I'm upgrading to the newest version of the forum today, Friday March 16, so there may be some intermittent outages on the message boards this morning.

 

Hi Leanne! 

Welcome!  Crazy that the class of 1997 is already at the 10-year reunion mark.  You may have known my brother - Mike Manske, who graduated in 1995.

If you need any help or can think of features that would aid you in your reunion organization, just let me know.  Bob Kaebisch is helping plan the class of 1992's 15-year reunion right now.  He and his committee would also likely be great resources. CHS Class of 1992 Reunion Page

Also, I've added a Cudahy Links > Reunion Planning section, which has some recent articles and guides on planning class reunions.

Have a great day!
Melissa

Hi Nikki,

Hello there and welcome!

Disclaimer: This is a little lengthy because speaking as a web site administrator, this is a topic near and dear to my heart. You have the right to ignore this post. 

When we organized our 10-year reunion I used Classmates.com a lot. Although I did get have a Gold account that year I don't think it was required like it appears to be now. At that time, one of the main 'Gold Member benefits' was you could read complete profiles of other members, as opposed to a teaser profile. 

That was in 2001. In January of this year, I sent someone an e-mail on Classmates.com. At that time I was back to their free, basic membership.

Sure, I could send the e-mail. Sure, the recipient would get an e-mail stating I'd sent them an e-mail. But in order for the recipient to read my e-mail, now either I'd have to pay for a Gold Membership or the recipient would. On the Classmates website in their 'Member Rewards' section it even says one of the benefits of a Gold Account is: "Send Classmates Email anyone can read /  Read all your Classmates Email"  To add a little to the frustration (I really didn't want someone to have to pay for a membership just to read an e-mail I sent them) there's no way on their site to tell who's a Gold (paying) member and who isn't.

Anyway, when I sent my e-mail to a person on Classmates.com I got an alert from Classmates worded along the lines of, "Sign up for a premium account, or make your friend pay." That just seems so weird.

Now I can understand paying to e-mail people (maybe) if Classmates had a terrific way for a paying members to e-mail an entire class group at once, but they don't offer that. Regardless of what type of member you are you have to send each person an individual e-mail, and there's a limit to how many you can send a day.  I know this because I decided I would get a Gold account again this January, so I could e-mail CHS people about this site, and not have to feel bad about all the lovely notes Classmates.com would send those people about upgrading so they could read my e-mail. I've sent out 380 individual e-mails so far. Not spamming people - I'm just sending one per person (ok, 1 or 2 people have gotten two e-mails because I've messed up)    Out of those 380 e-mails 238 are still unread. So 63% of the people are blocking/junk filtering Classmates e-mails, don't check their e-mail or have changed e-mail accounts.  I only know those stats because I import their lame Message Center > Sent Box into Excel so I can alphabetize names to reduce duplicate e-mails and watch read/unread stats.

As the Internet gets more community-oriented and websites offer more ways for people to stay connected and share their lives (think sites like MySpace, YouTube, or any site where you can add comments, reviews, write on forums, add photos or videos, etc.) I think it's an absolute crime when other sites still think it's ok to charge for the most basic of services. Classmates.com gets enough money enough different ways without having to 'make people pay' for things like sending guilt-free e-mails.

I do agree -- Classmates.com is helpful. But I don't think Classmates.com's new system of paying to read e-mails, paying to post on forums, etc., is something anyone should have to pay for. Extra-especially because of consumer complaints I've read about them in recent months. In December 2006 PC World categorized Classmates.com into their 'Big Hassle' category for cancelling memberships. 

As a rule I'm pretty put off by paying for anything I don't think I should have to pay for. Maybe that means I'm cheap. Maybe it's a web designer thing. Or maybe that's a Cudahy thing.  Whatever the case, there are probably others that feel the way I do.  Regardless, people can use both sites and more, but here I can guarantee they'll never have to pay.

Thanks very much for your post, Nikki. I've actually been meaning to write something about this, because it was one of the reasons I decided to make a full CHS alumni site, as opposed to just one for my graduating class.

Very best (and again, welcome!),
Melissa

Hey, I never said hi back, did I?  Hi Brenda!  Regarding the web site, you're welcome. 

