Hi,
Sorry to have taken nearly 6 months to forward on a report on last years gathering, but here it is.
The class of 76-78 met last October at Oxford Hotel Drummoyne.
This was the 5th time since leaving Petersham we have gathered as a group. As seems to be the case there are a lot of “oh how are you (or who are you?)” moments and the name tag is a saviour in both of these circumstances! Just over 50 people were in attendance and we had a large number of last minute cancellations which would have pushed us to 60. The first people arrived at 5.05 and the last people went some time around 1.30am. Photos are on our website www.fortstreet7678.org
The venue worked well, even if the acoustics in the atrium room, did the head in of those of us with increasing hearing challenges! What was evident though was the time afforded attendees a chance to catch up with those who they had been close to and had gone separate ways over the years. Conversely for others, there were people you sort of knew, yet there is still common ground to have a good chat.
Updates were provided on any news items about people and of the ‘major gathering’ in 2018 as well as our 2017 night.
On this point we can confirm that we will go back to the same venue this year (7thOctober 2017) and we will seek to make 3 contacts with everyone on our list to determine interest as well as attendance. Please note this may be in the form of a ‘Survey Monkey’ to be able to better analyse interest for this year and next.
We are though very much focussed on making a day (i.e. a full 24 hours) of the 2018 – 40th anniversary. Key points here are that we are looking to start at noon on Saturday 8th October via casual gatherings at defined locations in and around The Rocks. Mid to late afternoon we will gather at the girls school (now National Trust HQ) and there will be walk around’s and some presentations done here. In the evening of that day we will have a ‘school formal’ at a venue to be advised. We will be creating opportunity to utilise accommodation at this facility and thus allow people the ability to ‘stay out late and crash easily’. I did note recently that where we had the 1978 formal – the Menzies Hotel is being knocked down! The following morning there will be a brunch and this will end by noon on the Sunday. What we know is that often there is simply not enough time to get around to everyone you might want to see and as such why we are doing a 24 hour event, with 4 distinct gatherings – you can of course turn up to one or them all!
Anyway your committee trust you have had a good start to Q1 2017 and we will be in contact around late June as to the gathering this year.
Please feel free to forward this onto anyone in your ‘school contact network’, as we still are working on our lists to ensure as many names are on it as possible and they are current!
Our Contact details:
Website: http://www.fortstreet7678.org
Email: fortstreet7678@gmail.com
All the best.
Bob Wood