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Bill Harrison (Harrison)

Dear Fellow Classmates,

Our class web site has been active for 11 years now, and I have been paying the annual subscription fees myself, which has added up to over $1,800. Some of you have received subscription expiration notices, which means that I must extend the subscription for at least another year. If I don’t, the site management company will change to an advertising model, which means you will be subject to site ads. I do not want that to happen. So here are our options:

1. Continue paying myself for one more year ($165), or;
2. Continue with a free subscription with ads, or;
3. Continue paying and request classmate donations to help out.

My preference is 3. Pay for one more year and ask for donations. After the year is up, renew for 3-5 years using the donation funds (See below). That means $165 now and $495 more in one year, using the five year rate. This will give me a year to set up a donations page and manage donations. Without any donations, continue with ads.

Please let me know your thoughts by posting on the message forum so everyone can see them, and thank you! This will help me decide what to do. I have 30 days.

Kris Shoulberg (Brown)

Hi Cousin Bill and fellow classmates! I truly had no idea that you, Bill, were paying anything out of your pocket! It's one thing that you have been maintaining our website gratis!!! I think our class has a checking account. Bob White, am I correct? If so, could our classmates send donations to you (Bob, post your address), and Bob reimburse Bill for whatever amount he needs. I think I speak for most of us that the website has been a wonderful way for us to stay in touch. I would hate to see it go away! If our checking account is no longer active, how can we reimburse Bill?  Cheers! Kris

Bill Harrison (Harrison)

Cousin Kris,

Thank you for the note and the suggestion, which would certainly be easier for me and we would not have to go through PayPal using a donation page.

Tim Reichert

Hi, Bill,

Totally agree with Kris. I'm certainly ready to kck in my share and much appreciate your efforts over the years to keep us connected.

Stay well,

Tim 

Bill Harrison (Harrison)

Thanks Tim, Bob and Kris! I already got $100 to help pay for this year! I am shooting for another $500 to be raised over the year so that I can renew again in 2023 for FIVE more years!!

Mary Maxwell (Thomas)

I totally agree with what has already been said.  Many thanks to you, Bill, for all you have done to keep us together and informed.  You should not have to foot the bill in addition to doing all the work!  I'm more than willing to contribute.   I think we should continue to rely on your discretion for how we should proceed.  You have my proxy!

Kris Shoulberg (Brown)

Hmmmmmmm.......how about GoFundMe? 

Bob White

Hi Kris...and everybody else. I closed the checking account several years ago. After the last actual reunion in Lake Bluff, we had less than $100 in the account. Since it looked like another reunion was questionable and I knew Bill needed funds for the website, I closed the account and sent the balance to Bill to help keep it alive.

I see a several problems with GoFundMe.

•   it's really set up for one-time fund raising.

•   olks have to know we have aGoFundMe page in order to contribute.

•   GoFundMe takes a cut (3%) of the donations.

•   Unless Bill sets up LFHS Class of '61 as a non-profit corporation, he'll need to give GoFundMe his SS# and pay taxes on the income generated. 

My suggestion( which I shared with Bill over the phone yesterday), is to simply send out a direct email to all of us as replacement funds are needed. Bill would share how much the site costs and how much we need to keep it going. If/when donations fall off to the point of not supporting the website, well...maybe it's time to let it go. 

Eileen Janowitz (Ward)

I'd like to contribute to paying for the website which I really enjoy.  Bill, a check or PayPal?            

Sue Harrington (Francis)

Sandy McDermand (Grimmer)

Happy to support this way to keep in touch.  Thank you for keeping it going.  Sandy 

Bill Harrison (Harrison)

You can send checks directly to me.  Any amount helps. I will need $500 by Feb 2023. As I said, this will keep the site funded for this year plus five more! YAY!

I am in the process of opening a local checking account where I can deposit and monitor the gifts. I'm keeping it simple.

Thanks so much!!

12060 S 217th St

Gretna, NE 68028

(Just for your information, we have 86 registered classmates for the site. 32 of them have signed on during the last 30 days. I figure that about 43 are really active. If half of them gave $25, we'd be covered.)

Bill Harrison (Harrison)

PayPal also works...gretnadude@hotmail.com

Mary Maxwell (Thomas)

Just sent something with PayPal.  It worked fine. Quick & efficient.  Thanks for your hard work & dedication, Bill!

