Sent 3/23/2017
Class of ’85,
I am completely humbled and thankful to those who stepped up and help us meet AND exceed our goal of $18,500 for purchase of our new Class of ’85 Tailgate tent. We raised $22,345 from 104 Classmates. This money will fully fund the new Class of ’85 Tent and help me to maintain it as well as make further upgrades to the Class Tailgate experience. All but the $1,000 fee from GoFundMe will go into the Class Account via our Class treasurer Tim Kane. All money is accountable and spent via “two person” control through Tim and I in coordination with Linda Reyes at USNAA accounting. I will keep everyone updated and look forward to dedicating the new tent at our first home football game later this year. GREAT JOB once again and those of you who donated $500 or more, will see your name printed proudly on the new tent.
Next matter of business, in planning for a West Coast Class gathering for the Navy v. Notre Dame game in San Diego, CA next October 27, 2018; I discovered that there is one of the largest conventions of the year in San Diego that same weekend. Many of the large hotels are already sold out or unable to give us a block of rooms. I did find a few suitable hotels near the bayfront/gaslamp district that will work with us. I would like to run a “straw poll” as to who might attend this weekend and who would attend a waterfront Friday Event at the hotel. This will help me plan for the size of a room block and event planning. You are in no way obligated and remember that we open the season in Hawaii on September 1st and will also have a class gathering that weekend in Honolulu too. (if you plan right, you have 2 months to recover from Hawaii before the ND weekend….I will be at both). I am also in negotiations with hotels in Hawaii, but the San Diego situation is time critical as I forsee the entire downtown potentially getting sold out that weekend. As always, we will do a pre-game event and have buses to and from the game like we did in Jacksonville and I will work with NAAA to get a block of game tickets. For now, if you could please email me at: robertsmith5@att.net to let me know if you want a room (Thurs or Fri-Sun) and would attend a Friday night event and how many attending. If you don’t plan on staying at the hotel but still want to attend the Friday event, I would like to know that. The hotel rate is going to be around $240 per night. You will not find cheaper in the gaslamp district or on the bayfront for a decent hotel based on my conversations with several sales managers at the nice hotels.
Thanks for this and we will actuall do sign ups later this year for the San Diego trip as well as Hawaii, but for now, I need to get a contract going to ensure we can get a block of rooms and waterfront event space and beat the rush from other Navy and ND fans. Thanks again for making the GoFundMe campaign successful and for supporting what we do as “The Class with Class”. Go Navy and I look forward to hearing from you. Regards, Bob Smith