How Can I Help?

We were starting to sweat it there for a while! After hearing in last summer's survey that everybody and their dog were planning on attending the reunion, we were sure it would be no problem to round up 150 people to share in the cost of a good time. We put the tickets up for sale and..... (crickets). Well, tickets have finally started to sell, but we are definitely facing the possibility of falling short of our goal.

Hearing this, some awesome things started happening. Some of you began beating the bushes and helping us flush out folks who either didn't know about the reunion or weren't sure they wanted to come. Others, knowing that we would be stuck with the remaining balance (which amounts to literally thousands of dollars), have asked how they can help with the shortage of funds and we didn't really have an answer.

I don't expect many folks to use this newest button, but for those who asked to help, here it is:

We've added a "donate" option in the drop down menu below. Maybe you've got summer plans that conflict with our date but still want to help out. It could be that you really don't want to attend but would like to support the event. Maybe you are rich beyond your means and are looking for a good place to unload your dough. Truth is, whatever your reason, if you'd like to help, we'd be glad to accept.

Unless you have access to a really crooked tax preparer, there isn't much we can do for you when it comes to classifying this as a charitable donation. Still, we will be certain to find a way to recognize those folks who have stepped up and helped us out in this way.

There's one last thing to add. If you have a local business that would like to help us out by either donating some door prizes (for the night of the dinner and dance) or offering us a jumper/moonwalk rental at an awesomely discounted rate (for the family picnic) or being willing to massage my feet and back (OK, I'm being selfish, I just got off work and that really sounds good) we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via rss1991@yahoo.com or give me (Mike Gill) a call at 832 722 6701. We'd be glad to put the name of your business in the spotlight during the event.

I'd hate to think of myself as desperate as these guys, but yes, we could sure use a hand. Thanks again for your continued help in making this something special. Looking forward to seeing you in June. - Your Reunion Committee

PS - If you change your mind after donating and decide to attend the event, we'll be glad to put the amount of your donation towards the cost of your ticket!

To donate, look at the post above. Thanks!

The List So Far....

Well, I have to say I was hoping my computer was going to blow up today with all the folks buying tickets, but it only got warm. Still, I'm happy to announce that our list of attendees is growing and shows potential to grow even more. Here's a list of the folks I have so far. I have a fair number of folks who have assured me they are planning on coming, and quite a few others who are actively helping to make it bigger by pestering their friends. I didn't list who's bringing a date and who isn't . Just trying to give you an idea of who I know has purchased tix. Again, if you haven't checked the list farther down this blog page, please do. There are a lot of names who have not been reached. Remember, don't wait too long to buy your tickets. The price will be going up on May 16th! Buy a ticket. Please don't make me resort to this! Hope to see you there. - Mike Gill

Dory Busby - Allen
Heath Romero
Jesse Flores
Erin Mendoza-Casteel
Clarissa Curry-Linck
Julie Villarreal
Lesley Bridges-Estes
Charles Stephens
BJ Smith-Gallegos
Veronica Valdez-Salmatanis
Caprille Capetillo-Aguero
Amy Peebles-Mayo
Tiffany Hines-Blackford
Michelle Hochstetler-Sifuentes
Charlotte Hoel
Lianna Ponder-Knight
Crissy Brookshire
Brendy Williams
Ann-Marie Updegraff-O'Callaghan
Stephanie Blaylock-Brunson
Carla Woods Vaughn
Darrell Pevoteaux
Mike Gill
Alison Witte-Beazley
Amanda Ball-Bilnoski
Keisha Bundage
William Brackin
Melissa Estrada
Donna Trail
Kim Read-Berthelot
Dedra White - Burdick
Amy Pennington
Pam Marsh
Greg Bridwell
Tedra Tubbs
Angel Chandler-Turney
Laura Oliver-Kennedy
Frank Kotlarz
Sandi Cockrell-Strickland
Sean Aguilar
Yvette Flores Stayman
Kevin Goulding
Kelli Cato-Going
Wendi Branch-Kaplan
Matt Parker
Crystal Littlejohn-Little
Tammie Hensley-Tousha
Brian Harris
Dedra Smith
Julie Gilbert-Smith
Cassie Banks-Childress
Jenny Weldon
Bryan Goode
Jason Martinez
Matt Albus
Ronald Romero
Jason Dizon
Angela Barron Downs
Tamara Hale
Thomas Peden
Whitney Rupp-Frawner
Grace Anne McKay
Wendy Bounds
Janci Alexander-Alfaro
Alfredo Alfaro
Megan Casey-Goodwin
Carey Young
Alex Valdez
Matt Marlow
Gina French-Provopulos
Kelsey Hathaway
Christy Gavin Hughes
Duane Stevenson
Dawn Porter Pridgeon
Jill Satterbak-Moody

If you do not see your name on this list and it should be here, please contact me so I can clear up any mistakes. Thanks!

