Dear Palisades High Alums,
From the
President's little bit of cyberspace -
And on behalf of the PHAA and DAD...
A bit of current history:
For twelve years now... Every issue of the Dolphins
newsletter has asked for alum support. Since the Fall '98, that direct plea has only brought in
one alum, yours truly. In 2000 Nancy Usui (a co-founder of the PHAA and then
current President) retired. I was asked to take on the Presidency, as I had
been the only alum attending meetings for two years. I turned the position
down.
Linda Hosford, Pali's Principal asked Maggie Gohdes
Nance, a faculty member and an alum ('90) to take the position. Thankfully
Maggie accepted and served as President from Fall '00 until Fall of '02. In
2002 Maggie's brother David Gohdes ('84) served as our Editor-In-Chief on
one edition of the Dolphins newsletter - Spring 2002. They both
resigned from the association in '02.
In fall 2002, I became the President,
having served as the Vice President for two years, and with the PHAA since
'98. In 2001 with the board of directors
approval, I founded Dolphins After Dark, the social/events committee of the
PHAA and this website; and have chaired it ever since.
Having only attended Pali for a total of one year... I've no idea why I have
now spent/volunteered the last seven years with Pali related things...
There are a lot of jokes
to be made about this. But alas, it is more about the lifelong friendships
that were formed from pre-school on, and not the school itself.
In '01, the association had been joined by Richard
Wayman ('76), but now four alums was back down to two. I personally asked a
classmate Georgia Dent Inferrera ('76) for help... And it's been the three
of us alums since '02, with the occasional (and much welcomed) assistance
from Pat Boren ('72).
Jan Gong
(Parent of alums) who is our communications director, who maintains our master
database and has done an excellent job of running PaliAlum.org. Jan is the
only original member of the PHAA - having served for eleven years now. Way
to go Jan! Jan stays with us despite the fact that her children have
graduated from Pali.
In '01, we were joined by Marla Seto as
our Treasurer.. Marla was wonderful to work with but at the end of our '04
year, Marla resigned. We are sad to lose such a warm and
delightful person. Georgia Dent Inferrera stepped up to become the PHAA
Treasurer.
Currently, we
have four board members, three that are alums, holding the positions of President
and Secretary and Treasurer, and Jan Gong as our database controller.
Okay enough of
all of that... but it answers a lot of e-mails that I've received asking
about the PHAA and DAD...
One day I hope to add information about the years prior
to '98 but I don't have much information. I would however like to thank
everyone that has ever donated time to volunteer with the Association and
those that originally founded the PHAA.
Changes in
2004...
We've asked for alums to attend meetings, support us
through membership donations, as well as sending us bios and stories.
Unfortunately as a direct result of the lack of alum support, we stopped publishing our fall
issue of the newsletter a few years ago, due mostly to lack of content
being sent in and of course funding. The extended plea for help from last
year Dolphins was ultimately to be the our last drawn out SOS!
Changes had to be made for us to continue.
Last year (spring '03) we got the
feedback saying that the Dolphins newsletter was the best in years. We agree. However, falling
short in the bio section, because most of the bios included, had to be
solicited through the message board. We also had to contact people we knew
personally
to get stories to publish. Prior to our January '04 meeting, dozens of
alums were asked for feedback about the newsletter and the website. While
everyone said that they enjoyed receiving the Dolphins, focusing on the website could offer
so much more than an annual newsletter. Therefore the PHAA has decided to concentrate on
this website. However, it too needs your input to be a useful and fun site
for everyone. As time permits, ideas form, stories and bios are sent in....
The site will hopefully grow. For now all the work on the is done by me (and
I am not a web designer)
and as I have time and the energy I will try to add new things. If areas are
not used after a time, they will be taken off line. I am looking to you to be a part of this
website, send in your bios and stories. Take advantage of the sponsorship
page, etc. I need your help... Send in stuff!
There are 42
years of graduates out there, the stories are there too! We received a few
bios, since then, but not enough to create a page around.
With only the monetary support of about 200 out of well over 12,000 alums that receive the newsletter, we cannot sustain the costs
involved. Therefore, as of our January 2004 meeting, with a vote by the
board of directors, it has been decided that we will produce the last of
our newsletters. We have ran out of energy to solicit alums for their
participation. In the future, who knows... We liked doing the newsletter but
with only two or three people working on it for years, it got to be too
much!
In 2003 I asked for a vote from the
Board to do away with the enclosure of the return envelopes as over 10,000
of them never came in with donations. Basically we were paying for these to
be thrown away! The savings of $1,000 has been applied to Scholarships to be
given out on Senior Awards Night. 2004 marks the first time
in four years we've been able to give out scholarships.
Where we stand now...
The PHAAs Board of Directors has agreed to continue with the PHAA
until June 2006. At our September meeting we will be able to
evaluate the results of our upcoming annual membership drive (beginning in
July).
How you can help now...
Soon we hope to reestablish our bulletin board, which will require
membership to access. When we switched webhosting companies, everything
got messed up and we have not had the time to redo it all.
Donations..
You can send in a donation to the PHAA c/o Pali, or use
PayPal from our donations page. Those that make larger donations can take
part in our sponsors page. We are a nonprofit organization under the
umbrella of the Palisades Booster Club, therefore your donation may be tax
deductible.
Be a part of it all...
Contact us to see how you can be a part
of the future of the association rather than see it become a thing of the
past. And, if you are in the area with a little bit of time to spare come
to a meeting. Now, there will be meetings throughout the year as it took
two or three meeting to work on the former eight-page newsletter.
Having done a
large amount of the newsletter for the last few years, overseeing Alumni
Night since '01 and now concentrating on this website, I KNOW I can't
continue at this rate much longer. It comes down to this.... Without
more alums becoming involvement, the association will not continue. The time
to act is now! I'm afraid it really is make or break time for the association.
Don't be left saying "What happened to the Alumni Association?" We are doing
everything that we know how to get alums interested. Without
participation, we can't, we won't keep going. Therefore, if you find any of
this worth keeping around, your part is easy, send in a donation, a story, a
bio, a suggestion. Come support our events... All submissions for the
website will be considered by the Board.
A huge thank
you must go out to Jan Gong, Richard Wayman, Georgia Dent Inferrera for being the reason we have an
association today!
Thank you, the alum, for taking an interest in your Alumni Association -
Kindest regards,
J. Jensen ('76)
President PHAA
Founder/Chair DAD
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