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Q: Can the alumni association provide me the address of high school friends I've been trying to locate?
A: I'm sorry to say, but we cannot give out individual addresses of SAHS Alumni. We had a number of conversations about this in the past and needed to develop a policy. Here's that information.
Policy - From the September 24, 2003 Alumni Association Meeting
Alumni database information: The Alumni Association cannot give out any database information on an alumni member that does not pertain to the function of the alumni association. Giving a class database to the class representative for class reunion usage is an acceptable request. The association cannot give information on a member to another member, family member, long lost friend, etc.
You may want to try a Google search or contact an alumni on the alumni web site who have provided their email addresses (see our web page). Another option is checking www.switchboard.com.
Q: What is the policy when we receive requests for the alumni association to promote a business, fundraiser or idea?
A: Policy - From the October 6th, 2010 Alumni Association Meeting.
The alumni association receives worthwhile requests to post information on our web site or newsletter from individuals, classes or businesses promoting many causes. Requests will need to be reviewed on a case by case basis and may be honored fully or in a limited way. Example - instead of posting a link to a web site in the newsletter as requested, we may reference the item in our "other links" section of the web site.
Discussion at an alumni business meeting will include how directly this request is associated with core values of alumni business.
- communication via newsletter and web site
- annual banquet program
- scholarships funding process
Any item being considered would require us to review the availability of resources needed to implement and maintain the request.
We may have policies already in place which limit honoring the request. Example - our web site is hosted through the school district and could have restrictions. Length of the request and space availability in the newsletter are additional factors.
Generally speaking, we don't promote individual businesses or fundraising opportunities outside the alumni association unless it directly impacts our core values.
A: On January 11th, 2012 we had a regularly scheduled alumni meeting. From that meeting, the following statement was produced to describe the relationship between the school district and the alumni association concerning the sharing of address information. See the minutes from that meeting for additional details.
The alumni association works closely with the school district to maintain and share address information. Urgent school district communications (mailings) may occur and are reviewed on a case by case basis by the alumni association.
Q: How can I secure an old yearbook?
A: The Alumni Association does not keep old yearbooks. Old yearbooks are sometimes available on eBay.
Q: Why doesn't my name appear in the newsletter for Century Club donations from a donation a few years ago?
A: We just provide a listing for Century Club donations from the past year. Prior years donations are available for review at the alumni association banquet in a book. As always, thanks for your support.
Q: What scholarships does the alumni association provide?
A: We provide alumni scholarship awards through a test given in the spring to seniors who register. We also administer the fund distribution of alumni subject awards. Details on both items are located on the alumni web page under "Educational Fund".
Q: After receiving a scholarship, I have followup questions. Who should I contact?
A: R. Daniel Eichinger at M & T Bank 101 W. 3rd St., Williamsport, PA 17701 is the contact. His FAX number is 570-327-2115 or may be called at 570-327-2155. Mr. Eichinger is the only person to contact - never the school guidance department as their only roll is to administer the testing. The alumni education committee presents the awards at the alumni banquet and lets M & T Bank know the names of winners. See web page "Educational Fund" for additional details.
Q: I'm using AOL. The update you put on the alumni web page is not available. Has the web page really been updated?
A: Problem may be associated with the old data from a link still residing on your PC for quick review. If you are having problems accessing the most current web information using AOL, you may want to do the following. At least this is what has been done in the past using AOL 9.0 Security Edition (SE). You may want to check with AOL prior to doing this process to verify it will help you with your problem.
Select "Settings" from top tool bar
Select "Internet (Web) Options"
Select "Clear My Footprints" Tab
Q: Have you received any ideas to pass along from other classes?
A: The Class of 1942 meets on a regular basis. They fill out get-well, thinking of you and wish you were here cards to be signed by those at the meeting. The price of the card is insignificant, but the signatures bring great benefit. They encourage other classes to consider providing this support.
Q: Why is the address I provide the alumni association registrar different than the one on the newsletter?
