Parrot Droppings

35 Year Reunion Update

2006-08-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

35 Year Reunion Update What’s happening is this; the 35-year reunion is slated for Sept 16th 2006 at the Sportsman Lodge in Studio City Ca. Tickets are 80 dollars per person, this includes dinner and a memorybook. Ticket sales will be ongoing, but we need to know a ballpark number for those attending to place the orders.

Currently the confirmed list is around 85 classmates with guests and we should meet the basic expenses. We would like everyone to contact any classmates they may be in touch with and let them know about the reunion. Also if you are planning on attending please let us know, even if you cant confirm at this point. Were still missing a lot of Classmates, we are doing what we can, but the research staff is small, and I was just told one of them has been sick and is recovering. My own time is amazing limited this time around, but are are putting forth a heck of an effort to make this nice for everyone.

We need you're help
Im getting a lot of feedback asking if the reunion is still on, silly question. Is nobody reading the website? Turnout is small at this point but growing, clearly we still need to do more and get the word out. Please let classmates you are in touch with know. If your planning to go and just havent got the tickets yet or are only 85% sure then let me so I can add you to the RSVP list.

Links to the Sportsman
Say that you are with the poly71 reunion if booking a room. http://www.sportsmenslodge.com/ http://www.slhotel.com/ http://www.hotelclub.net/hotel.reservations/Sportsmens_Lodge__Studio_City.htm

Write to Margie or Mike @ poly71.com

Class of 1971 35 Year Reunion Update - 04-05-2006

2006-04-10T18:38:00.000-07:00

Parrot Droppings

Class of 1971 35 Year Reunion Update - 04-05-2006
Http://poly71.com

Sorry about the delay in Reunion News. A lot has dropped on my shoulders with my moms passing away in Nov. and it’s taken a while to get things sorted out Im going to be working on that for some time, but Im able to work on the reunion again.

To add to thing Margie has not been well, and we have had to get the loose ends sorted out before there could be any news.

35 Year Reunion.
-----------------

Things are being firmed up and a mailing will be sent out soon. I will keep everyone informed as the plans shape up, I don’t expect any change in plans at this point, but I have been surprised before.

Sept 16th 2006 is still the target date; the venue will be the Sportsman's Lodge in Studio City, where we had our 10th yr. Reunion. Tickets will be $80.00 PER TICKET.

Links to the Hotel - Info Only:
-------------------
INFO ON GROUP PRICING TO FOLLOW.

Sportsman Lodge.com

www.slhotel.com/

hotelclub.net - Sportsmens_Lodge

Orbits offers at Sportsmans

accomline.com/Sportsmens_Lodge

The area...
-------------

I really must say the area is nice, safe and full of Interesting things to do and see. A short ride east will bring you to Universal City with a host of attractions, and a bit longer ride will take you to Burbank, its not all that far from the airport, golf course, parks, shopping. As I was asked a 3 dollar day pass on the RTD will get you around the area nicely.

There are lots of wonderful shops and interesting places to dine in the area.

We need help:
--------------

First off we need all of you to get in touch with any Classmates you still be in contact with, time is in short supply and we need to get the word out.

We also need help in getting things together and finding lost classmates. If you would like to help out please let Margie or I know. mike@poly71.com or margie@poly71.com

Updates will be posted on the website, sent out in newsletters, and on the blog. Mailings will be going out in the next couple of weeks.

Well now

2006-03-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

There will be a general E-mailing on monday March 27th concerning the reuion. Please bear with me.

Mike...

Website

2005-09-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

Laura Hellenthal and Joe Sykora were kind enough to cover the hosting fee this year, that covers things until the day after the reunion and I will have something in place for that. A number of others offered to chip in and help out, and Im very grateful for the support, but time was so pressing that this was the only way to get it done without having the site go down.

On Friday for reasons I cant explain there was a second Poly71.com domain on hold, it did no harm as ours was active and a parked domain is transparent. My best guess is that maybe someone was trying to start another site, most likely for another school, altho it could be for a product or just about anything.

We are going to need help starting mid Oct in the search for missing classmates, if your interested in helping out let me know. Keep in mind this is going to be a long slow, but rewarding process.

We may be closer to anouncing the venue, we need to hash some things out and have a look at the contract. I had a very quick look at this one a couple weeks ago, access seems good, I liked the looked and feel of the place.

Its not that far from the Hilton, so the airports close as is City Walk. As its been asked the bus will get you there and take you to places of interest, that may be a factor for out of towners as cabs can be pricy, where a $3.00 pass will let you ride the bus all day and Metro Rail pass are cheap. Theres a couple of Metro access points as well, and the expanded service should be running at that time. I will try to get details up on points of interest once were sure about the venue.

Mike...

2005-09-15T01:07:00.000-07:00

Well its that time yet again, and of course the check isnt in. So if we go down over the weekend I will be in touch with those of you I can reach.

Not much to add right now, but expect something soon.

Mike...