Top Ten Reunion List

Here are the top ten reasons to buy a ticket for the RSS 1991 20 year reunion!

#10 A chance to spend the night at a downtown hotel for a reduced rate. The Crown Plaza is offering a $99 room rate for both Friday and Saturday night. Now you and your husband/wife/random cute person can have a romantic night away instead of sleeping on mom’s inflate-a-bed in a room that used to be yours.

#9 You can take advantage of the new Pay Now/Pay Later option. This allows you to make a payment towards attending the reunion AND still have money to take your baby momma for dinner at Applebee’s.

#8 Witness the one time only showing of a big budget Hollywood-style movie featuring big name stars who will make you both laugh and cry. OK, so the only part of that which is true might be the word “movie” but we’ll try our best.

#7 Two words about the dance floor that you’ve been wanting to hear for 20 years…Milli Vanilli. Sure, they may have lost the Grammy, but they’ll always win over your heart.

#6 A family-style picnic at Jenkins Park with your kids. Come see what the guy who sat behind you in algebra II brought into the world and be glad it wasn’t with you.

#5 Autograph signings by Duane Stevenson. This guy once appeared on Deborah Duncan. Hey, he’s the closest thing we’ve got to Alan Green.

#4 A private party at one of Baytown’s finest drinking establishments. You know you want to drink from a place called “Dirty Bay”

#3 The big sing-a-long. Where else besides a Klan rally would you find a roomful of people that all know a song about Dixie. “It was the night, we drove old Dixie down….”

#2 Your heartfelt desire to not see Carla and I have to panhandle for money since we didn’t have a big enough turnout. Seriously, did we mention how much we’re going to have to pay if you guys don’t come….

And the #1 reason you should attend the RSS 20 year reunion…..

We’re $10 cheaper than the previous reunion…10 years ago!

PLEASE BUY A TICKET. THE PRICE GOES UP ON MAY 16th! IT’S NOT A REUNION WTHOUT YOU THERE!

Questions or comments, please call me or e-mail us:
Rss1991@yahoo.com or 832 722 6701.

You can buy a ticket (or ten) at RSS1991.blogspot.com

See you there! – Mike Gill

The $65 Ticket

Well, if you're reading this you probably know that there is a 20th reunion coming up in the near future. You're probably aware that there is a link for payment of your ticket on this very page you are reading. You probably even know that the wombat takes about 14 days to completely digest its food due to its incredibly slow metabolism....or maybe you didn't know that. Anyway, I thought I'd share a few facts you might not know in the next few paragraphs below:

As one of the planners of this reunion, I'm starting to get a little worried. In a little more than a month, I will have to write a check for HALF the amount due to our venue, with the other half due the day before the event! This wouldn't be a problem except for one issue....I'm the only one who has bought a ticket so far. We really need people to step up soon and buy tickets.

I'm pretty convinced that people ARE interested in attending this reunion. A survey was sent out last June in which 101 people responded. 88 people indicated they were interested in attending. In addition, 55% of those surveyed said they believed that a ticket price of $65 or less was a reasonable price to pay for a 20th class reunion. Using this information, and a desire to please as many folks as possible, your committee began to do some work. Together we visited multiple venues, interviewed DJs, opened a bank account, discussed menus, created blogs and e-mail accounts, and a lot of other things.

For those of you who knew me in high school, I haven't changed much. I like to have fun, but I'm pretty damn cheap when it comes down to it. Myself and your committee members have tried hard to keep costs as low as possible for this event, while not skimping on quality.

