Y62 Seattle Gathering: March 28 and 29, 2020

March 16, 2020 Update:

Please see our front page update: The Gathering That Wasn’t

March 9, 2020 Update:

To: Comers
You likely have noticed that Seattle sits under a cloud of uncertainty caused by Coronavirus issues. We wonder how this has affected your thinking about March 28.

• I’d prefer you re-schedule and let me know of this by March XX.
• I’d prefer you not re-schedule, but hold the Gathering on March 28.
• If you’re going to re-schedule, I’d like re-scheduled event to occur the month of YY or the season of ZZ.

The above is not meant to be mutually exclusive and exhaustive. What are your thoughts now about how we should handle next week’s decision? We remind you that Bacon Mansion has given us until Friday, March 27 to cancel without penalty. Our notion is that the Gathering is financially and socially feasible with as few as eight attendees. At the moment, we have sixteen or seventeen who say they are coming, seven from Seattle driving distance. Roman will come if the planes are flying and Bacon is open for business.

• Would you attend an event that shrunk in size to eight or ten, mostly locals?

Also, Daryl, the owner of Bacon Mansion, might cancel for us by saying his reading of warnings from Seattle and King County Public Health dissuades him from allowing a dozen or more in his dining room. If he were to say that, then he makes the decision for us. So far, he says, there appears little chance of Public Health authorities making such an announcement.

If we re-schedule, we’ll find another date and start the process from the beginning, as we did last December, sending the date to the whole class soliciting interest in coming to Seattle for a Gathering. We’ll be more efficient the second time.

If your response is to affect our decisions, we need to hear from you promptly.

Jim and Roman

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March 3, 2020 Update:

Roman and Jim report: We now have solid plans, subject only to the vagaries caused by Coronavirus disruption.

Saturday night, we’ll gather at The Bacon Mansion, 959 Broadway East, corner of Prospect at 6pm. We’ll aim to eat at 7pm. [Details below.]

Sunday morning, we’ll gather at Jimmy’s on Broadway [in The Silver Cloud Hotel], 1100 Broadway, Seattle 98122, approximately 9:30am. Separately, we ask you to let us know if you plan to come for Sunday’s event.

In the end, we have too few attending to use Jimmy’s for Saturday night. This has the plus of lowering costs but puts a limit on the size of the Gathering. We’ll not be able to add late-comers unless some of us 19 listed above drop out.

The Bacon Mansion, a bed and breakfast, has rooms available: baconmansion.com. The Silver Cloud—Broadway Hotel is not offering us a discount, because we did not sign a Saturday restaurant contract, but they have rooms available for about $170/night plus tax and parking. silvercloud.com/seattlebroadway/

Our arrangement with Bacon allows any of us to cancel. We’re paying $400 fixed fee for the venue and service. Jim and Roman judge that there are enough locals so that even if air travel becomes difficult or impossible because of Coronavirus, we’ll still have a Gathering for the Seattle people and some who will drive from Portland. If, on Friday March 27, the day before the scheduled Gathering, we have too few to hold a Gathering, we can cancel the entire event with no financial penalty. Jim and Roman think that with as few as eight Comers, the party will be worth having and financially feasible. We’ll decide later after soliciting more opinions.

A separate email gives details of costs, opportunity for you to express dietary preferences, and beverage choices. Bacon Mansion is a bring-your-own-booze venue, which reduces costs relative to a restaurant, but causes you to do a bit more work for you to get what you want. We’ll do most of the work if you tell us what you want. Each will pay for his own consumption, only. We expect that total Saturday costs will be less than the $104/person you’ve paid. Refunds will come later, after a full accounting becomes possible.

Please read the separate email [all attendees were sent] with details and reply to the questions asking for responses.

We expect you’ll have as much fun at the Gathering as we’ve had putting it together.
Jim and Roman

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February 25, 2020 Update:

Roman and Jim report that the Seattle Gathering will definitely take place. The venue will be finalized and announced within the next two weeks.

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February 12, 2020 Update:

From: Weil, Roman L.
Subject: Coming for your wallet. March 28/29 in Seattle.

Jim and Roman anticipate a relaxing evening March 28 in Seattle with old and new friends from the class, some of whom appear to be coming from far away. You should plan to come and join this low-key Gathering. Let us know you plan to come by sending payment now for the Saturday event.

Right now, we have no hard deadline for responses, but we’d like to have your funds by Thursday, February 20, so we can make a commitment to the restaurant when it asks for one. If we wait for their demand to make a request of you, there may not be enough time to get funds from you by their deadline.

The list below shows those who’ve so far given permission to disclose their names. At this writing, classmates have indicated that they and partners will total between 20 and 25.

We expect/hope to be at Jimmy’s in The Silver Cloud—Broadway hotel. We’ll convene there for breakfast on Sunday, as well. We’ll have a private room for Saturday night and be in public restaurant space for Sunday breakfast. The hotel has some special rates for us for Friday and Saturday nights. Once we have a contract with Jimmy’s, we let you know about how to reserve at the Yale62 rate, which will be about $155 per night plus tax and parking. In addition, the hotel runs no-cost courtesy shuttles to some Seattle attractions, such as the Pike Place Market and the Westlake Center.

