November/December 2005
Volume 1, Issue 4 |
What’s Brewing?
Friday, October 28
Washington, D.C. VC: Ivy Singles Event
Wednesday, November 2
Chicago VC: Sarah Churchwell ’91, “The Women of Madcap Comedy”
Saturday, November 5
Washington, D.C. VC: Film Festival
Saturday, November 5
Washington, D.C. VC: Ivy Tennis Match
Sunday, November 6
Poughkeepsie Area VC: Strong House Career Panel
Saturday, November 12
Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) Event: N.Y.C., Philadelphia, D.C., L.A., San Francisco, Honolulu, Boston, and Chicago
Saturday, November 12
Washington, D.C. VC: “The True Cost of Food: The Value of a Plant-Based Diet”
Sunday, November 13
VC of Tampa Bay: Fall Luncheon Meeting, Betty Belting ’36
Wednesday, November 16
Chicago VC: Vassar College Information Night
Thursday, November 17
VC of Rochester: Fall Meeting, Dr. Elizabeth McAnarney ’62
Thursday, December 8
VC of Hartford: Roberta Price ’68, “Huerfano: A Memoir of Life in the Counterculture”
Thursday, December 8
Philadelphia VC: Executive Board Meeting
Saturday, December 10
Washington, D.C. VC: Winslow Homer at the National Gallery of Art
Thursday, December 15
Poughkeepsie Area VC: Pre-Holiday Happy Hour
Thursday, January 5
Selective Liberal Arts Consortium (S.L.A.C.) Senior Recruiting in Boston
Sunday, January 8
Santa Barbara VC: Prospective Student Brunch
Monday, January 9
S.L.A.C. Senior Recruiting in Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, January 10
S.L.A.C. Senior Recruiting in Philadelphia
Wednesday, January 11
Austin VC: John McCleary, Professor of Mathematics
Thursday, January 12
Naples VC: JJ Jackson, Dean of the College
Friday, January 13
Sarasota VC: JJ Jackson, Dean of the College
Friday, January 13
S.L.A.C. Senior Recruiting in San Francisco
Saturday, January 14
Tampa Bay VC: JJ Jackson, Dean of the College
Sunday, January 15
Poughkeepsie Area VC:
Mid-Winter Brunch
Contact Charlene Larson
at chlarson@vassar.edu if you would like to have your club event advertised in the AAVC calendar.
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Online Resources Provides a link to valuable AAVC online resources
Infosite For information about upcoming events and all you want to know about Vassar, feel free to visit the college information site at http://info.vassar.edu/. |
View the October Newsletter
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Tech Corner
As Charlene mentions in this newsletter, AAVC has launched a new Online Community. This is leaps and bounds above the old directory and will provide great new ways for alumnae/i to connect.
Beginning in January we will be communicating with alumnae/i encouraging them to register and take advantage of all the new features. To help make the site more appealing and inviting, we need your help.
One of the most requested items from our survey last year was the ability to post and read class notes online, and we are looking to our volunteer leaders to help populate the Class eNotes.
First, get to the new website.
Second, click on Connecting with Alumnae/i
Third, login to post class eNotes.
Four, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Class eNotes are not included in the Class Notes portion of Vassar, The Alumnae/i Quarterly. Only registered members of the Vassar Online Community can read your eNote, so you don’t have to worry about them showing up on a Google search.
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There have been so many changes and transitions that have occurred recently at AAVC which directly affect you, our club volunteers. It is my pleasure to report to you that my former assistant Angela Dysard has been promoted to executive assistant at AAVC and that Candace Schuster will be joining the AAVC staff beginning January 3, 2006. Candace comes to us with a wealth of experience in the non-profit sector, and more importantly is enthusiastic and eager to serve our club volunteers.
Secondly, our information technology (IT) staff have been working night and day in preparation for the unveiling of AAVC’s new website, which promises to make life easier for our volunteers with automated features such as online dues payment, event registration, and a slew of other resources. Take a moment to register with the new Online Community, explore the website, and post a Class eNote. Remember, the new Online Community is secure, free and 'Vassar only' - no strangers will be reading your eNotes or looking at your photos. And lend us a hand: the IT staff has gone through the site with a fine–tooth comb, but as with anything something may have gotten past them. Please let us know if you come across a page that may not be functioning.