A: Our Alumni registrar (Jeff Clutcher) maintains a database of over 19 thousand graduates. Our yearly mailing goes to over 11 thousand members. These addresses are provided to our publisher (Keystone Printing) for the annual spring mailing. Keystone takes those addresses and compares them to a database they have purchased from the US Postal Service. It reconciles the alumni provided address with what they have on file. An example of this would be an address which we have as "RR 2 Box 123", may get changed to "123 S. Snyder Rd." Individual mailings may be sent to the "RR 2 Box 123" address - these are the labels printed by Jeff. Larger mailings, which qualify for bulk rates, go through Keystone Printing and would have the "123 S. Snyder Rd." address. Jeff continues to update the database with the most accurate information. It's an ongoing process.
Q: Does the alumni association support other reunion links specifically pointing to the Shamokin Area High School Alumni Association?
A: No. Email entries you receive which say "Shamokin Area High School Alumni Reminder" (pointing you to a web site outside our web page) or a requests for you to open an email because "Someone is looking for you. Find out who!" are not created, endoursed or maintained by our alumni association. If someone is trying to have you log onto a web site outside of "http://www.indians.k12.pa.us/alumni", it is not part of our alumni association.
Some examples of email which are not supported by the Shamokin Area High School Alumni Association:
- From: Reunion Seeker (renuionmatches@holidayroundworld.com) "Someone Has Searched For You, Find Out Who"
- From: Reunion Searches (fyuykgnhdkid0a2vfi@yardjewel.com) "You have 3 New Search results, December 30, 2008"
- From: Alumni (alumni@mychallenge.com) "Shamokin Area High School Alumni Online"
- From: Alumni (alumni@my-challenge.net) "It's now possible to see if anyone has been searching for you including former classmates from Shamokin Area High School...... To find out if someone's searching for you go to http://my-challenge.net"
Be careful when using social-networking sites. An example is Reunion.com. When filling out information on the site, you may be giving permission to use email addresses in your contact list. This could send out email from you. Reunion.com is a legitimate service. The site didn't hack your e-mail account. You gave it permission to access your contact list at setup. To be fair, this is easy to do accidentally when not reading the details of joining.
Another example is alumni@mychallenge.com (or a variation from alumni@my-challenge.net). This site said the following in a recent email: "We have found a great place for Shamokin Area High School alumni to meet online. It's free to register. To see who has recently joined go to http://www.mychallenge.com. Regards Michael Davies". Once again, this is NOT part of the Shamokin Area High School Alumni Association.
Q: The alumni association web site or newsletter has listed a person incorrectly as deceased. How can this happen?
A: The short answer is that we either updated the incorrect alumni entry by mistake or received incorrect death information which got posted to a person in the database who is actually alive.
A more involved answer, including how to correct.....
We have over 19 thousand names in our alumni database. Several thousand of these entries are listed as "Deceased" or "Missing" and are on our web site. Some alumni have been on this "Missing" list for decades, where we truly do not know if they are alive (and we could use their mailing address) or deceased. Once a year we provide a mass mailing to over 11 thousand alumni with our spring newsletter. Over 1 thousand newsletters are returned with revised address information or "Address Unknown".
The maintenance to our database is an ongoing process, a truly moving target to keep current. We need to update thousands of entries each year. This includes updating with regular address changes (someone moves), address changes made by government (PO Box gets renamed to a street name), name changes due to marriage, adding new graduates and updating the database with deceased members information.
Jeff Clutcher is our Alumni Registrar. He has been faithfully maintaining the database since 1986. As part of his duties, he routinely updates entries through newspaper obituaries, letters, personal contact, email and telephone calls. He receives information from family and friends who have reviewed the "Missing" members on the web site, informing him that an alumni member has died. Sometimes this information is incorrect. Obviously, the data we have on file is only as accurate as the corrections which are given to Jeff.
If you know any entry which may be inaccurate or missing, please feel free to call, write or send an email to Jeff with the name, class and US mailing information. Include deceased information if appropriate. His contact information is listed below. Your help by contacting friends, relatives or alumni directly to verify information before reporting back to Jeff is appreciated.
Our database information is confidential and is only used for alumni associated activities.
