What are the duties of a class secretary?

While not all classes have secretaries per se (some have co-presidents, and others a single class committee), the task at hand never changes: to help classmates keep in contact with one another and to help classmates share news as a way of sustaining connections forged at Bates. Two main duties fall to the class secretary:

• produce an annual Class Letter that's mailed to your classmates
• submit news items to Bates Magazine three times a year

Who is my contact?

Heidi Gagnon of the Alumni and Parent Programs office and Jon Halvorsen, class notes editor of Bates Magazine, together track the flow Class Notes and the status of Class Letters.

• For guidance about how to seek news items from your classmates and/or help producing a Class Letter, e-mail Heidi Gagnon, coordinator for Alumni and Parent Programs, 207-786-6486
  
  NOTE: If you are a graduate of the last 10 years, your Class Letter contact is Aimee L. Arsenault at 207-753-6930.
  
• For answers about Bates Magazine Class Notes policies, practices, and deadlines, e-mail Jon Halvorsen, class notes editor, Bates Magazine, You may also e-mail Jay Burns, editor of Bates Magazine, or phone 207-786-6331 with questions.

When should I send news to Bates Magazine?

The best answer is "whenever you want." Though if you wish to submit notes as close to publication as possible, here are the deadlines for the triannual Bates Magazine:

• November 30 for Spring 2009 magazine (mails first week March)
• March 30 for Summer 2009 magazine (mails first week July)
• July 30 for Fall 2009 magazine (mails first week of November)

What is the relationship between annual Class Letters and magazine Class Notes?

Here's a schematic that attempts to depict the flow of Bates news. The key point to remember is that there's teamwork and communication around the production of Class Letters and magazine Class Notes.

Since 1921, the very beginning of Bates Magazine's existence, the Class Notes section has published shorter versions of your Class Letters. The magazine must shorten Class Letters for space reasons: Just two normal-size Class Letters could fill the entire magazine Class Notes section, which is limited to 20,000 words!

How do I gather news items?

The answer depends on whether you are producing an annual Class Letter or seeking Class Notes for the magazine:

• For an annual Class Letter: Heidi Gagnon can work with you to initiate a "Call for News" (CFN) to all your classmates, either through a print mailing or an e-mail blast. Here is a sample Call for News for a Class Letter.
  
• For Bates Magazine Class Notes: Rather than sending a class-wide Call for News, we suggest that you use your class roster, Facebook, or other means to contact a few classmates prior to each magazine deadline to assemble around 10 news items.

How many items should I send to the magazine?

Our goal is to have every class represented each issue with at least one note. So, sending just one item before deadline is a good start. If you have a Class Letter in the works, the magazine will use those notes. If not, try to put together up to 10 notes.

How do I send my news to Bates?

Class Notes: E-mail with a Word attachment to Bates Magazine, or postal mail to 141 Nichols St., Lewiston ME 04240. Short news items can be simply sent in the body of an e-mail.

Class Letters: E-mail with a Word attachment to Heidi Gagnon or postal mail to Alumni and Parent Programs, 2 Andrews Road, Lewiston ME 04240.

How is the Bates Online Community used for magazine Class Notes?

Alumni can post class news to the Bates Online Community. Before each issue, the magazine staff downloads only the posted notes that the submitter has approved for publication. (Approval occurs at the time of submission by means of a checkoff.)

When should I do a Class Letter?

Typically, each class produces a Class Letter annually. Heidi Gagnon, coordinator for Alumni and Parent Programs, 207-786-6486, can help you schedule yours.

If I do a Class Letter, do I have to send it to the Magazine?

When you submit your Class Letter to Bates, it is then automatically provided to Bates Magazine for edited inclusion in the coming issue.

How do I report marriages, births/adoptions and deaths?

To report any news of this kind, you can e-mail the Office of Alumni and Parent Programs, postal mail to 2 Andrews Rd., Lewiston, ME 04240, or phone toll-free 888-522-8371, fax: 207-786-8242.

• Marriages: Forward the date, full names and class years (if applicable) of the bride and groom, and any other information.
• Group wedding photographs: E-mail high resolution JPEGs of Bates group weddings to Bates Magazine or postal mail prints to 141 Nichols St., Lewiston ME 04240. Please include names and class years of all persons as well as the wedding date, location, and any other news. Weddings photos are printed in the order they arrive.
• Births or adoptions: Forward the child’s full name, date of birth and adoption, and parents’ names. Parents are invited to publish photos of their children at the Bates Online Community.
• Deaths: if you learn that a classmate has passed, and you have a printed obituary or a Web link, please forward it to Bates. In turn, the Office of Alumni and Parent Programs notifies class secretaries of classmate deaths as we learn of and confirm them. By policy we cannot publicly announce the deaths of members of the community without first confirming the information by means of a printed obituary or direct notification from a relative.

What news is inappropriate for class notes?

The main rule is to avoid reporting hearsay; that is,news that an alum might tell you about another person.

Sometimes notes appear in my magazine class column that I did not send. Where do they come from?

Alumni often send news items directly to the College, and we also receive press releases from businesses or other organizations announcing alumni achievements. While Bates does not actively search for alumni news online, we do subscribe to online clipping service that yield news items about Bates alumni. Items such as these are edited and placed into the appropriate class section.

How do I put my notes together? How do I alphabetize? What do I bold?

For Class Notes and Class Letters, there are four important rules:

• Put classmates' names in bold, and when referring to an alum from outside your class, add a class year not in bold. Here are some examples:
  
  John Astin: alum in your class
  Sally Subtract Add '99: married alum outside your class
  John and Sarah Add Subtract: married couple, one a non-alum
  John and Patty Duke Astin ’89: married couple, both alums, one outside the class
  
• When referring to married alumnae, always include their Bates/maiden name as well as their new last name:
  Jane Smile Day
  
• Alphabetize your entries by an alum's maiden/Bates name, so Jane Adams Smith is placed with the A's, and Sally Zen Alpha would go with the Z's.
  
• Use figures for ages and place in parentheses: Husband Rick and I are have a daughter, Rose (3), and two sons, Leon (1) and Brian (6 months). Otherwise, spell out numbers under 10 and use figures for 10 and higher.

What prompting will the class secretary receive as a deadline approaches?

About a month before your deadline (listed above), we will e-mail you a reminder. This reminder will also ask you to verify your address information for the magazine.

Please Ask

If you ever have a question about Class Letters or Bates Magazine Class Notes, don't hesitate to contact a member of the class news team: Heidi Gagnon coordinator, Alumni and Parent Programs; Jon Halvorsen, Bates Magazine class notes editor; or H. Jay Burns, editor, Bates Magazine.

Bates Style 

Bates Class Notes and Class Letters undergo fact checking and editing for grammar and style. Achieving consistent style allows the reader to concentrate on content without being distracted by variations in abbreviations, spelling, capitalization, punctuation and the like. Here is the detailed Bates style guide.

The More Things Change

Batesies talk to each other the same way they always have. In the Class of 1909's letter published in 1918, Ralph Kendall talks about attending a Red Sox World Series game at Fenway Park with classmate Albert Johnson. Here's a photo published in the Class of 1906 letter after its 10th Reunionshowing classmates and their children in the Alumni Parade.

Value Added

Here's an essay from the 1920s about the good feelings created by class secretaries. What was true then is true now.

It's News to Us

To alert Bates about an important alumni news item, happening of any kind, you can always e-mail the Office of Alumni and Parent Programs, postal mail to 2 Andrews Rd., Lewiston, ME 04240, or phone toll-free 888-522-8371, fax: 207-786-8242.