Please send $104 per person for your attendance Saturday night, March 28, in Seattle. Most convenient for us is you send the funds via PayPal to Yale62Seattle@gmail.com; don’t overlook noting that you’re sending to a Friend or, in some versions of PayPal, to someone you trust. We also accept conventional checks, although they are slower. Make them payable to James Wechsler at 835 NE 100th St., Seattle, WA 98125. If you do that, please email that you are doing so. [We offer no credit card option.**] We expect to refund a few dollars per person, but will ask for enough to cover a worst-case maximum. The price excludes alcohol, sold separately from a decent wine list, and regular bar. Breakfast will be from the restaurant’s regular menu and you’ll pay for that separately.

Those giving permission to disclose names as Yes or Maybe to come: Jonathan Ater, Bill Bestor, Al Chambers, Gary Cunningham, Doug Daetz, Eric Eitreim, Herman Pettegrove, Ross Rudolph, Peter Schenk, Chris Snow, Tom Triplett, Charlie Valier, Roman Weil and Jim Weschler.

** We have thick skin and are old. You can poke fun at us for not accepting Venmo, Bitcoin, and other modern options. We know how to accept wired funds, but prefer not. For those unfamiliar with PayPal, we note that it charges a fee for those sending funds to a business and if you don’t indicate you’re sending to a friend, it assumes you are sending to a business.

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January 29, 2020 Update:

On January 29, new responses suggest 28 classmates and partners will attend. We hope more of you will decide to come. We expect to convene at Jimmy’s, the restaurant at The Silver Cloud Hotel—Broadway. See this link. In February, we’ll ask for cash commitments of about $104 per person, expecting to refund at least $4 per person if all who indicate they’re coming do come. Alcohol and Sunday breakfast priced separately.

Write to Jim Wechsler (jawechsler@gmail.com) or Roman Weil (romanweil@gmail.com) for more information or with any questions you may have.

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The second note, sent January 20, 2020:

To: Members of the Yale Class of 1962
From: James A Wechsler and Roman L Weil
Re: Yale ’62 Gathering in Seattle, March 28 and 29, 2020

We are pleased to report that responses thus far suggest that 24 or so classmates and partners will gather March 28 in Seattle for Saturday supper and Sunday breakfast. As expected, most live in the Great Northwest, but several are planning to come from around the country to spend time in the Emerald City with family and friends, as well as Yale classmates. Why don’t you join us?

Likely, you want to know costs. So do we. We are discussing with a couple of venues; prices vary depending on total numbers and menus. Alcohol will be pay-as-you-go and the costs for dinner and breakfast will be separate. We are confident that the location will permit good conversation, with politics expected. Can we keep it civil?

Thanks to you for the large number of classmates who responded. We hope that there will be another set of “Yes, we are coming” responses to this remind­er message and that most of the “Maybe” answers will convert to Yes. We’ll let you know later when the venue requires our commitment so that we need your commitment and prepayment. Expect that push around February 10, but we are guessing at this point.

We do not want the price for dinner, including tip, to be more than $100 per person, which includes renting a private room large enough to allow mixing, mingling and non-fixed seating, just like under a reunion tent. So long as 26 or more of us attend, costs will be less than $100 for Saturday night.

Write jawechsler@gmail.com or romanweil@gmail.com for more. Roman has details of cost computations, which he’ll gladly show you, and a list of those who have said they will or might come and have given permission for us to disclose that fact. We think the Gathering will be a pleasant event for everyone who comes to Seattle.

If you did not respond to the first message, please let us know as soon as you can, particularly if you are a Yes or a Maybe. You can write Jim or Roman, as above.

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First email, sent December 20, 2019

To: Members of the Yale Class of 1962
From: James A Wechsler and Roman L Weil
Re: Planning a ’62 Gathering in Seattle, March 28, 2020

Members of your Class Council are planning a Gathering in Seattle for Saturday night, March 28, 2020, followed by brunch/coffee Sunday morning, March 29. A new and (North-)western location.

Please let us know if you are likely to attend. We’re posting this note on Yale62.org, in case you haven’t had a chance to read our email to you. We suspect the Gathering will interest those in the Northwest, but in hopes travelers from other parts of the country will come, we invite all. We have purposely not planned more than Saturday night and Sunday morning events, because we suspect that many have family or friends in the area or want time to revisit favorite Seattle area attractions or see this exciting city for the first time.

Venue and Costs. Because venue and costs depend on our numbers and those of us who have discussed this event have widely different estimates, we ask for a quick response indicating your inclination. We will let you know more of the details later, based on our estimated numbers. Your trusted accountant speaking here: cost per person depends on fixed costs for the venue and labor costs for servers and bartender, if any, which we can’t tell you until we know the size of the Gathering. We’re aiming for casual and inexpensive. Think a cut above pizza, but not many cuts. Maybe one of the Asian places of which Seattle has many. Perhaps we’ll rent a private club or a room at a hotel. We have in mind that we are there for each other’s company and conversation, not for the meal.

Communication: Can you let us know by January 20th whether you think you might come? Please reply to the email we sent last Friday with: Yes, I’ll attend, Maybe I’ll attend, or No, I can’t make it. If you plan to attend, or even if you’re a ‘Maybe,’ please indicate whether you’ll bring a guest. Thanks.

If you prefer to send a separate email to us concerning your plans, please use romanweil@gmail.com.

Later, by February 1st, we’ll email you with more details, based on the venue choice. We’ll also post updates here on our website. We’ll ask for cash payment at that time, to nail down the venue commitment.

We hope you’ll plan to come to this informal event, which we plan to be engaging and mimicking of the round tables with free-flowing cordiality as at our every-fifth-year reunions. We look forward to your responses and questions.