Can you help us to set up online video conferencing for the MCHS 2015 Reunion?
This post seeks to gather together some of the volunteer projects that MCHS Alumni are involved in, or have suggested, in connection with the MCHS 2015 Reunion.
Skype video session
Charles Tsiang has suggested, in a November 19, 2014 message, that it might be a great idea to have “a mega Skype video session for 15 minutes where participants [who are not actually going be at the Reunion] say hello.”
The comment from Charles has prompted us to starting thinking about this concept. He has added:
“We will be pleased to dialog on innovative ideas of broadening the concept of participation. Need some alums with tech experience or business event planning backgrounds who can help.”
Online video conversations connected with MCHS 2015
Do you have an interest in online video conversations, during the Reunion?
Do you have an interest in helping out with the setting up of such conversations?
That is, can you help set up an arrangement whereby people, who are not at the Reunion, can take part in some way via Skype or Google + (or other video conferencing platforms)?
If the answer is yes, to any of these questions, please contact Jaan Pill at jpill@preservedstories.com
If we can get some help, we’ll set it up.
Additional comment (November 19, 2014) from Charles Tsiang
Our current planning, with regard to video conferencing and related projects, brings to mind comments from Charles Tsiang, who lives in New Jersey, some time back.
Charles has mentioned that it would be a good idea to have MCHS Alumni involved with the MCHS 2015 Reunion, even if they are unable to attend in person.
“What I want people to think of are ways for people to contribute images and words both if and if not they can attend,” he noted in a November 19, 2014 message.
We are pleased that, as things have worked out, people have been contributing images and words, as indicated by previous posts at the MCHS 2015 website. This has added much of value to the Reunion planning process; we very much appreciate all of the great information that people have been sharing.
Posting of MCHS 2015 Reunion photos online
That concept brings to mind another thought: We will ensure that Reunion Attendees, who want to see photos of themselves online, after the Reunion, will be able to do so.
We also will make every effort to ensure that Attendees, who do not wish to see their photos online, will have their preferences respected.
MCHS ’60s Reunion Facebook Group
A key step, by way of online information sharing, has been the setting up of the MCHS ’60s Reunion Facebook Group, which we did quite some time back.
The MCHS Alumnus who set up the group was Klaas Vander Baaren, to whom we owe many thanks.
Comment (November 23, 2014) from Arleen Chenoll
“Good luck with the organization of this event,” Arleen Chenoll has added, in an additional comment regarding these themes. “I will look forward to seeing lots of photos with names attached. Perhaps someone can do a ‘then and now’ on-line photo album, that absentee grads could add to.”
Charles Tsiang has also suggested compiling individual yearbook photos, for all of the yearbook classes. That is a project that is also feasible. If time permits, we can start with the scanning of one or two yearbooks, before the October 17, 2015 Reunion. We can finish the scanning of all of the relevant yearbooks after the Reunion.
Good scanning equipment makes a difference, in this regard. For example, a scanner that I currently use enables me to get an enlarged image, on my laptop, of the photo that I want to scan. In that way, I can frame the image more accurately than would otherwise be the case.
The photos would serve as the start of a database of names and the stories associated with them. This is an idea that Charles Tsiang has suggested; I think it’s a great concept.
An initial concern, that I encountered in at least one conversation, was that some people might object that having their yearbook photo posted online.
There’s always a tension between the desire to share information and the desire to ensure privacy of information. For the above-noted project, if we were to proceed, we could ensure that we would remove any particular photo, in the event there is an objection to its posting.
Scanning of MCHS yearbooks
With thanks to help from Klaas Vander Baaren, Diana Kouri, and Gerry Garnett, we are making good progress in scanning the MCHS yearbooks, from the early 1960s to the mid 1970s. The PDF scans of the yearbooks will be included in the Grab-Bag that will be distributed at the Reunion.
Nancy Renz has posted a comment some time back at the MCHS ’60s Reunion Facebook Group:
“Just a suggestion – there are many websites “What was happening the year you were born” It might be fun to consider for the reunion printing these out from 1960 – 1970ish as What was happening the year you graduated. I just did 1967 my grad year and so many interesting thing I had forgotten – or never knew in the first place!! Just a suggestion!!”
Great suggestion from Nancy Renz
That’s a great suggestion. We’ve now set up a separate page at the MCHS 2015 website to help keep track of projects that volunteers may be interested in taking on. If you are interested in helping out with implementing the above-noted suggestion, please contact Jaan Pill at jpill@preservedstories.com
The People History from 1800 to Present Day
As a follow-up to the suggestion from Nancy Renz, Gina (Davis) Cayer has found a great site that is well worth mentioning, from what I can assess from an initial visit:
Click here to access the The People History website >
Tasks for Volunteers
A few more ideas regarding volunteer tasks can be found at this MCHS 2015 Reunion page:
Any other suggestions?
We welcome your suggestions regarding any of these topics.
A friend of mine has some time back described an event that he took part in. I think the event may have been in Halifax. The meeting room had a large screen. A person in Toronto made a presentation, via Google +. After the presentation, there was a Q & A, again via Google +.
What I can envision is having 15 minutes at the MCHS 2015 Reunion devoted to greetings from MCHS Alumni who would be joining the Reunion, not in person but via Google + (by way of example; another option is Skype). We would project the Google + image on a big screen, and would hook up the sound from Google + to the portable amplifier that we will bring to the event.
In that way, we would be able to have a 15-minute conversation involving remote callers and the assembled group of Attendees at Old Mill Toronto on October 17, 2015.
People at the Reunion would take turns, speaking at a mic at the Reunion; all of the remote viewers would have access to the same video and audio signal that would be available to the Attendees at Old Mill Toronto.
Google +, as I recall from using it from time to time, enables a group of people to connect remotely at the same time.
If you, as an Alumna or Alumnus who is not attending the Reunion, but who has an interest in taking part via video conferencing, would be interested in participating in a trial run of the above-mentioned means of taking part in the Reunion, please contact me at jpill@preservedstories.com
Daniele Rossi of Toronto, the friend that I mentioned above, who is involved with Google + Hangouts as a social media means of networking and meetings, has shared the following comments:
“Hm, I’m not sure 15 minutes could give remote attendees any time to say something. There will always be technical difficulties where someone may not have sound, or there may be noise coming from their end, or they simply get randomly kicked out the hangout and have to get back in. To reduce this kind of stuff as much as possible, I’d recommend having them join the hangout at least a half hour earlier in order to iron out any technical bugs. Then display on screen to the rest of the reunion.
“You’ll need a way for the sound from the reunion audience to be piped into the laptop that will be running the hangout. I would suggest having a ‘host’ to repeat any questions/messages to the hangout audience.”
On another question, I’ve figured out how to set up a way to post photos of students from each class, from each year from the early sixties to mid seventies, when we get around to it. The photos can be posted as thumbnails, which are automatically arranged in a grid. Then if there is information to add to any of the photos, the text can be posted as a Comment. After that, I would set up a separate page for that photo, with a link from the starting page. The names of people could be searched using the search engine at the MCHS 2015 website, or searches can be done using Google.
The concept began with a message, I think of Facebook, from Charles Tsiang. We owe him many thanks, because the initial concept is the key to getting such a project under way.