Welcome!--Please Read

[John Moeller]

Hello!

I’m glad to see you have already joined the Ward Families Reunion
group! I will try not to send out many big long messages like this
one, but I have to get a lot of info to you at once. I want to be sure
you know why the google group was started and the importance of
spreading the word of it through your network of family—no matter how
far reaching or not-so-far reaching your network is.

If you haven’t already visited the home page to our family reunion
page here’s the link:

http://groups.google.com/group/ward-families-reunion?hl=en

I feel that our family reunion is an important tradition that our
family shares. At the reunion in 2008 there was open discussion family
wide about disbanding the reunion. There were a lot of emotions in the
room and people were clearly upset about the reunion’s status. One
part of the family felt that they were the majority of who came to the
reunions anymore and the man who has organized the reunions for the
last 10 years felt that no one else really cared. If you were at the
last reunion you remember the open discussion amongst the entire
family present.

During the discussion some folks mentioned interest in having the
reunion site changed. And some wanted it to stay the same. One man
suggested moving the reunion into Toledo, at the Zoo or in a park.
Clearly we have the pool reserved every year in Pemberville and some
people thought that was great.

The major problem is, however, there are very few people coming to the
reunions. The man in charge is tired of doing it on his own. After
lunch, there was a brainstorming meeting and I decided to sit down at
the table because I thought I might have something to add.

I felt that maybe the 15 to 45 year olds—who clearly were mostly
missing—needed a connection to the family online. I knew for a fact
that I have missed the reunion many times because I couldn’t remember
which Sunday it was in July. And then I caught myself questioning
which Sunday was the 4th Sunday? I suggested an email group to keep
info flowing out to the family so people would have the date of the
reunion stuck somewhere in their mind. Maybe people didn’t come
because they didn’t know the date and scheduled vacation. Maybe some
people didn’t come because they didn’t know it’s the 4th Sunday. Maybe
some people didn’t come because they didn’t know the date and didn’t
ask anyone. Maybe some people didn’t come because they forgot about
it completely. And of course there are those who just don’t want to
come—and that’s fine too. Honestly, I have had my own years when I
didn’t want to go at all.

So because I opened my big mouth I got appointed to be in charge of
the web page. I’m happy to do it. I figured I’d be asked to do it
since the guy in charge was sick of nonparticipation! I’m not a fan of
MySpace or Facebook so I hope everyone can enjoy using this
GoogleGroup.

So here it is: I want to get as many family members as possible into
the group. This is where I need your help. I need you to contact
family and tell them to join. If they aren’t web-savvy then please
help them get signed up. If they don’t use the internet, but they
want to be included, let me know—I will snail mail to them.

I need you to spend just a little time contacting relatives to ask
them to join our family group on Google. Contact out as far reaching
as you can. If you need to, call family members for whom you only have
a phone number. Tell them about our family's group online. Get their
email address so you can send the invitation to join.

The group is set up to allow joining by invitation only so we can keep
this a family only group. We don't want spam or advertisements. This
group is to be a place for family only.

The group is also set up to only send and receive messages that come
from members. You have to join to get messages and to send messages.
I don't foresee this group being so busy that the messages coming from
it will become annoying. I will periodically send out messages
pertaining to the reunion itself. And hopefully, periodically members
will send out news about their immediate family.

Again, most of my messages will not be big long novelettes like this
one. You may see this message sent out again as more family joins,
and you can ignore it if you see it again! HA HA HA! Thanks for
joining the group and hopefully we can keep united online as well as
at a reunion.

John Moeller in Indianapolis