Shamokin Area High School Alumni Association

Winter Meeting Minutes

January 10th, 2022

6 members attended along with 2 class advisors at Grace Lutheran Church 7^th and Chestnut Streets, Shamokin, PA.  7 members also attended via a Zoom call.

President Erik Anderson ’97 called the meeting to order at 6:30pm.

PRINCIPAL’S   REPORT: Todd Hockenbroch ’97 was unable to attend, but provided an update to Erik Anderson ’97.  Erik reported the students would take the scholarship test towards the end of February instead of later in the school year.  Lynch award discussion – how it competes with the other scholarships.  Discussion about alumni related events – perhaps helping with school-related activities.  Class officers may be able to help with alumni-related activities.

SECRETARY’S REPORT:  Minutes from the October 25, 2021 meeting are on the website for review.  Jeff Clutcher ’78 made the motion to accept the report and Amy Henninger Rachau ’83 seconded the motion.  All were in favor.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Gregory Dwulet ’68 provided an update to the secretary for the meeting:
               General Fund----$21,028.36

               Educational Fund----$9.490.21

Motion made by Bonnie Ensinger Klinger ’68 to accept the report and seconded by Bob Mattis ’68.  All were in favor.

COMMUNICATIONS:  None at this time.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Banquet:  John Klinger ’68 reported the banquet arrangements are complete for Saturday May 28^th, 2022 at Masser’s Banquet Hall, Paxinos, PA.

Afterglow:  It was reported the trivia game went well at the May 2021 banquet.  Advisor and senior reps are going to help with the trivia questions.  Possibly getting prizes from the community for the trivia contest.

Entertainment: Mary Anne Brennan Stump ’00 reported senior members of the chorus will provide entertainment at the banquet.

Invitations/Newsletters:  Mary Anne Brennan Stump ’00 reported that this will be her last year putting the newsletter together due to her work schedule, but will remain on the committee.  She will be sending out communication in the next few days of deadlines to members who need to provide input to the newsletter.

Programs:  Nothing to report.

Auditing:   Nothing to report.  The position is open and needs to be filled.

Awards:  We are adding 2 Lynch awards.  Below is a new policy concerning the establishment of any new award.

SAHS Alumni New Award Policy – Last Updated 01/10/2022

At the October 25^th 2021 Alumni Association Meeting, the treasurer reported a new award request was received from the estate of a Shamokin graduate.  It was to provide two seniors – one male – one female – awards without touching the principle.  Given the request was $2,000, at best it could generate $60 at 3% interest in today’s world.

The alumni association discussed the need to review setting minimum limits on new awards and how they are funded.  The policy below has been passed on 01/10/2022 to reflect these recently received and future scholarship requests.

New Award Policy

The Shamokin Area High School Alumni Association is thankful for all contributions made to the general fund, scholarship fund and stand-alone scholarships we maintain.  Generous alumni for decades have provided funding to help with educational costs.  Thanks to you, we are making a difference!

When receiving funding through an estate or individual giving for a new award, the alumni association is placing a yearly minimum award of $100 per student.  The actual award could be greater if specified in the original request.  This minimum amount is subject to change to reflect inflation.  The impact of this policy is that the principle of a scholarship could be used to fund an award.

As an example, a $2,000 award fund needing to support two ($100 each) award winners, may fund that $200 distribution by using $60 in investment income and $140 from the principle.  Using this approach, the fund will have an eventual closure after 10+ years when the balance falls below $400.  In that last year, the fund would close out by providing two scholarships at under $200 each, which is under $400.

To avoid the needed access of principle funds to process, better market conditions need to occur and/or additional contributions could be added to the principle.

John Clutcher ’74 made a motion to accept the New Award Policy.  Tammy Linton Glowatski ’87 seconded it and all were in favor.

By-Laws:  Nothing to report.

Class Representatives:  Jeff Clutcher ’78 removed Patricia Hoy Engle (deceased) from 1949 as class rep.  Kathleen Amato and Kayla Harvey will be the class reps for the class of 2022.

Educational Fund:  Nothing to report.

Memorabilia:  Nothing to report.

