CentennialPlanning Mailing List: Oakland Tech 100th - Your Homework Before October 20th

[Stacey Smith (staceyksmith]

Dear Centennial Committee Members,

At our next meeting on October 20th, we will begin to fill in the timeline
leading up to and including Oakland Tech's Centennial Year. Creasie Jordan
will do a short presentation on planning and explain the timeline process.
But before then, we need you to do a little homework because we need to
start making plans and moving forward.

 

First, we need to decide what our priorities are for the whole celebration -
in other words, what would we say our overall "mission statement" is? At our
first meeting we came up with a list of what we agreed we'd like to see
included in the celebration (attached below) but which is the most
important? Once we decide it will help us to focus on our priorities. It
will help us decide what each event or activity or communication should
include. It will help us to judge if we are being successful as we move
forward. Come prepared to make this decision.

 

Second, if you are part of an alumni group or know someone who is, we need
to know if there are any alumni events already on the calendar or that will
be coming up during this process. For example, the Alumni Classes of 1965,
1990, and 2005 will be celebrating their 50th, 25th and 10th anniversaries
in 2015 too. What if any plans would those classes be making? In general are
there regular alumni gatherings that happen? Please send the information to
us ASAP so that we can get it up on the timeline before the 20th or be
prepared to bring the information with you that day.

 

Third, we need folks to volunteer to lead our committees -  folks who can
make the commitment through June 2015 and really through August 2015 since
there will be follow-up work for almost every committee even if it is just
press follow-up or thank you notes or database clean-up. The planning cannot
begin in earnest until we have identified the leadership for each committee.

 

Fourth, by the end of this next meeting we will need to have sketched out a
rough draft of our schedule. That means we will need to decide what the key
events will be for 2015, when they will occur and who will be involved. Then
it will be up to the committees to create their own timelines that we will
wrap into the "Big Picture".

 

Please email any calendar items to Stacey at staceyksmith [at] comcast.net or to
Creasie at biodum [at] aol.com.

 

See you on the 20th. Go Bulldogs!

 

Creasie Jordan and Stacey Smith

Timeline Committee Co-Chairs

 

 

AGREEMENTS FROM THE FIRST CENTENNIAL PLANNING MEETING (from Terry's Email):

The group agreed the Centennial should not detract from the class of 2014's
graduation and that the alumni torch should be passed to those students.

The group agreed that current Tech students can and should play a major role
in the event.

The group agreed that students, faculty and staff past and present are all
part of the Centennial outreach.

The group agreed this is a BIG DEAL and will commit to put the city on
notice to avoid scheduling major events which might conflict.

The group agreed there will be multiple events over the course of the year
culminating in a Gala of some sort.

The group agreed that music and fashions over all the decades should be
incorporated into the Centennial events.

The group agreed to look into creating an endowment fund with the proper
legal advising possibly in the form of a foundation (Dick would you like to
work on this with me and maybe Sheilagh?) The group agreed there is a need
for a PR committee for publicity, a secretarial committee to locate and
communicate with participants.

The group agreed to form a subcommittee which will bring back a milestone
timeline for the next 2 years to the July 21st meeting for review by the
full group (Creasie, Marian, Marty, Stacey and Sheilagh) The group agreed
form two yahoo groups - one for the planning committee and another for all
to keep them up to date on what's happening.

The group understands all funding will need to be raised and will look into
locating foundations as well as other donors.

The group agreed they would like to create video documentation to capture
the stories of Bulldogs through the years and to energize and reconnect
people for the event.