Database of Photos & Texts (MCHS)

Charles Tsiang (MCHS ’62) has shared with us a suggestion, as outlined below.

Here is where we are on  this project:

1)  We will put together yearbook photos of each Attendee at the MCHS 2015 Reunion.

These will be inserted into plastic name tag holders, and will be available at the Registration Desk.

People can wear the Photo Name Tags, or not; that is up to them.

It’s one way to refresh one’s memory, when a person meets another person, in some cases after more than fifty years.

We will also have separate Name Tags, with the names printed in large letters, that all Alumni at the Reunion will wear.

2) The PowerPoint slide show we are putting together for the Reunion will include, among other things, Yearbook Photos of Attendees along with brief texts.

The above-mentioned projects are the ones we are working on right now, in preparation for the Reunion.

Anybody who would like to help with this project, please contact Jaan Pill at jpill@preserbedstories.com or contact Jaan Hendrik Pill via Facebook.

3) We can create class lists of photos from the yearbooks. This would be a project that would likely be in process for a long time, even after the Reunion has come and gone. Setting up of a Photos Database is also feasible, and would be in the nature of a long-term project.

4) Brief or not-so-brief video vignettes from each of the Attendees at the MCHS 2015 Reunion are also feasible, as source material for a photos and text database. A high school reunion, in a community close to where I live, is using short video interviews as a means to compile information, before and during the event. That is also a concept that warrants exploration.

Charles Tsiang wrote:

Here’s a thought for the Committee….. in order to raise interest in finding people the best trigger is a collection of pictures. Perhaps posting year by year the class pictures from each individual classroom in a dedicated section of the website …. connected to a “where are they now” tagging system or index. Interested individuals could chime in with “I saw Allan in 2006 in Halifax” and they could repost their class picture on their own FB page to network with their contacts.

I’ve forgotten many of my friends over the years but pictures turn on the light again. I love hearing comments from others indicating they know xxxx and this is what they are up to.

Technically I don’t know how much of a task that is. Perhaps you can offer to do that for specific years if there is a request from someone. I’d love to see the pictures for 11-A and 11-B etc from 61-62.

Best regards, Charles

PS. Is there a proforma template for documenting personal data that you intend to share about alums who volunteer their info?

Might consider two versions…. data provide by the individual themselves and data tidbits provided by others on people we have not been able to contact yet ( including leads on where we might find them).

[End of text]

Jaan Pill replied:

I much appreciate knowing of the suggestion from Charles Tsiang.

I will add a page with class pictures, from each classroom, organized year
by year.

The other features of data management that Charles suggested can also be
done, but the first step will be to add the pictures.

If there are privacy concerns, then we can remove photos in the event
there is a privacy concern expressed.

Best,

Jaan

[End of text]