We've discovered it costs a lot to put on an event for 200 people or so. Your $65 ticket represents a way to cover the costs of the things listed below:

*Venue - We tried to hold the event in Baytown, but many of the choices seemed better suited for a quincenera than a reunion. There is a nice place near the bridge, but the cost was actually higher than the venue we have booked and we would have had to clear all the tables of the floor when the music started meaning that everyone would have to either dance or find a wall to lean on. We thought we had a classmate who could "hook us up" at a hotel she worked for, but still couldn't bring her price down enough to match what we were able to find with Crown Plaza.

*Food and desserts - We will be serving a full meal with snack trays before and dessert after

*DJ - we had to pay extra to find someone willing to play The Humpty Dance, but Matt Albus REALLY wanted to dance to Humpty Dance, so what can you do?

*Security (required by the venue if there is alcohol served)

*Bartenders - a separate cost. not much, but still a cost to factor in, as they are not included with the venue.

*Rental Fees - The use of the pavilion for the Sunday picnic isn't free, nor are the activities or the meal we'll serve that day for classmates and their families.

*Pay Pal - this added about $3 per ticket. I personally hate having to charge this, but I also know that having to cover even just a few bad checks would cost us a lot of both time and money. Plus, it creates a way for people to pay with a credit card and that's what being an American is all about, right?

There are a lot of things you are NOT being charged for either. We spent $70 of our own money just to mail postcards to the 250 people we couldn't reach by e-mail or Facebook. Each of your committee members are out several hundred dollars each right now because of the deposits we've put down for various things. Snacks at the mixer are being paid for from our own pockets. Most importantly, we've invested a lot of time into making this a nice event and trying hard to contact everyone we can, with many more hours of work to go before we can say that we're done.

And despite the economy and inflation, we are still $10 less than the cost of the ten year reunion!

If you're not interested in coming, I understand. And if you'd like to e-mail and tell us to say you won't be there, I totally understand. But if you ARE interested in coming to catch up with old friends and hopefully make some new ones, then please buy your tickets soon. We really do want to make this a memorable weekend. We hope you will be a part of it. - Your reunion committee.

All the Info!

Hey, I sent out e-mails to about 200 people last week (unfortunately due to some technical difficulties, I had to do this in batches of five!) Nonetheless, I managed to tell everyone to buy tickets on the blog here, but didn't provide any other information such as times, dates, locations, who is hoping to hook up in the last bathroom stall when everyone is out on the dance floor doing the Vanilla Ice dance, etc.... Well, this is the postcard that folks will be receiving which should give all the info you need to make your plans.

PS - Please buy your tickets soon. Your reunion committee has had to shell out a lot of money to hold ballrooms, DJs, etc... and we now have another payment coming due at the end of next month. We need your money to make this happen. Buy your tickets soon. We want you there.

Missing Classmates!

Missing Classmate List 3/21/2011

Please take a minute to scroll through the list below. If you know of a way to get in touch with someone on this list, please send us some info. We promise not to "sell them out" by publishing their info or reveal their whereabouts should they be in a witness protection program. We just want them to know about this fun event we have planned. Hope to hear from you all soon. - Your reunion committee.

Rhonda Allen
Clint Ambler

Ryan Baker
Diana Barrientos
Norma Barrientos
Katherine Basquez
Kenneth Battle
Christopher Becka
Beverly Bennett
Sherry Bourisaw
Stephen Brasher
Martha Briseno
Kena Brown
Patty Brown

John Cantrell
Amira Cantu
Jose Cardenas
Catina Carrier
Ezquiel Carrillo
Megan Casey
Tonya Caskey
Carmen Castillo
Claudia Cervantes
Becky Challenger
Shannon Chandler
Denroy Clark
Patricia Clayton
Anthony Collins

Stephanie Dauphin
Terrie Davis
Heather Davis
David Denson
Eloise Dominguez
Kelly Doucet
Kim Driscoll
LeVay Duncan
Shawn Dyson

Marcie Ellis
Stephanie Epps
Greg Eubanks

Elise Felan
April Field
Eli Flores
Cynthy Francis
Jenny Fransson

Isidro Garza
Thomas Garcia
Rosa Garza
Wilbert Gillum
Fernando Gonzalez Jr.
Jaime Gonzalez
Kimberly Goodman
Lee Goodwin
Allen Gudgell
Darrel Guide

Denise Haney
Clayton Hargrove
Jason Hart
Jeannie Hart
Sean Hedger
William Higginbotham
Jamie Hollister
Rochelle Hubbard
Larry Hurta

