Radcliffe Class of 1957  Class Meeting
Saturday, June 7, 2002 - Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 9:15 AM by class president, Lucia Stein Hatch.

A list was circulated for all to list e-mail addresses with the promise that this data would not be released.

The class president thanked Eva Yona Deykin who chaired the reunion committee and she was given a hanging plant. Thanks were also given to Emily Romney who was in charge of nominations for the alumnae recognition award, the Judith Wolfson Pearlman panel topic and speaker to Sandys Moore Bureau and Laura Pincus Bernard for their work on the art show, and to Anne Kielty Sweet who analyzed the class questionnaire. All received rubic cube calendars from Maine. Mary Jane Benton Sherwig was thanked in her absence for her efforts with the class report book. Nancy Erhardt Burke from Poland was recognized as coming the farthest distance for the Reunion.

Mari DeCosta Terman reported on the class gift. Our class has given $60,000 over the past 5 years with $20,000 to the Radcliffe Institute. Although our gifts are amongst the smallest, our class size is also one of the smallest. The percentage who gave from our class (34%) is close to the average participation of 33%. There followed considerable discussion as to which area to direct the class gift. Sheila Tobias volunteered to write a letter to Dean Faust summarizing all comments regarding financial donations and the request to retain Radcliffe Day.

Susannah Alden French, class treasurer gave the treasurer’s report. In the past 5 years we have had expenses of $4,903 and income of $5,797. Our prior balance was $5,411. Thus our current balance is $6,306, these monies are in a checking account and in a CD. The expenses for this reunion are not known and have not been deducted. It was voted and passes that after the expenses for this reunion are deducted, the remainder of the class treasury is to be given to the Radcliffe Institute – Schlesinger Library. It was also voted and passed that the dues be raised to $20 per year. It is not known what percentage of the approximately 205 class members pay their dues but it was hoped that this would raise more funds.

Ann Kielty Sweet gave a summary of the class questionnaire to which 67 replied.

Married: 70% once, 15% twice and 4% three times.
In Excellent Health: 55%
Republicans: 15%
Working in Professions: 60% with at least ½ in the teaching profession.
Housewives: 9%. Only one in Congress.
Retired: 40% have not retired

Their advice to current undergraduates: 15% said they would not have married so young. One third advised college freshman to follow their passion and to get into a career before you get married.

All were interested in these results and requested they be sent to all members of the class. On the next questionnaire it was suggested there be more room for additional comments.

[ Anne’s Report will be posted on our www.radcliffe57.org website by end of August.]

Emily Romney introduced a citation for Judith Pearlman Wolfson, our former class president who died soon after our last reunion. The citation by our class in recognition of her many volunteer activities both at Radcliffe and in her Hartford community was given in her honor to her daughter, Amy Wolfson, a member of the class of 1982.

Nominations were held for the officers for the next 5 years. There were no nominations from the floor and thus the officers are:

President: Lucia Stein Hatch
Treasurer: Susannah Alden French
Secretary: Airlie Cameron Lennon

New Business:

Eva Yona Deykin phoned her counterpart for the ’57 Harvard’s reunion which will be in the fall. Each Radcliffe ’57 member will be invited to attend and from now on we will be included in all activities. There followed considerable discussion as to whether we want our reunions to be separate, to be joint or partially joint. No decision was reached.

Nancy Nevius Milczanowski announced that Vera Winston Propp’s book entitled When the soldiers were gone was available at the reunion and she could arrange for the author to sign the copies.

Sheila Tobias volunteered to be the representative of the class to find out how to get copies of Woman’s Guide to Harvard published last fall. She also volunteered to set up a web site and list serve for members of our class. Those who gave their e-mail addresses will automatically be eligible to access this list serve.

It was announced that there was financial help available for those wishing to come to reunions but find it a financial hardship to do so.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:50 AM

Addendum:

Sheila Tobias reports that The Women’s Guide to Harvard was prepared by The Women’s Leadership Project and funded by the Ann Radcliffe Trust. As for progress on the web site, a domain has been reserved at www.radcliffe57.org and should be up and running by the end of August. To obtain access to the listserv, send your email and permission to put you on the listserv to sheila@sheilatobias.com.

Respectfully submitted:
Airlie Cameron Lennon, secretary

[ Reunion Activities ] [ Survey Results ] [ Home Page ]