President's letter

President’s Letter December 2024

Greetings to you all.  As I write to you from my New Hampshire home, our fall foliage is just now beginning to wane. We had a slow start to the season, but a beautiful finish.

Your Board of Officers met via Zoom in October, and had a very happy visit with each other.  There are a few changes.  As you all know, our beloved Scarlet Letters has come to the end of its run.  Many of you have expressed your regret about this to Co-Editors Claudia Bushman and Sheila Monks, and they appreciate your kind thoughts.  We all will miss this quarterly reminder of our friendships, our talented classmates and their willingness to contribute, along with the artwork and photos that gave Scarlet Letters its pop and personality. 

Toni Caviness wishes to retire as one of our class secretaries, as she is moving toward a different lifestyle in a retirement community, and Sheila Monks is going to move sideways on the Board and take over Toni’s job working with Bev McCoid.  And Jane Dean is retiring from her very active role as Special Gifts Rep for the class, although she will continue to maintain her interest in, and special affection for, all of us in the class of ’56.  She will continue to encourage donations reflective of our love for, and support for, our beloved college. 

Recognizing that many of us are no longer able to travel and go to in-person reunions, we are going to institute a new schedule of Zoom meetings beginning after the holiday season.  The brainchild of Toni Liebman, our indomitable and talented webmanager, will take the form of a monthly “Zoom lunch hour” to be hosted by Toni herself.  Everyone who would like to join in will be welcome. Based on the experience Toni’s husband Ken has had with his Yale classmates, there are likely to be about 20 participants in each session.  Toni will send out an announcement in a few weeks with more details, including a suggested day and time.  We can decide as we proceed whether to just have an open conversation, or to set a topic for discussion.  We are very excited about this new opportunity to communicate with each other, thanks to Toni’s techy skills and her willingness to host us all via her own Zoom account. 

Of course, this means that we must have your up-to-date email addresses so that you will receive our notice of when we are getting this up and running, and can participate.  Please notify Emily Rigdon in the alum office of any changes, or just let me know that we have your correct email address, either at my email address, snail mail address, or telephone number at the end of this letter. 

In addition to the monthly Zooms, Maya Pearcy will host four or more Zoom sessions in the spring as she has done for the past two years.  We’ll send out more information about that as we get closer to the time. And for you who do not use email, and therefore don’t Zoom, please continue to refer to the Class Notes section of the alumnae magazine for updated information about classmates, and send us your own news.

The college has not yet sent out the updated figures about the value of our two scholarship funds, and our class general endowment fund, but we will get those figures to you as soon as we receive them. We do have figures for our class giving as of the end of FY 24:         

Total cash received, $435,588

                                    Wellesley Fund Gift Total, $163,754

                                     Participation Rate, 49.7%

                                     21 Durant members

 

Please stay in touch with us, and keep us up to date with your news and contact numbers.  We look forward to our exciting new Zoom adventure, and to being in touch as we begin to think about our 70^th reunion in 2026! 

Sending heartfelt wishes to all for a happy and healthy holiday season.

Go 1956!!

Anne Sinnott Moore, President

djasmoore@gmail.com; Tel:  603-998-6484;  7 Riverwoods Dr. P214, Exeter NH 03833

 

Writing for your Board of Officers:

Marian “Maya” McGrath Pearcy, Vice-President

Beverley Baldwin McCoid, Co-Secretary

Sheila Owen Monks, Co-Secretary

Toni Holland Liebman, Webmanager

Margaret “Polly” Shaw Dean, Class Representative

Jane Kentnor Dean, Advisor