Quick update

2005-07-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

July 7

The guestbook trashed, it would seem a robot placed an ad in the database that not only blocked the viewing of posts but attempted to send you off to its site. Removing it caused the SQL database our guestbook depends on to become scrambled. Its a bit of a pain to restore as you have to rebuild everything, happly I do keep copies of the pages so nothing was lost.

While I am at it I will be combining the 2 guestbooks (Old from the 2001 reunion and current from the time of the site move.) as well as updating the e-mail address in both. The plus there is you will know who we cant e-mail from the guestbooks and maybe someone will help us get back in touch with them.

July 8 -

The Guestbook has been restored and the old guestbook added to it, email address have been fixed or removed. With luck the changes I made will keep things from going boom again when some jerk trys to force the database to hold their ad. In other news were still looking over venues for the reunion, both the Sportsman in Studio City and Burbank Hilton have been looked at, there are issues we need to resolve before we can go with either. The Hilton for example wants a parking fee of $5.00 per car, has a number of things they want done their way. So were still looking for options.

Mike...

A bit of an update

2005-03-24T18:58:00.000-08:00

Sept 23/24 2006 is the target date for the reunion. Currently we are sorting out the venue which will help us fix the ticket price. Music will be a Oldies with some newer songs by request. Food we are still sorting out. Dress will be simi-formal, dressed up but casual fits the bill. Those attending in a Tux will be dumped in the pool by the fashion police ;)

I have had a tooth ache from hell, so havent been responding to everyone as I should. Will be taking care of that this weekend. Other then that were gearing up to find lost and missing classmates, so check in with us if you read this.

Mike...

2005-02-28T05:10:00.000-08:00

Having just finished the mailing to everyone I had an E-mail address for and checking the bounces, I must say that Im depressed. I got a couple of blocked address, no big deal (I feel so unloved...) and about 40 rejects that are nolonger good, and I try my best to keep up with this. I really need to get who we can get in touch with sorted out. So if you read this please get in touch and let us know how to get in touch with you. We have over 1000 classmates to find, I really do need your help in this.

Mike...

2006 reunion Poll Letter

2005-02-25T17:00:00.000-08:00

This letter will be going out to those of you I have a working e-mail address for over the weekend. I havent a chance of getting it to everyone who visits the website, so this seemed a good option. We need your feedback to better target the 2006 reunion. You may e-mail margie@poly71.com or mike@poly71.com or you may simply leave a comment here.

Mike Hill here, I run the class website (http://www.poly71.com) and I
have some news about the next reunion, and a few questions you might be
able to help us with.

The 35 year reunion will be sometime in 2006, were going to ask
what time of year is best to hold the reunion for you in the question
section of this e-mail. In fact there are a few questions, and this
will help us focus the reunion.

We need to start getting in touch with classmates again, and
finding those who drifted away after the 30 year reunion. We also need
to find quite a few missing classmates, and the events of recent years
have restricted some of the sources we could use. Security and identity
theft are a concern and tracking down people isn't as easy as it could
be. Still the job has to be done, and so we are asking that if you are
in touch with anyone from the class that you ask them get in touch with
us.

I'm looking for the loan of an old movie, Corvette Summer, either
on VHS or DVD, I want to capture some of the Van Nuys Blvd stuff from
it. Also any old photos from the time and area would be a great help.

I will be letting you all know as things progress, and of course
posting news on the website. Onto the questions, Hope you are all well
and happy…

Mike….

What you would like at the next reunion?

Cost:

The end result is always a compromise between what we want to do and
a fair price for the reunion. If you could give us an idea of what you
think a fair ticket price is we can better target the event and venue.

Mood:
Period: Dress and styles of the late 60s to early 70s.

Casual: Dress and styles for comfort, nothing special.

Semi-formal: Dressed up, but stilled relaxed.

Music:

Classic Oldies: Songs from the 60s and early 70s.

Classic Oldies Mix: Mostly classic songs with others
added in. (Say 5 or 6 Oldies to 1 newer mix. The newer songs
being requests and dance songs. For example some remakes of
classic songs that are quite good, and others outside the
school
years (1968-1971 ish) would fit and be good to dance to.

Please let us know any songs you would like played.

Food:

We have to feed you. So what you would like on the menu?

Time of year:

Even if you do not plan to attend we need to know this to better
delimit the times that are overall best. Thus far the reunions have
been in late September. Sept 23/24 2006 is the working date, but
that's not fixed. We need to know the time of year that's best for you.
We need a best month, you may add early, mid or late, to fine-tune
the time. You may also tell us when it's not a good time for you.

Events:

Day After Picnic: 10 AM to 5 PM casual dress, could be held at
Poly or a site of interest.

Continental Brunch: 10 AM to Noon the day of the Reunion.

Other: Have something in mind? Let us know.

Something Special:

Besides old friends and classmates (You need to arrange your own
dates.), what would make this event special for you? Feel free to remark
on something even if it seems a bit silly, after all a reunion should be
special.