Nominations:  We need a male Vice President for 2022-2023.

Publicity:  This meeting was posted on our webpage.

Website:  Report provided by John Clutcher ’74.

From a historical perspective, the initial alumni webpage was created on April 8th, 1998 using my AOL account.  It relocated to the high school server on February 12th, 2002.  On June 20th, 2011, it relocated to the schoolwires.net server as part of the school district web service.

Routine maintenance, such as email updates, posting minutes/newsletter, graduation/banquet programs, updating “US Mailing Addresses Missing”, posting Class Reunion information, and changing class representatives are an ongoing process.  You can check out the website using the following path:

http://www.indians.k12.pa.us/alumni

01/02/2022 – removed Patricia Hoy Engle from 1949 class rep.

01/02/2022 – posted meeting information for both Grace Lutheran location and zoom call in for the January 10th meeting.

Please review the information and feel free to contact me with any corrections.

John F. Clutcher ‘74

799 Pajabon Dr.

Palmyra, PA  17078-3011

717-838-8461 (home)

jclutcher@hotmail.com

 

Webpage reflects Facebook entry for the alumni association created in the fall 2014.  Current membership is at 288 (up from 280 at the April 22^nd  2021 meeting).

Facebook Group for Shamokin Area High School Alumni Association

https://www.facebook.com/groups/539207516138422/

OLD BUSINESS:  Nothing at this time.

NEW BUSINESS: A follow-up report from John Clutcher ’74.

At the October 25^th 2021 Alumni Association Meeting, under new business, we started a discussion of different ways our group could increase exposure to who we are and what we do.  This could be in the form of organizing another event such as a visit to the Whaleback Rock Formation or hosting a dance.

The alumni association has done some activities in the past to promote our group.  Part of the goal of this activity is trying to increase participation at our meetings.  The list below are some of those efforts.  Getting more participation at our 3 meetings per year from class reps is critical for us to grow.

The purpose of this note is to see if some of them need to occur again, expand and/or add other activities to the list.

• We have a website which contains a variety of details about who we are, how someone can serve, our ongoing needs, minutes of activities, historical programs, etc.
• We have a Facebook presence on social media to post information.
• Postcards to all class representatives and prior officers are sent out for each meeting.  Notices are also placed on Facebook and community papers.
• We have attended football and basketball games by sitting at an alumni table.  The high school athletic department has been very supportive in providing a table and helping us with setup for this event.  This has not occurred since Covid hit.  It would be good to start this up again when we have fewer health concerns.  During these sessions, we hand out literature about our group and point them to our website.  Once, we had a gift basket created to auction off at halftime.  The benefit of this gift basket is that folks needed to visit our table to enter the contest.  I can see the alumni association supporting a gift basket for events like this if financially available.
• Through meeting with the senior class and sending a letter home, we promote the scholarship test.
• The annual banquet does provide exposure to graduating seniors and their parents of the great scholarship opportunities being provided.  More recently, we have expanded to include trade schooling scholarships.  Trivia night after the banquet in 2021 was well received as an opportunity to mingle with the new alumni.
• The alumni association is actively involved with the awards program, being the group used to distribute a large variety of funds.
• A few years ago (November 2014), we sent a letter to all the class reps asking if they were truly interested and available to serve in this role and could start attending meetings, even if only on a limited basis.  If unable, we asked for another name to be added to the list.  We did get some minor name upgrades, but no significant change in attendance.
• The alumni association rotates male/female officers for president.  A goal of this rotation is to insert new alumni into the group, exposing them to the work of how we operate and what services we provide.  It is our hope that some of these new members will stick around and become regular, active participants in our meetings.  While we are grateful to those who have served, not many make the effort to remain active.

 

Comments:  Thank you Erik for setting up the Zoom meeting.

SPRING MEETING will be held on Monday, April 18th, 2022 at Grace Lutheran Church 7^thand Chestnut Streets, Shamokin PA at 6:30pm.

BANQUET:  Will be held on Saturday, May 28th, 2022 at Masser’s Banquet Hall, Paxinos, PA at 5:30pm.

With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 8:30pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Jamie A. Hoffman Bordell ‘75

Secretary