Awesome to hear from you, and thanks for adding the great pictures.  Feel free to add lots & lots more! 

Firm expresses interest to Cudahy
From JSOnline.com Feb. 11, 2007

---

A private equity firm with experience in the ice arena business has quietly approached Cudahy officials with a proposal to build a four-rink skating and ice-hockey facility on the site of the troubled Powerade Iceport project.

Milwaukee attorney John M. Wirth, representing Roustan Inc., outlined in a Jan. 22 letter to the city a new development for the LakePort Village property that could feature a multiplex movie theater in addition to the "hotel, restaurants, retail space and other operations previously proposed for the LakePort Village out lots."  Read more...
   

You look like the brewmaster type.

Hey. Break a leg at your Spent show in Janesville Saturday.  I'm in Chicago for a scuba thing, but I'll be wishing you luck from down there.

I'm moving the website to a new group of servers. Because of this, parts of the site may be nonfunctional for intermittent periods today and possibly tomorrow. So if anything you're trying to do doesn't seem to be working, that's probably why. 

However, if your name is Melissa and you're trying to do something like make an account and it's telling you you can't because I've disallowed all people named Melissa besides me from creating an account, THAT is a mixup on my end that I can fix even when the server move is going on.  I've already fixed the 'Melissa' issue, but you get the idea.  (Sorry Melissa Navin.) 

www.deeko.com

Have a great day Josh!

Cudahy may get indoor market (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)


A South Shore indoor market envisioned to attract a butcher, wine store, fine chocolatier, coffee shop, fish monger and other vendors could find a home in Cudahy's downtown under a developer's $4.5 million to $6 million proposal.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=560863

Deliveryman who shot 2 is charged (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)


A pizza deliveryman who has shot two people on the job in the past seven months was hit with his first criminal charge...
Read more...

 

That's so cool! I'm not personally into any competition stuff yet, as I only have a Silver account. I am going to break down and get a Gold account when DDR comes out (I know, kinda dumb, but I LOVE it.)  I hear that should be late February or March. Think you'll do competitions for DDR? 

If you need more online publicity, I *may* be able to help. I've got an affiliation with a group that has a game website -- it has reviews, editorials, cheats and that sort of stuff, so a good compliment to your sites.  I've just started helping them out, so I'm not sure how things all work with them yet, but you never know.  Google Ads can be a great inexpensive help too, if you guys aren't doing that yet.

You're very welcome. I only wish there was more I could say or do.

Drivers, believed to be intoxicated, slam into three Cudahy homes in month (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Cudahy - Judy Novak and her son - home from college - wound down in the family's living room watching "The Colbert Report" when a sudden loud bang spilled her water, jolted her son off the couch and pushed the side wall of the room forward three feet.

Read the full story.
   

Between dccombat and thedevilsadvocate, it looks like you've got two really good sites going.  That forum on dccombat looks really busy and well organized. There's 113 people online there right now!

Ryan Berry was in my grade.  I don't think I knew Eliott at all, because he was a couple years younger than me.  Regardless, I was very sorry to hear of his passing; please accept my condolences.

That huge Powerade Iceport was supposed to go in Cudahy. I've read some of the stuff about it, and I still don't understand how a deal that big could've died like that.  It was a $35 million project, one of the largest of its kind in North America. It's just a big shell sitting there now?

A hockey arena would have been great. But since that doesn't sound like it's happening, let's not forget Rollaero.  That place rocked.   It's still there, right?

A microbrewery would be a great match for the town. Heck, I think most people would agree anything with the word 'brew' or 'beer' in it would be a good match for Cudahy. Maybe the hockey shell could be converted into a Powerbeer Icebrew.

Thanks Josh, that's awesome.  I definitely may be in need of help sometime; it's good to know there are other website people around.

Your dccombat.com website looks great...is that your doing? 

I see you're playing Gears of War. It is one of my favorite games, ever. Especially 2 player.

Tell your family to join up too! I should be doing that as well; I've got a bunch of step-relatives from Cudahy, including one that graduated right around when you did. Roberta Santi, if you know her.