Angela Jackson
Angie Jones
Karen Jones
David Kellog
Chris Kirkland
Joseph Kogut
Julie Kotalik

Kim LaBorde
Stephen Lambert
Chris Landry
Kim Landry
Roman Lee
Donna Leyva
Carmen Lopez
Jorge Lopez

JoJo Manzanares
Gabriel Martin
Dennis Matthews
Susan Matthews
Chris Matthews
Shawn McFaddin
Stacy McMorrow
Kirk Mears
Juan Medina
Sophia Medrano
Rose Melendez
Claudia Mendoza
Tim Mezzell
Melissa Milligan
Maria Mireles
Elizabeth Molina
Cassandra Montgomery
Rosalba Morales
Melissa Mouser
Christine Mouton

Derrick Nelson

Jessica Oliva
David Ortiz
Michael Owens
Jason Owens
Javier Ozuna

Joseph Page
Thomas Patrick
Alfonso Pena
Shane Pentecost
Consuela Peterson
Rupertha Peterson
Larry Provins

Robert Ramirez
Yvonne Ramirez
John Ramos
James Ray
Toby Reagan
Ranshala Richard
Jennifer Rigsby
Lorena Rivas
Ronald Romero
Guadalupe Rosales

Maria Sanchez
Francisco Sanchez
Dirty Sanchez
Brian Sanders
Lila SanMiguel
Brent Schoppa
Charles Scott
Johnny Seale
Brandy Shaffer
Jason Simms
Michael Smiles
Shannon Smith
Mark Solook
Olga Soto
Kathy Stanley
Jennifer Stutts

John Tate
Linda Taylor
Angelica Tellez
Kerstin Tiemann
Tere Torres
Jennifer Trevino
Tracy Twardowski

Angela Underwood

Loretta Vernege

Wade Washington
Lionell Washington
Greg Wellman
Sedric Whitaker
Tiffani Whitaker
Jolie Whitaker
Tammy Williams
Tina Williams
Doug Wilson
Jason Wilson
Richard Wooley
Michael Wright

Decisions Decisions!

Wow guys. The die has been cast. The ball is rolling. The moon is in the seventh house. Basically what I'm sayin' is that a decision was finally reached! We have a place for the 20 year reunion! As some of you may have heard, this was not an easy thing to do. Keep the prices low and hold the event in a rented tent on the outskirts of Highlands, and you risk people turning their noses up at the idea of a $3 weenie roast while you sweat in the July heat to the tunes of Duane Stevenson's boom box. Set the price too high and...well, the seven people who can afford to attend walk away with not just memories of the other six people, but how does one drive home with their own ice sculpture?!?



Based on input from those who participated in the survey the reunion committe sent around, we were able to find a place that will hopefully be classier than the Baytown Roller Rink (The one with the wooden floor - you know the one I'm talking about) and the Waldorf Astoria (Not sure I spelled that right - never been there...never will). This year's event will take place at the Crowne Plaza in beautiful H-town on June 25th.

We're still working on a price, and I'd hate to throw out a wrong number that would cause either laughter or a desire to jump from the Fred Hartman Bridge. I'd bet it will be around $60 a person though.

"What's in it for me?" you might ask. That price includes dinner, dessert, the location, security, a bartender, decorations, a DJ, mailings, and a few other things I can't seem to think of right now. I'm hoping that "memories of a once-in-a-lifetime event" factor in there somewhere too.

It all adds up quickly, but believe me we've tried to keep costs low. How do we plan to give you a good time and not charge you $100 each?


*Cheap fun and games - We'll be asking everyone to make a photocopy of their butt at work and then we'll play "Guess That Classmate".
*Limited chairs - This won't be a problem, as several of our single guys have offered to let the cute single ladies sit in their laps - hot, open-minded, married ones will be permitted as well.
*Provide our own maintenance people - Matt Albus and Larry Hurta have agreed to keep both the mens' and womens' bathrooms shiny and clean throughout the night. (Tips are appreciated though!)
*Chicken Fry II - This time there will be no one that can tell us we can't write "Official Breast Tester" on our aprons, damnit!



Just kidding. Stay tuned for further developments as well as some upcoming "Classmate Updates". See you at the reunion! Mike Gill (blogging for the Reunion Committee)