What do I get for $150?

By way of an update to this post, below is a video, entitled “What Do I Get for $150?” posted on June 19, 2015:

 

 

A previous post in this series is entitled:

Next steps for MCHS 2015 website – May 17, 2015 update

As well, our new reunion website is now up and running:

Click here to access the MCHS 2015 website >

In the previous post, I said that I would next upload a text (from an audio recording) from the April 1, 2015 MCHS 2015 organizing committee meeting, at which we discussed the question of: “What do I get for $150?”

Upcoming online video: “What do I get for $150?”

That text is posted below. I’ve added a few photos to make the page interesting to visit. In a subsequent post, which will take some time as video editing takes time, I will include a link to a video focused on the question of “What do I get for $150?”

The upcoming video is based on interviews that we conducted on May 13, 2015 at our most recent meeting, again in Kitchener, of the ’60s reunion organizing committee – or to be more specific, the Event Committee. We also have a Database Team, and an Entertainment Subcommittee who are also key players in the organizing of the October 17, 2015 reunion.

Boston Pizza

The main venue for face to face meetings about the reunion is the Boston Pizza restaurant where we meet in Kitchener. We meet in Kitchener because it’s a convenient central meeting place for Lynn (Hennebury) Legge, who lives in London, Gina (Davis) Cayer, who lives in St, Williams, and the rest of the Event Committee, whose members live in Dundas, Ontario (Scott Munro), Bolton, Ontario (Peter Mearns), and Toronto (Jaan Pill).

What do I get for $150? What follows is an edited version of our April 1, 2015 discussion about this topic in Kitchener.

At our April 1, 2015 meeting, we had the following dialogue, which I’ve edited (and made minor additions to) for the purpose of featuring it at as a blog post.

Jaan Pill: We have that great question: “What do I get for $150?”

Lynn (Hennebury) Legge: It’s already come up for many people.

 Jaan: It’s come up many times, and so we have to have a sales-oriented answer to that. And so why don’t we just go around the table, and share what we think. Lynn, do you have any thoughts about how we can position ourselves?

Lynn: We can position the fact that we’re getting – a small Grab Bag, it could be. It would go with the business cards for the Speed Networking, a pencil and some form of memento, in the Grab Bag. And so there’s going to be a Grab Bag.

They’re getting an at least a four-course meal, a fine dining meal, including wine at the table, both white and red. And we’ll have sparkling water, for people who don’t drink wine.

Jaan: If we get around to getting it all together, the Grab Bag will include a  DVD with PDF files of the MCHS ’60s-era yearbooks, along with PowerPoint slides that will be featured at the reunion. Our plan is to get everything scanned and in place, so we can copy it all to a DVD, which goes into each of the Grab Bags. The DVD will also include a professional-quality recording, which Tim Hewlings of Montreal put together at the MCJHS 2000 Reunion in Montreal, of the School Song.

Plus we’re having a Nature Walk along the Humber River, that Scott Munro will be leading, during the day of the reunion. We’ve been thinking of maybe getting an order of bagels, from the Centre Street Deli in Thornhill north of Toronto, where the owners and staff are former Montrealers. The bagels we can share on October 17, 2015 during the day before 6:00 pm, when we have a Nature Walk, for alumni interested, along the Humber River near Old Mill Toronto. We have lots of events being planned for the day of, the day before, and the day after the reunion.

Gina (Davis) Cayer: And it is a Buffet. That means they can go back for seconds.

Lynn: They can go as many times as they want. 

Gina: Sometimes with fine dining, you get a plate about that big. (Gestures: Very tiny plate)

Jaan: Some very fancy places, you get three beans and it’s $80.

Lynn: I always want to go to McDonalds on the way home.

Scott Munro: They’re selling you the experience of being there.

Lynn: And you’ve got a D.J., and appropriate music for dancing and having a good time.

We’ll have a couple of mingling activities. We’ve discussed one – the Speed Networking.

That would be an ice breaker activity when we first come in – once everybody’s there and we thank them for coming.

And we can come up with something else, some other ice breaker as well.

And I had another brainstorm. You know you’re talking about The Bells; you’re going to see them.

Click here for review by Jaan Pill of the Stay Awhile documentary >

Jaan: Yes. We can download the Stay Awhile documentary, about The Bells, from iTunes. It has been noted that, even if The Bells, or Jacki Jamieson-Ralph, from among The Bells, can’t make it to the reunion, it would be really neat for people to be able to see the documentary. We’ll set up a separate screen, just for the documentary, and it will play from start to finish, over and over. People can stop at any time, and have a look at the video.

Lynn: It gives us something about The Bells and also this is a success story from our generation.

Jaan: Absolutely. That’s a very good item.

Humber Dinner Buffet

Jaan: Any thoughts about that: “What do I get for $150?”

Gina: That will be clarified, regarding the evening. That’s just a question that people want to know. What kind of food, things like that.

Jaan: So we’re on the right path.

Gina: Yeah.

Jaan: Scott, you have any reflections?

Scott: I’d go with the Humber River Buffet. It has a nice ring to it. Here we are on the Humber. That sounds nice.

Scott: We’re planning to move around from table to table during the dinner? Or is that afterwards?

Jaan: It’s actually during the Buffet that people can just wander around, mix and mingle. And that’s the whole point. If it’s a sit-down dinner, with wait staff taking dinner orders, you have to sit where things are in place, but in this case we have some of these tall, narrow tables around, at the periphery of the room, where you can put your stuff, and so it’s more informal.

Speed Networking

Jaan: And the Speed Networking comes before that, as I understand. As an ice-breaker.

Lynn: This is an ice-breaker. But the people can pair off – “Oh, I know you.” I mean, there’s people I haven’t seen for fifty years.

Grab Bag

Gina: In this Grab Bag, are we going to have some kind of a tag, with a name or picture?

Jaan: Yes, yes.

Gina: Because the chances of recognizing some people might be minimal.

Jaan: We’ll have a high school annual picture or else an Age 17 picture. Everyone has been saying, “I’ll need a picture to figure out who I’m talking with. I’ll never recognize my friends after fifty years, with some exceptions, of course.

Something I forgot to mention, as well. We’re going to have raffles and prizes.! That’s going to be very exciting. We don’t want to make a bid deal about the details, however, I would add. We want to keep at least some of the details secret so that people will be surprised and amazed, once they’re at the reunion, and see all the great prizes that we’ve got lined up!

Remembering students who have passed away

As well, we’ll have a display with names and texts about people who’ve passed away. At the website, the list we’ve made, has about 45 people on it so far – names of students and teachers who have passed away.

And there’s a lot of interest in that, because people are reminiscing about people they knew and what happened.