Webmaster Greetings
Howdy Classmates,
Happy Anniversary! Can you believe 22 years have passed since we graduated!? I'd be most surprised if any of us lacked a strong memory or two. Perhaps most of us share my mother's most prominent memory of wondering if the ceremonies were "ever ... going ... to end." There were just too damn many of us! Serves us (that is, those of us born in 1961) right for being members of the largest cohort of the largest generation in our country's history.
Thanks for taking the time to read this latest, somewhat belated, issue of the East Forsyth Class of 1979 Newsletter. I've decided to make the newsletter a quarterly, and our class's "birthday" seemed the most auspicious time to inaugurate it.
In cyberspace, six months is an eternity; many e-mail addresses and URLs can go bad very quickly in that short time. Also, activity in the site seems to decline precipitously between newsletters. A more frequent newsletter may help maintain interest in and encourage the growth of our class site. Expect new issues during the first week of every September, December, March, and June.
Finally, I post an HTML version of each of these newsletters in an archive after I e-mail the text version. These archived versions have hyperlinks to the most recently modified sections of the site. If you want to see a specific change, all you have to do is click on what you want without surfing through the site.
Matt Wallace, Class Webmaster
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Class Contacts
As always, the online class directory continues to plod along towards the ultimate goal of accounting for 100% of the class. Currently we have some sort of info for about 26% of the class and e-mail addresses for about 15%. Using both our senior yearbook and our graduation program, my best listing of the "entire" senior class of 1978-79 consists of 753 individuals. We have much work ahead of us, and there are several ways you can help build our alumni directory.
First, make sure your info is as complete as you care to make it and keep it current. I heartily thank those of you who are doing this; the directory is only as good as the quality of the info it contains.
Second, if you are currently in contact with any classmates for whom we have no or only partial info, please inform them of our web site. If they're online, have them submit their contact info using the registration form. For our non-online classmates, print out the form and have them complete and mail it to my home address as indicated or you could submit their info for them, preferably with their permission.
Third, make a point of tracking down your old friends who are among our missing classmates. This could be as easy as opening the phone book. If possible, contact them directly or contact their parents or other family members to find out how you can reach them. When you locate them, have them register as above.
Again, I thank those of you who are spreading the word about our class web site; your efforts are helping.
If any of you are in contact with the following classmates, please ask them to update their e-mail addresses at the very least: Mark Bullin, Regina Dull Skeens, Rick Fish, Sue Konvalinka Tedesco, Lisa Sears Spoon.
Additions and updates in Alumni Contacts since last newsletter:
William Capers (Billy) Aughtry III
Donna Kay Benfield Bell
Michael Howard (Mike) Beshears
Deidra Annette Bradford Oates
Richard Eric (Ricky) Bryant
Sarah Elaine Calhoun Tuttle
Deborah Gail Chandler Cigich
Thomas Alan (Tom) Del Guidice
Tangee Yvette Fulp Stevens
Ricky Andrew Grubbs
Jeffrey Vann (Jeff) Marshall
William Kevin Martin
Phillip Gray (Phil) Money
Sheri Kay Murphy Simpson
Jeffery Layden (Jeff) Myers
Timothy Odell (Tim, Bear) Overman
Martin Andrew (Marty) Pahl
Malcolm David Ross
Vera Mae Salmons Guthrie
Everette Lee Scales
Sarah Ellen Stevenson Harris
Margaret Elizabeth (Libby) Swaim Melton
David Randall Teague
Deborah Ann (Debbie) Tolbert Roberts
George Edward Townsend, Jr.
Sondra Delores Townsend Walker
Jeffrey Lee (Jeff) Venable
Rickie Allen Venable
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Keeping In Touch
One of the most important purposes of our class web site is the fostering of communication amongst class members. There are several methods for getting in touch with classmates, both on-site and off-site.
Don't forget that we have a message board for disseminating news about and for class members. If you get a promotion, complete a degree, add a new family member, move to a new city, take a new job, suffer an unspeakable tragedy requiring your classmates' moral support, etc., then by all means let us all know about it! If you have similar news about a classmate, please submit that as well. The posts since the last newsletter are "Dean Crews's mother dies unexpectedly on 22 January 2001" and "Rick and Carrie Grubbs celebrate birth of their sixth child." (Am I the only one who finds it odd that I'm the only one posting to the Message Board?)
As always, the guestbook is available for brief comments. You can simply offer your greetings to the class just to let everyone know you visited the site, you could throw out a query about classmate, etc. Of course, it never hurts to tell the webmaster what you think of the site.
I encourage everyone to start a web page or web site; to help you get started, check out "Internet Resources" on the Links main page. A page or site will enable you to share more detailed info with your classmates. You can tell us about your family, your career, your hobbies, or whatever else you would like to tell us and the world. If we all had web sites, we could have an ongoing virtual reunion. Just send me your URL, and I'll add it to Classmate Web Sites and Web Pages in our Links section and your class directory entry as well.
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Help Support Our Class Web Site
In addition to webmastering our class web site, I'm also paying for the webhosting. While I'm not expecting y'all to start sending me checks, I would appreciate it if you would participate in some affiliate programs I'm signed up with.
For those of you who aren't signed onto Alumni.Net yet, I hope you'll do so now. For those of you who are signed up under East Forsyth, try signing up under your college or even your high school (Carver, Atkins, etc.). Also, try to get your friends and family to sign up as well using the special link. I'll get 50 cents per sign-up, plus I could win a monthly prize for the most sign-ups. You can connect to Alumni.Net using the text or banner link at the bottom of each page in the class site or you can load the following special address directly into your browser:
http://www.alumni.net/cgi-bin/affiliate.pl?email=efshs1979%40yahoo.com
For those of you who are veterans, military family members, or simply military enthusiasts, please sign up with Military.com from my personal site's homepage or any military related page on my site. I'll get $1 per sign-up.
Thanks to all who have participated already.
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Until next issue, take care!
Contact the class webmaster, Matt Wallace, at efshs1979@yahoo.com.
