A Letter From Russell Kelly

 

Classmates,

I hope this message finds all of you well and I will try to be brief.  I recently received feedback from several SULS graduated classes of their class being invited to our 50th year reunion, for a per person fee.  The feedback received was questioning and I had no knowledge of this taking place.  It is possible the rest of the class (you) had knowledge of this and voted in favor of changing what was earlier decided.  If so, has the body decided yes?  If yes, we move forward with an open reunion.  If not, this warrants approval by the body in my opinion.

We have always invited friends, guests, and relatives to our previous reunions.  But we have also been the core and nucleus with the relationship focus of these events being us and interacting with each other.  Should our 50th reunion be a multi-class school event or us?  If the body approves of this, so be it.  I consider this change one that all of us should have knowledge of and have input on.  Especially for our 50th!   

I would suggest that we take a vote via our most honest means of communication--our class email at suls73@mail.com or our Remind text app with each person voting for him/herself--no proxy votes.

There are three issues we should vote on in this poll:

1. Should we invite other classes to participate in our 50th reunion celebration? Vote yes or no.

2. Should those promised refunds have their funds returned via their choice of either pay apps or in cashier checks as promised with no hidden or applied stipulation added by the treasurer containing conditions that seemed put into place to make it difficult to receive a refund-- by the end of October 2023? Vote yes or no. 

3. Should the request for financial transparency be granted immediately in the form of the release of bank statements from 2020 to 2023 as it was agreed upon and voted on in May 2023? Vote yes or no.

Personally, I will not attend and will request my payment to be returned.  Several classmates have requested refunds of monies paid for our reunion without being reimbursed.  Another class also had issues, requested refunds, and received them back. 

With less than two months before the proposed reunion no official financial institution documentation with proof of the existence of any funds has been provided.  It was stated during the last class Zoom meeting in May, the last open meeting for all of us, that bank statements would be shared.  

I would gladly rather be completely wrong about the possibility of things not going well and a fantastic 50th reunion take place.  But doubts persist unless we take these actions to be more transparent.

 

Russell Kelly

SULS Class of 1973 President