zg-3-31-screen-shot-w-namesZoom Gatherings (Past and Upcoming)

We have been using Zoom Gatherings (ZGs) since Covid shut downs in 2020 to gather classmates in discussing significant topics affecting our lives and our society. Before our 45th reunion, the Next Chapter team held ZG sessions as introduction to the June 2023 Next Chapters Reunion Programing. During the Reunion, we enabled Zoom Gatherings to allow remote classmates to participate in in-person sessions in Cambridge.  Post the 45th reunion, we continue to offer opportunities to gather as a class.

    

See below for upcoming and past Zoom Gatherings.

         

Upcoming Zoom Gatherings    

Your Next Chapter team has lots of Get Back activities to help you get in the groove moving towords Get Back 5.0, June 2027.  Speaking of new chapters, our classmates Megan Marshall and Gish Jen are both publishing new books in 2025 with “Next Chapters” themes. Their new books will be at the center of two separate all-class Zoom events in 2025. 

   

  • On April 15 at 4pm ET, Megan and Gish will discuss and answer questions about Megan’s After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart. In the book’s six essays, Megan looks back at crisis points in her family’s history, the shaping of vocation, the loss of a beloved partner, the meaning of—and challenges created by--treasured possessions, and more. Following their conversation, classmates will have the opportunity to talk about these topics and themes as they apply to themselves. To register for the April 15 Zoom, click HERE.

    

  • In a second program, to be held in November on a date yet to be determined, Gish and Megan will turn to Bad Bad Girl, Gish’s tenth book and first autobiographical novel, which tells how history and sexism shaped both her mother’s life and hers, and how her discovery of writing at Harvard enabled her to make peace with a painful legacy.

    

We hope you’ll enjoy reading and discussing the two books with their authors and our fellow classmates.   If you have other ideas for book topics, email joanssoble.ed@gmail.com.

   

Pre-45th Reunion Zoom Gatherings - 2020-2023

Beforzoom-gatherings-45-yt-channele the reunion, Zoom Gatherings were held every couple of weeks. Did you miss any of the previous Zoom Gatherings?

You can watch them on our unlisted HR77 45th Reunion YouTube channel.  Each video is approximately an hour.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmpwHgWFCishTYWP5jOeKuChZ50T6fns7

       

     

Remote Participation at Get Back 4.5,  June 2022

We understand that not everyone can make it to the Get Back 4.5 Reunion in Cambridge, June 2-5.  But that need not prevent you from joining the fun and reconnecting with your classmates!

This reunion, you can connect by Zoom to several Next Chapter events on Saturday, June 4th.  While you will need to register for the Zoom sessions, you don’t need to register for the reunion itself. There is no charge to participate. See below for details about the specific sessions available for remote participation.

To find out more about the reunion, go to our HR77 website. If you change your mind, you can still join us in person – walk-on, day of registrations are encouraged, at the HAA Reunion Headquarters and Registration, Cabot Library, Science Center, 1 Oxford Street. Subsidy funds for registration fees are still available.

Schedule for Remote Participation Sessions, Saturday June 4th

There are several opportunities to join Next Chapter programming from afar. Note that sessions are in overlapping timeslots. All session times are eastern daylight time.

9:00–10:30am                  Longitudinal Study Results

 

11:00am–12:15pm           Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving

  

2:30–5:30 pm                  Next Chapters Zoom Gatherings (to access in-person programs):

 

2:30 - 3:50pm           Personal Reflections Sessions

                                                Strengthening Democracy

                                                Promoting Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

 

4:10 - 5:30pm           Personal Reflections Sessions

                                                Addressing Climate Change

 

à Most of the sessions require pre-registration as a Zoom Gathering. Please register as soon as possible (to assist us in event staffing). NOTE: the below includes links to topic detail on the HR77 website.

    

Details on Sessions Offering Remote Participation

9:00–10:30am EDT: Results from the Eighth Longitudinal Study

The survey provides a special opportunity to pause and reflect on life-- past, present and future-- along with your classmates. The session will start with a presentation of Longitudinal Survey findings.  The event will then open up to questions – from in-person participants and via text messages from remote classmates. 