John Barr (Barr)

Will get a check in the mail to you this week. John Barr

Steven Spaner

Bill. 

I know that this form of leadership is both gratifying for you and makes you feel like a selfless person. But, you do so much accommodation to users and maintenance of the site that this is not just altruism, it is work.

I built, maintain, and fund six websites as my contribution to the SNAP organization that I joined as a volunteer in 2003. I get to write those expenses off as donations (or used to, new tax law cut me off). I don’t know if you have been taking your time and website expense off on your taxes, but that does not excuse we users and classmates from paying our way.

I respond to every notification I get by going to the LFHS site and checking out the person or post in the notice. I would really miss this connection to my one and only HS (I was in 9 different schools before I entered LFHS as a freshman). I hope you have a contingency plan should you tire of or not be able to continue as webmaster / site administrtor. The show must go on ... at least until the last alum is no more.

Finally, based on your analysis and suggestion, my $25 check will be sent via my bank’s Bill Pay tonight. If the support response falls short, please let me / us know the shortfall, and I’ll kick in more.

Cheers, Steve

Terry McKinnon

A check is in the mail.  Thank you for doing this all these years.  Terry McKinnon

Bill Harrison (Harrison)

A big THANKS to everyone who contributed. I paid the $500 site subscription charge to keep the site for 5 more years. I have enough. No need to send any more.

Bill Harrison (Harrison)

Classmates, I just paid for five more years, thanks to all your generous donations! It really felt good to submit that payment because I know how much this website means to all of you. Also, I received many, many wonderful notes of thanks and updates from many of you. Thank you and God Bless!

P.S. I do have some money left over to help with any reunions that may come up!

Eileen Janowitz (Ward)

Hi All -  what do you think about a Reunion in Lake Forest  next year?  We could celebrate ourselves as we have graduated 60+ years ago (missed 60th because of the Pandemic) plus most of us will be having a BIG birthday.  I would be happy to help plan it from afar.

Kris Shoulberg (Brown)

My first reaction to Eileen’s suggestion of having a reunion in LF next year was something like, “Oh, I would love to, but I have trouble traveling, I have Parkinson’s’, I’m pushing 80, my balance is bad, etc……” So there it is!! My ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM! I am thinking that you all are just as old as I am (really!?!) and some of you have your own issues to deal with too!  So, I say, heck yeah!! We’re not getting any younger! We’re in this together, LF Class of 1961! Let’s do this! Count me in!

Susan Leonowitz (Adams)

I think a reunion in Lake Forest next year is a great idea!

Steven Spaner

Kris' reply was a sobering statement for me. I have a bumb right knee from a torn cartilage I earned in a senior year scrimage of the LFHS football team, but otherwise I am remakably healthy. I know from my daughters that my first wife is have aging issues, so I know that it is happening to us. I applaud Kris' attitude and buy-in against the challenges. This next birthday will mark a milestone for me in that I will have out lived my father by 10 years. 

I welcome the chance to see my first real school cohort. I am all in on a reunion next year and hopeful that I can forestall a knee replacement in the interim. I don't live as close as some classmates to LF, but St. Louis is close enough to help with some planning. I know Chicagoland pretty well after having a summer job during college years driving CTA buses, both gas and electric.

Bruce Sharer

I've been watching the folks here from afar since I joined, and occasionally have contributed a message. Over the years I have considered attending a reunion, but always seemed to have an excuse not to. One concern I have alway had about attending a reunion is whether I would know anyone there. Since I only went to LFHS my freshman year and since I lived it Lake Bluff from 1953 to 1958, I didn't get to know many Lake Foresters well. Also, quite a few of the Lake Bluffers I knew well have passed - Jerry Piepenbrock, Robbie Patelke, Joel Eiserman, Eddie Risty to name a few. I've been in touch with John Barr on the left coast and Todd Stussey in Ohio, but that is about it. In 1984, my wife and two boys drove by LFHS and through Lake Bluff on the way from Chcage to a family reunion on Wisconsin. That was the lat time I was in the area. But it would be neat to see the area again and the school. I might even recognize something or someone.

Sue Harrington (Francis)

Eileen, et.al.,

I will certainly try to make it.  It is a bit a o hike from Hawaii, but I would love to be there.  So count me in!

Sue