Second Newsletter for NTCI
Class of 1968 Anniversary Reunion Friday May 4 and Saturday May 5,
2018
December, 2017
Happy Holidays. The reunion
is just a little more than four months away. The schedule events
are posted on the web site at http://ntci68.blogspot.ca/?zx=bbbb5ceb75851e64 .
CONFIRMATIONS, BIOS, UPDATES,
TESTIMONIALS
Could you please advise as to whether
you will be coming and to which of the four events we will be having . We need
to know our numbers for planning purposes. In the case of the Saturday
afternoon event at the Safari Room we need a minimum number of confirmations
beforehand
or we will have to cancel it. For
that event also please confirm with Anu Marley , anumarley@sympatico.ca, as she is organizing that event .
If you have not done so please send me
a bio or if you have done one and want to do a short update please do
so. A testimonial as to how you enjoyed the last reunion would also
be nice so we can convince the many people deciding whether to come or not to
attend.
BEST WESTERN HOTEL SPECIAL RATE
Again we were able to obtain an
agreement with the Best Western Roehampton Hotel and Suites 808 Mount Pleasant Road.
They are holding 10 rooms at a special rate of $159 a night for us for
the nights of the 4th and the 5th of May so out of towners should act now.
Call 416 487-5101.
DATA BASE OF CLASSMATES
An up to date data base is found on our
web site kept It can be found on the right column just before the
newsletters. This database is an excel spreadsheet and has a lot more to it
than I did for the last reunion. Homework - try and figure it out.
I will not send out updated databases in newsletters but will have the
data base on the web site updated
FINDING CLASSMATES
Yes , this again is the annoying part
of my newsletter were I ask ( beg) for your help to find people.
As per the 5th tab of the data base we presently have 314 people to find.
That tab is also a worksheet to check off the ways one can search for a
classmate. Send me your search results even if you can’t find people can
so to avoid duplicating work done to find people as it does take time to
look for just one person. Below is my article on finding classmates and
information about the Contest to find the most Classmates.
How to Find Classmates
The most important ingredient of a successful
high school reunion is having a good turnout. That is only possible if everyone
works hard to find former classmates. The principle “if you build it, they will
come” simply does not apply to reunions. Though some are obvious the
following gives you some of the means of finding people, and then a script to
encourage those found to come to the reunion (or at least participate by
writing a biography).
METHODS TO SEARCH
Here are some methods to find people. If
anyone has any other ideas please advise and I will publish them in a future
newsletter.
1. Canada 411.ca ; Unless the person has a common last name like
Smith or Macdonald this is probably the best place to start. Unfortunately, it
does not work for woman who took their husband’s name either. Just start
dialing every listing with that last name and initial. It took me 7 calls to N.
Siegels to find Naomi Siegel last reunion. If it is a very uncommon name
but a different first initial then call it anyway because you may get a
relative which is how I found two classmates last reunion.
2. Facebook: If you are on
Facebook or have a child (or grandchild) who is on Facebook use
Facebook’s name search to look for a classmate. Their picture may not
resemble what they looked like in the year book but their profile might give an
indication they are the one you are looking for. Reach out possible matches and
ask them through Facebook mail to have them send you their real email address
if they were the one in our class.
3. Google : A plain google search may result in
information about a classmate you can use to get their phone number or e mail.
4. LinkedIn: A LinkedIn basic
membership does not cost anything. There are some people who are not on
Facebook but on LinkedIn. As well as Mr. Broughton and one other
classmate I found one of our class president’s last time by using LinkedIn by
finding his brother Cyril Drabinsky who gave me Garth’s e mail. There is a paid
Linked membership that probably is not worth it but gives more information such
as an actual e mail address otherwise you have to use LinkedIn mail.
5. Classmates.com Again like LinkedIn
there is a free version in which you have to use their mail system. Paid
membership is cheap but I understand there are problems with it so I would
stick with the free membership/
6. Common E mail Addresses: 50% of all e
mail addresses use common e mail services. Heavily used are gmail.com ,
rogers.com , sympatico.ca and Hotmail.com but there is also bell.net and
aol.com . This is time consuming but if you really really
want to try and find a person use their name with all these mail services and
see what happens.
7. For the United States residents, there seem to be a number of websites
that help you find people by searching government records but unfortunately,
they cost and are probably not worth the cost from what I have seen.
8. Siblings If you know or find a
possible sibling through any method get them to give you the classmates contact
info.
ONCE YOU FIND THEM say or write the something
like the following:
We
are having a 50th Anniversary North Toronto Class of 1968
Reunion on Friday May 5th and Saturday May 6th of
2018. Anyone who attended during any of the years of our class is
invited. We had a very successful reunion in 2014 which you can read all
about at our web site, just Google NTCI Class of 1968 Reunion for the web site address.
The site also has biographies from about 120 classmates telling what they have
been up to since 1968. A number of people who could not come to the reunion
still participated with a biography. We are being more aggressive trying
to find more classmates as we did not try and locate non graduates last reunion
though a number of them found out about the reunion, came and had a great
time. So if you cannot come we would still like to hear from you with a
bio. Please email Laurie Pascoe at pascoe5122 at rogers.com with your e mail
address and he will add you to the database for future newsletters and you can
reconnect with old friends and perhaps fill in some missing emails. Also
tell Laurie how you found out about the reunion for the Find the Most
Classmates Contest.
Many people were skeptical about coming
but ended up coming and had a great time – read the testimonials that will be
posted on the web site and the articles on “Why attend your high school
reunion”,
We hope to hear from you shortly and
hope you can make it to the reunion weekend.
CONTEST
There will be a prize for the person who finds the
most unfound to date classmates which should be added incentive, other than
connecting with your long-lost flame and friends. There is a separate
special prize for the person who finds Arnie Isaacs who I believe is somewhere
in the United States. There is a tab on the data base showing the contest
entrants and how many people have found.
FACEBOOK
Though I have an
account on Facebook I am not a regular user. It has been suggested the reunion might benefit by having a Facebook
page as well as the web site. If anyone out there wants to put up and run a
Facebook page for our reunion please contact me and we can discuss it.
BIO's
Brian Harkness
Graduated from NTCI 1968
Graduated from Queen’s University Engineering 1973
Joined Air Canada as a pilot 1973
Lived in Mississauga from 1973 to 1978
Lived in Woodbridge On from 1978 till 1983
Lived in Lawrence Park Toronto from 1983 till 2008
Joined Air Canada Flight Operations management ranks from 1993 till 2008
Flew 12 different aircraft types during my career as a pilot
Mandatory retirement from Air Canada 2008 as a B777 Captain
Moved to Thornbury On in 2009 to present
Consulted for Air Canada Flight Operations 2008 till 2013
Consult presently helping Toronto aircraft noise community groups
understand aircraft noise overhead
From 2008 to present - golf, ski, snowshoe, travel and enjoy retirement.
It’s a great life.
UPDATES
Marita Hollo
Retired
from her CBC North job in 2014 and is now back in Toronto
CONCLUSION
Hope to
hear from you soon with your reunion plans and anything else that has been
discussed in this newsletter. Future
newsletter which will not be that often will and probably just contain bios and updates.
Good luck
in the find the classmates contest !!!!
- Laurie