Its 2005

2005-01-07T01:18:00.000-08:00

My first reaction to the new year was "Man that was fast!" but Ive been sleep deprived and that might account for it. The next reaction went like this, "Holy crap, the reunions a year away!" then I had a number of other thought and a couple of beers while I set my mind in order and realised its more like 20 months away. There were a few thoughts about Frys's electronics mixed in the bag as well, but I cant relate those here, theres a cuss filter.

Now the real question is where is everyone? I have a sorta plan and need to round up a little cash to make it work, oh dont worry Im not going to hit you up for money, so relax and read on. There are some databases that are used by reunion hosting firms to track down missing classmates, last time I looked it was about 25 cents a search and you were required to take at least $100.00 worth. A couple of them want nothing to do with us unless we have paperwork defining us a non-profit and they want a form denoting this. Now theres a company thats willing to let us do this thing, we dont get full database access, but we dont need it, nor do we need the form, altho with new National Security concerns who knows if we can still do this a week from now.

Now when you search you define the search terms, it returns a list of likely hits and you pick the one you think it might be. If you dont get anyone on the search its free, but most of the time your going fishing for names. As you can see its going to cost more then 25 cents to find most people, Im thinking a couple bucks on adverage.

To keep costs down I really need to get the list of those we have updated, and a lot of you have simply dropped off my database so that e-mailing you ends up in a rejected letter. So for the next few months thats the project, to get whoever we have found back in our database and then go find the rest of the class.

Im not going to beg, but you can send me a e-mail saying HI, this is whoever from the poly class of 71 (or any other class as Im often asked if I can help find friends.) and I sort that out.
We dont sell, loan, or let anyone have access to the database, and I do need a way to contact everyone and get the reunion started.

Mike...

Halloween

2004-10-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

To address a couple of E-mails.

1: Whats the picture on the site about?

The picture is of a normal house, theres a ghostly girl with a real knife, some bats also ghostly, and some ghostly trees, there is also a ghostly split rail fence.

2: Whats it have to do with Poly?

Not a thing, its haloween so why not have a bit ofd fun.

3: Who is the girl in the photo?

I have no idea.

Mike...

T-17 and counting

2004-09-14T01:24:00.000-07:00

Well I have till friday to get the site payed for. Heres the deal, after sorting out the due date I arranged for the hosting firm to call me if the check didnt get there a week later. So of course when they didnt call as arranged I forgot about it. So they called me on Sat. 3 weeks later to let me know I had a week to get payed up, gotta love this.

Long and short is I will get a check in the mail on tuesday, nothing else to do. That buys another year, I can sweat next year when it comes.

Mike...

Im thinking of adding an online game

2004-08-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

I was thinking of Dragon Knight, its a DND style adventure game, you go in and explore, fight the monsters, get stuff. Now Im thinking whats a DND game got to do with High School? Has anyone ever seen a dragon roming on Rosco, the odds of encountering an Evil Wizard were zero,
the only Orcs you could find were in books, and walking around in tight leather with a sword was likely to get you in big trouble.

So I need to do a few mods to theme it in. Im thinking of using places around Poly as the towns, of course you need weapons, potions, monsters, and assorted bad guys. The 60's and 70s had much that one can modify to fit the game. Of course I need a few ideas as theres much to theme, so feel free to speak up...

You might find yourself fighting a level 5 School Bus with your trusty soda straw, confronting a gang of Narks armed with only a history book, and a POP Quiz might attack as you pick those magic mushrooms. Likely none of that ever happened at school either, but on the other hand youll be so busy fighting for your life your not going to notice.

Mike...

The Story so far...

2004-08-20T01:35:00.000-07:00

We got about 2 weeks notice that payment was due, a check was sent in on Aug 7 and has yet to get there. In the meanwhile I had to track down some proof the due date was off by a month, we had after all payed for it. There followed a number of calls and e-mails requesting payment, asking if we were going to renew, I explained a check was sent and posted a day by day notice as I couldnt tell if they simply planned to drop us on the 12th of Aug or not. Once the 12th passed we were in theory unpayed, e-mailing support to correct the due date wasnt working, I kept getting calls when I was out and e-mails prodding for payment.

On the 19th I called them having picked up enough proof to get the due date changed. At this point some other account in the rears was having its deadbeat e-mail sent to me. I could have called a couple days sooner, but dealing with accouants and support people on a couple hours sleep is not advised.

We sorted out the other domain not being mine, chatted about the check which had not arrived as yet, they offered a few more days of hosting, spoke of late fees. I declined and remarked that we needed to sort out why I was getting billed early, just a book keeping error, but you have to go through it step by step. They said they would fix it, we shall see.

Now in the process I asked about longer term hosting deals and got a list, the 5 year plan seems rather nice, saves us about 200 on hosting fees. The trouble is its not in our budget, so we need to find a way to get some money in if we go that way. Some ideas and your thoughts would help.

Mike...

Another something new.

2004-08-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

Ok this is up as an offsite way to keep in touch should anything happen with the website.
You can respond to these posts. As far as I know were ok until mid Sept, the check should be in by then. The question now is if we should go with 5 years web hosting and if so should we raise the money?

Mike...