Once again, the fall brings a series of mailings asking for all sorts of Princeton-related giving. These include letters and e-mails soliciting us for Class Dues, our Class of ’71 Foundation, the Saving the Wild Life Fund (STWLF), as well as university-wide requests for Annual Giving and, occasionally, the University’s capital requests. Of course, you can add to that gift requests from eating clubs, Friends organizations, as well as regional and other local Princeton organizations.

In this Treasurer’s letter, I’d like to focus primarily on class dues, though I’ll mention some of the other class-related areas where contributions continue to be important ...

Crew racing is one of the most physically taxing sports in existence, requiring tremendous stamina and exacting technique honed over months of training in and out of the water. Even for collegians, it’s a huge physical grind.

So what was a bunch of 60-year-olds, some of whom hadn’t been in a race for many years, doing at a regatta this past October – and a three-mile race at that? Not only that: They were the oldest rowers there, and it was their first race together as a team since our freshman year ...

"... The past 12 months were tumultuous in the economy and on the political landscape, but the running of the Class went smoothly once again. Our system of using regular conference calls to discuss the full range of class activities among the class officer group continues to work well, and has been boosted by input from several former class officers. Our class hasn’t had the reputation for cohesion and annual giving that some have had – and that’s regrettable – but our officer group is dedicated, hard-working and has been very effective in coordinating events and communication.

Rich Hollingsworth, our Treasurer and de facto Chief Financial Officer, notes that our tiered dues initiative, which gives classmates a choice of giving levels, was once again successful in eliciting a range of donations. (Coincidentally, yes, there is a dues appeal in this envelope that we hope you’ll act on. There is more information on dues later in this letter as well.)"