Tickets for the 2019 reunion went on sale on 24th February and there was a mailshot to let people know. As ever, the mailshot causes a flurry of activity on the website but it seemed to cope with the extra load. In the couple of weeks since the tickets were available almost 70 have been bought. All those who have bought a ticket should have received a draft badge within 24 hours - but there is sometimes a delay if I'm away. This is a quick start to ticket sales so I live in hope that we will have a good turnout this year.
Some interesting facts about the tickets so far:-
- Almost a quarter of tickets so far have been for alumni who've not been to one of the reunions I've organised before
- Those who started in 1979 are the biggest group so far
- Every starting year between 1965 and 1982 is represented except 1966 - so an excellent spread of interest
- About 60% of the badges already have photos of the attendee from the time they were a student - and I haven't stepped up the nagging emails to those without a picture yet.
All the badges are on the website - in the 2019 Reunion Event page in the community section of the site - you can see the album here. If you have a picture, or know of one, of any of the people whose badges currently show Jane or Thomas Holloway then please let me know. There must be pictures of them out there somewhere.
The College have created an Event of Facebook for the reunion - RHC70s Reunion 2019 - so if you know of any alumni from the time who are on Facebook you can send them the notification of the event very easily. It's a good way to cascade information out to those who may be interested. It's worth noting that we only have contact information for about 20% of alumni (and of those 20% almost half do not seem to read their emails) so there are a lot of people that many of us would like to see again that we currently have no way of contacting.
As many of you know, this is the last reunion that I'm organising (though I still plan to come to them in the future). John Parker is going to take over from me with the assistance of his wife Janet, who is also an alumni from the time. John came up to RHC in 1979, having followed his brother into the college. He studied Chemistry, (nominally), although was much more heavily involved in a combination of Ents, Rag and Rugby. Notable achievements included being bounced into being elected as House Manager at his very first STUDS, becoming Internal Social Secretary in 1980-81, following the legendary Bill Hearn, being Rag Chair in 1982, which included the first introduction of Lenny Henry at one of the events, as well as the introduction of the Rag Last Night of the Proms, four years playing for RHCRFC as tighthead prop for the 1st XV, finishing as Club Chairman and, finally, finishing as VP Services. John was the person who brought the use of Founders as the outside venue for Summer Ball, using three marquees and headlining Bad Manners and the Pasadena Roof Orchestra. He also left, to his everlasting joy, having met his wife Janet. They married on December 31st 1984 and have now been married for 34 years.
Janet herself had a considerable career at RHC. Coming up in 1980, she studied History and Politics. Through her time, she was an active member of the Kingswood community, as well as acting as editor of Chateau, (which is how they met), and Union Communications Officer. Janet will be co-convenor of the reunion going forward, which is probably just as well!!