The Speakers Network Program was a success this fall and there are quite a few quality programs already in the work for the spring. Please complete the online Speaker Request Form if your club is interested in hosting a faculty member or administrator in the summer or fall.
Salve,
Charlene Larson ’05
Assistant Director of Alumnae/i Relations |
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Club Spotlight:
Poughkeepsie Area Vassar Club |
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AAVC challenged regional Vassar clubs to go out into their communities and participate in a day of national volunteerism on Saturday, October 22, 2005. Thirty–two members of the Poughkeepsie Area Vassar Club answered the call to give back to their communities and volunteered four hours of their time in one of four local agencies; Eden Park Nursing Home (engaged the residents in planned activities, including painting finger nails), Vassar Warner Home (stained furniture and painted a porch and the kitchen), Lutheran Care Center (painted a recreation room), and the Poughkeepsie Day Nursery (set–up a children’s garden, grounds cleanup, and landscaping).
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Special Notice The college’s Winter Break is from December 22 through January 22.
Administrative offices will be closed December 23 through January 2. |
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Annual and Treasury Reports |
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Please get your reports in as soon as possible. It is critical that AAVC receive these reports and many are still outstanding. Contact AAVC at 845.437.5440 if unsure whether one or both reports are outstanding or if you need another copy.
A special thanks to the following clubs who have returned one or both reports to date: VC of Central Kentucky*, Chicago VC, Cincinnati VC*, Colorado–Wyoming VC*, Dallas–Ft. Worth VC*, VC of Delaware*, VC of Fairfield County, VC of Hartford*, Houston VC*, Indiana VC, Jersey Hills VC, Jersey Shore VC, Kansas City VC, Long Island VC*, Southeastern Michigan VC*, VC of Naples, VC of New York*, Palm Beach–Martin County VC*, Philadelphia VC*, VC of Rhode Island–Southeast Massachusetts*, VC of Rochester*, San Francisco Bay Area VC, VC of Sarasota, VC of South Texas*, St. Louis VC, VC of Southern California, VC of Tampa Bay*, Tucson VC, Western Michigan VC, VC of Wisconsin, New Haven VC*, and VC of London*. * Indicates that only one report has been returned. |
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Club Treasury Service
The majority of class and affiliate groups, as well as several clubs, take advantage of AAVC’s treasury service.
What are the benefits of this service?
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There are no administrative fees.
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Important financial documents and information are kept in a central location, curtailing issues that typically arise when there are leadership transitions.
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The club does not have to file an annual Treasury Report if there are no outside accounts where funds are being held. Rather they will get an itemized accounting report from AAVC of all financial activity.
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AAVC provides biannual reporting, including a list of alumnae/i who have contributed membership dues payments and donations.
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The club also has the option of having members pay their dues and registering for events online using a credit card.
Please contact Assistant Director of Alumnae/i Relations Charlene Larson ’05 at chlarson@vassar.edu or 845.437.5446 if your club is interested in taking advantage of this great service.
