Circular No 665 Extra

 

 

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 5 of August 2014 No. 665 extra

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Dear Friends,

This is the last Circular that will been dedicated to the aborted REUNION.

Must thank Trinidadian outlanders Don and Tony for their selfless effort to get a momentum going by the Trinidadian Old Boys, ASAA, and friends.

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From: mckoy43glen@hotmail.com

Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 21:07:11 +0000

Thank You, Don, for the notice,

I am also sorry to see things go this way. 

I must thank you for all your efforts in trying to ensure this reunion, however not all the fingers knew what the hand was doing and resulting in total chaos. 

Don, you have been in contact with the official members of the registered Alumni Association.  

What is your personal take on this group?  I think they are a false representation of the general group but then again, I really do not care what happens with them from here on, I must say after this lack of true dedication on their part, will only be a mirrored reflection of our cooperation in the future.

Thank You, Don, I know you meant well. Cheers My Friend, 

Best Regards

Glen. 

(I take part of the blame as being one of the officials of ASAA, did not fly over and cleared up the matter with my colleges, Ladislao Kertesz)

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From: idmitch@anguillanet.com

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2014 16:05:05 -0400

Hello, Glen,

I am about to notify all the alumni that things have not come together for the planned Grand Reunion in October. 

I am going to be telling them that we have been let down by two Event Organisers, who have not helped us do the organising in time. 

It is now too late to make the final arrangements and to give those living overseas enough time to plan for travel to Trinidad and to register for the event in October. 

You will see a copy within the next 24 hours, as I have just circulated a Ladislao Circular, and can’t do another one until tomorrow. 

If I do too many circular emails in one day, my ISP’s computers assume I am a spammer, and cut off my service for 24 hours!

We will have to consider rearranging the Grand Reunion for another time. 

So sad.

Don

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vcl28@aol.com

Jul 17

Don,

We are going to have to put this out there since I seriously doubt that this can ever work with the present mind-set of the ASAA,

We owe the Alumni some sort of proper explanation as to why the event did not come off,

why it should not be attempted again unless attitudes change.

I have cleaned it up a bit, since as I told you it went off before I intended to send it, premature ejacumailing!  But I don't have much time now to tidy it up more.

It’s a complex issue, I can't make it shorter without being blunt.

But, I am making item 3a a little more blunt than before.

Tony

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Dear All,

I offer, for your review, my comments on the reasons, as I see them, for the failure of this project.

The mistakes are listed in no particular order of importance.

1. No project can be started until there is a very clear vision as to what exactly is intended to be achieved. 

2. Therefore the criteria for the vision must be stated clearly at the very beginning, as immutable laws which must not be changed and that issues must be addressed/overcome to achieve the initial principles rather than changing the principles of the project to accommodate issues.  Which is what happened here.  For those who do not follow this concept the Wikipedia dictionary defines principle as "a law or rule that has to be, or usually is to be followed, or can be desirably followed, or is an inevitable consequence of something."  An issue however is defined as follows, "an important topic or problem for debate or discussion".

3. The reunion 2014 failed to come off since the principles of the event were never identified or agreed by all.

 These are summed up as follows:

(a) There was no agreement as to the numbers that would attend this reunion.  From day one we were planning an event for 300 people, and it was changed arbitrarily to 150 people by the members of the ASAA on the committee, to force us to have the luncheon at the Seminary which would also be catered for by them.

(b) There was no agreement that for the reunion to be successful, it must be organized in a more professional manner regarding its inputs and concepts than previous attempts, which were essentially failures.

(c) The vision that the reunion should be organized at the most professional standards regarding the venues to be used, the food to be catered, the numbers that will be catered for, were never clearly enunciated.

(d) The Trinidadian Association [ASAA] having organized similar events in the past which were frankly, according to the evidence at hand, organized in a less than professional manner and without enough attention paid to the attraction that important ingredients would bring to the event to draw attendance, e.g., excellent venues, excellent caterers for food, attractive packaging of the events to generate real interest, all conspired to make this a failure before it started.

One gets the impression that cheap, was the watchword of the past events, and in the end that was what ruined them by attracting no one. There are the old faithful, who would attend these reunions no matter what, but, there are those, many of whom are residing in Trinidad who could be attracted for the first time to attend, but especially there were those who were coming from afar and would have to spend thousands of US$ to get to Trinidad for the purpose of staying in some comfort, and attend events organized at very high standards of excellence; but were in the past showed a mediocre, uninspiring affair not worth the trip.  This lack of success, granted that the ASAA were left holding a bag of bills after most of these events and are now wary of them as economic liabilities, notwithstanding that it was probably due to bad organization by them, more than any other single reason, which caused these failures will always militate against a truly successful major reunion.

4. Unless there is some way for the overseas attendees [what we call the cyber association] to find common ground to allow a meeting of the minds with the Trinidad Association [ASAA], and until the Trinidad Association decides to support these events fully at the sort of standard which can attract rather than repel attendance, and place on the organizing committee people who understand the principles on which they are to operate to produce a successful event and be committed to them in good faith, this should not be attempted again.

There are also serious trust issues between these two groups, which must first be resolved before this is attempted again

Tony Vieira

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From: Don Mitchell <idmitch@anguillanet.com>

Date: 15 October 2012 18:36

Subject: Joe Azar

You will never believe it. 

But, I just had a one hour telephone call from Big Joe. 

He called me on Skype from Oregon. 

He sounded hale and hearty and full of life. 

I could not see him, as he was on a hand-held device of some sort.

But, another one back from the dead, so to say.

Don

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From: Roger Gillezeau roger.gillezeau@ansamcal.com

Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 11:44 AM

Senor Kertesz,

I saw a photo you circulated recently of Derek Phillips and his wife.

I would like to know what his e mail address is?

Nigel does not have one in his listing.

Thank you.

Roger Gillezeau

Abbey School 1967

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Me

Oct 6, 2013

Dear Neil - Desmond Espinet

Nice of you to write.

I am the editor of the Circulars or Newsletter of the Abbey School.

I can only say that Bro. Vincent was my good friend all thru the school years 1956 to 1960.

I was one of his chief collaborators in his Sports administration at that time.

But have not been able to exchange a word with him since I rediscover him in Florida some 10 years ago.

I am sorry for that because I needed his inputs, memory of those years for the Circular, and his friends would have liked to have his impressions.

We do not live forever.

So, I do not have anything to print, sorry for all of us.

I hope he reconsiders and if he has a little time, writes a couple of lines for his contribution to his friends who slowly are dying off.

Maybe you can be a way and can contact him and persuade him to write????

The Circular and I would be ever grateful.

God Bless 

Ladislao

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"nchacha57@aol.com" nchacha57@aol.com

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 12:55:37 PM

Ladislao,

His computer is not working and he is not too familiar with it,

he did say he was going to buy a new one soon.

He said he would like to get in touch with the guys from his time,

I will get some more info and relay the messages to you.

Take care.

Neil

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"nchacha57@aol.com" <nchacha57@aol.com>

Monday, April 2, 2007 1:13:40 PM

Kertesz,

Do you know this fellow?

I met him last week at a friend's home here in Orlando,

He was before my time and lives in West Palm Beach, Fl.

Hope all is well with you and the family.

Neil

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Photos:

6003 East St. George Sports Event p24

13LA1891LAL. Leon Alves

XXWD3138WDIGIRLS, Wbladimiro Diaz

11RL3032RLIGRP, Roberto Lipavsky, Salvador Coscarart and Carlos Maneiro