4233

NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS - Now that all that bad news has been covered, let us get on to some good news.  We have more than enough volunteers to do the initial investigations, total up your responses and make a recommendation to you based upon yours and our classmates and friends inputs.  We will be looking for more help when and if we proceed to create another very successful and fun filled reunion for the Class of ’62, the greatest Class ever to attend Largo High School. 

WHAT NEXT – The first priority is for you to check the correct boxes which reflect your desires, print your name, any changes to your address if needed, place a stamp on the card and return to us as soon as possible.  The quicker we get your reply the faster we can make a few determinations on what, when, where and how many.  This will also get us to the point of knowing how much help and assistance we need to organize this possible event.

As much fun as we had together with only 26 of us at the “Cracker Supper” it is exciting to think we can once again get a crowd of us together once more.  The more that attend, the more fun we tend to have, so if we are going to do this, then let us do it in the most fun way.

If you have additional information and/or suggestions don’t be afraid to share them with us.  In that we are in the talking stages right now just know everything is open to suggestions and consideration.  Write us a letter or give us a call:

Jim Kramer

10768~106^th Ave. N.

Largo, FL  33778

Telephone # (727) 319-9084.

IN CONCLUSION – We would love for each and every one of you to attend with your spouse or friend but also realize some of us are (a) not in great health, (b) would love to come but financially might be tough, or (c) maybe you just as soon not attend.  Honestly we understand but we would enjoy hearing from you and would love to see you once again.

If our numbers are small we may consider getting together with either the Class of ’63 or the Class of ’61 and do a combined reunion affair.  Most often we have so many in attendance that it is not feasible to combine but we will consider this if our numbers are low.  I cannot emphasize it enough that your response is imperative to our planning.  Please spend a few minutes and fill out the card and return it even if your answer is you are not interested.  Don’t forget to put your name on the card and current address in the return address area (print please) so we can be assured we are taking care of you and your needs or desires.  GOD BLESS…