We have reached an important inflection point in our shared journey together—when we have reached our Medicare/Social Security year -- and face real choices as to how we craft the Next Chapters in our lives. We will explore together how the arc of our lives has evolved over the last years and decades, including: 

  • How our priorities, commitments and relationships are shifting
  • The extent Covid has changed the game
  • How we are coming to terms with the realities of aging and mortality
  • ...And with all of the above, are we having any fun

On January 25, 2023, the Longitudinal Study team and classmates gathered by Zoom to discuss updated  results from our 45th Reunion's Study. The session focused on three of the most provocative questions raised by data:

  
  1. How are our lives, priorities and values changing as we move ever deeper into this next chapter in our lives?
  2. How has the life experience of women in our class differed from that of men, and why?
  3. How are we coming to terms with the "ultimate" questions, such as our mortality, legacies, and spirituality?

    To view the recorded session, click HERE and the presentation slides, clickHERE.

 

11:00am–12:15pm EDT: Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving

 

Our Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving will again take place in Memorial Church. Over the years, these memorial occasions have occupied an important place in our Reunion programming. This coming Saturday June 4th, we will pause to honor and reflect on the 127 classmates no longer with us. Readings, hymns, a choral offering by our HR77 class choir, and remarks by Rev. Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, will accompany the calling of the Roll.

You can view a recorded video of the live service from Memorial Church on YouTube at the link: https://youtu.be/3ovW8GqFfKI. No registration is required.

  

Personal Reflections Sessions

Personal Reflections conversations are small-group discussions around individual issues particularly relevant to us at this "Next Chapters in Our Lives”.  Remote classmates will participate via Zoom Gatherings. All conversations will be confidential and unrecorded. The content and direction of each conversation will be largely determined by classmates participating in them.

  

2:30-3:40pm EDT:  ZG Coming to Terms with the Realities of Aging and Mortality

4:10-5:30pm EDT: ZG Coming to Terms with the Realities of Aging and Mortality

4:10-5:30pm EDT: ZG Session for Bereaved Parents Who Have Lost a Child (a hybrid in-person and Zoom participant session)

 

Next Chapters in Our Society

Each session starts with presentations by classmates to a hybrid in-person and Zoom Gathering audience and then moves into small Zoom breakout discussions with other remote classmates.

2:30-3:50pm EDT: ZG Strengthening Democracy

According to the 45th Red Book and our January 2022 class survey, many of us (regardless of our political leanings) see serious if not existential threats to our democratic republic.   The threats have many facets: weak election laws, low civic engagement, hyper-partisanship, fake news, social media, decline in public trust, reduced social mobility, the pressures of globalization, and more.

In the plenary session with both in-person and Zoom participants, we will  discuss what constructive actions we can take, individually and collectively.  All participants will receive a resource guide recommending organizations you can join or support that do effective work to protect and strengthen democracy. Zoom partiticpants will then join breakout conversations, to share perspectives with other Zoom participants. 

2:30-3:50pm EDT:  ZG Promoting Diversity, Equality and Inclusion

We live in an era of societal disruptions. The effects of climate change, polarization of political perspectives, erosion of democracy, disregard of the rule of law, and increased attacks upon the “other” have shaken the modern world. In the United States, the “other” has usually been people of color, especially African Americans.

In our May 24th Zoom gathering, we showed two videos: one made by classmate Peter Galison about a debate on slavery at Harvard and the other a classic reading from Frederick Douglass. In our breakout sessions, we discussed how we individually and collectively can find solutions to the problem of racism in America. 

In the June 4th session plenary discussion, we will review these ideas, discuss the recent Harvard and The Legacy of Slavery report, on which participants’ thoughts and ideas will be solicited and hopefully discuss:

  • How do we break the repeating, cross-generational cycle of racism and hatred in America? 
  • At this stage of our lives, what are some ways we can individually and collectively make a difference to change things for the better?

Please continue to monitor the DEI program drop down under the HR77 Programming tab for future updates and resources.

4:10-5:30pm EDT: ZG Addressing Climate Change

Without major changes, human actions are forecast to cause global warming and catastrophic consequences.  Many of us are deeply concerned; some of us are already taking actions while others are wondering how to get involved.

This session, building on the content of our April 28th HR’77 Zoom Gathering, will focus on the topics that were of the greatest interest to the participants:

  • Recap the technologies and large-scale actions that can help us limit temperature increases to 1.5C degrees.
  • Learn how we can take personal actions to make a difference regarding our own carbon footprint, managing investments and more.
  • Understand what government policies will make the most difference and how we can, individually and collectively, become citizen advocates for policy changes.
  • Explore how our class can work together over time to continue to learn and take action.

It will start with classmate presentations, go into separate in-person and remote Zoom participant breakout conversations, and return for summary discussions. At the conclusion, we will poll both Zoom and in-person participants to gather input and guidance on how we work together going forward, to make a difference.