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Head of the Charles Regatta
On a blistery cold and unseasonably wet Sunday afternoon in October, 18 alumnae/i (classes ranging from 1946 to 2005) congregated to cheer the woman’s varsity eight boat as they competed in the annual Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston. Joining the group were several parents of the rowers; as well as 14 current students, members of the a cappella group Matthews Minstrels, who gave a stunning performance for our alumnae/i and other spectators gathered at Reunion Village. The Boston Vassar Club, the Athletic and Fitness Alumnae/i of Vassar College (AFAVC), and AAVC sponsored the event. |
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Campus News |
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Presses, Pop, and Pomade: American Prints Since the Sixties Exhibition
January 13 – March 19, 2006
American printmaking changed dramatically in the 1960s, overrunning abstract expressionism and replacing it with imagery inspired by a commercially driven culture inundated with newspapers, magazines, advertising, Hollywood stars, and objects. At the same time, artists evolved a minimalist geometric abstraction that emphasized the “objectness” of their work, often devoid of overt emotions or personal feelings. Painters and printmakers responded readily to the vibrant atmosphere of the period and placed a heightened emphasis on the print, encouraged by a plethora of new presses and publishers. In the decades that followed, printmaking continued to be an important avenue of exploration for artistic concerns and issues, including realism in the 1970s, expressionism in the 1980s, and identity politics in the 1990s and early 2000s. Presses, Pop, and Pomade: American Prints Since the Sixties is organized by the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. The exhibition features approximately 40 works from the permanent collection, including prints by Helen Frankenthaler, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, Sam Gilliam, Ellsworth Kelly, Richard Serra, Vija Celmins, Philip Pearlstein, Michael Mazur, Julian Schnabel, and newcomer Ellen Gallagher who incorporated pomade in her identity–driven print on view. The exhibition is made possible by the generous support of The Smart Family Foundation, Inc. |
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Vassar Facts |
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After declining an invitation to merge with Yale, Vassar decided to open its doors to men in 1969. In keeping with its pioneering spirit, Vassar was the first all–women’s college in the country to become co–educational: men now represent just over 40 percent of the student body of 2,435. |
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November Birthdays!
Mikie Benedict, Michael S. Van Biema, Bryan C. Bopp, Rebecca Carey, Amy Gardiner Chanmugam, Elizabeth Slade Driscoll, Eve J. Kelemen, Carolyn Singer Kleiman, Anne Wheeler Laffan, Leslie Gordon Manning, Susan Mischler, Marion Morse Myers, Andrea J. Pollack, Eleanor Mack Raths, Constance Whiteley Smith
December Birthdays!
Rebecca N. Algenio, Jennifer D. Anderson, Russell D. Baker, Diane Berger Burman, Brian P. Dill, Frances J. Donovan, Phyllis Blum Earl, Connie Ray Gardner, Angela L. Grano, Mary Pick Hines, Andrew M. Hyman, Katherine Cooke Ill, Nancy Palmer Mueller, Mary Cope Naylor, Janine C. O'Neill, Geoffrey S. Poor, Lynne Peck Rutan, Selina Urbina
Happy birthday to our volunteers! May your special day be filled with happiness and best wishes. Please accept our apologies if we have inadvertently not printed your name, let AAVC know so we can update our records .
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Club Spotlight: San Francisco Bay Area Vassar Club |
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In a conference room above popular San Francisco bookstore, A Clean Well–Lighted Place For Books, Dr. Natalie Friedman ’95, director of Vassar’s Writing Center, led an evening devoted to the craft of memoir writing on Friday, October 7, 2005. The audience, comprising Vassar graduates of the last half–century, hailed from all over the Bay Area. Dr. Friedman is the faculty writing specialist and oversees the center and the student tutors. A recent addition to the Teaching and Learning Center, the Writing Center is a walk-in office staffed by undergraduate student tutors. In addition, Natalie Friedman is a scholar of immigrant literature of the 20th century, which she describes as a genre that often takes the form of memoir. Stepping off an airplane a mere two hours before her San Francisco Bay Area Vassar Club Speakers Network Program presentation, Dr. Friedman used examples from her scholarship to illustrate the relationship between memoirs and novel writing. Traditional as well as modern memoirists employ a wide variety of approaches, she explained. One author wrote from the perspective of a single New York immigrant, but, in fact, crafted the narrative from a composite of many actual people. Another immigrant began his memoir with 15 different autobiographical narratives; never indicating which one was his true history. Dr. Friedman facilitated a lively discussion among participants, many of whom are budding writers and memoirists. From the number of questions focused on how to find publishing opportunities it was clear that many Vassar alums have stories worth sharing. Would–be writers in the room were also looking for techniques to avoid overtly exposing friends and family while remaining candid. Dr. Friedman’s answer to the difficult question of privacy versus veracity? It’s a memoir, not an autobiography – truthfulness is in the eye of the beholder. Written by Miriam Walter ’05, San Francisco Bay Area Vassar Club |
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