HOW DOES THE CHSAAA DIFFER FROM OTHER ALUMNI SITES?
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THE CHSAAA
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COMMERCIAL SITES
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I. CHSAAA.org lists the entire roster for every Cupertino High School graduation class. Also listed are complete rosters of all CHS faculty and classified employees. We are after all, an All Alumni Association.
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Commercial alumni web sites list class lists for every graduating class but include only those people who have logged on either as visitors or as paying members. In some cases they are not even members of graduation class.
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II. At CHSAAA the entire graduating class rosters have a key which is used opposite each alumni which indicates all the information we have on that person including e-mail address, mailing address and phone number. Also the key will show if that person has written a short bio, which is listed alphabetically following the class roster.
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The Commercial alumni class indicates if that person would like to receive e-mail and whether or not they have filled out a profile survey. This survey among other things tells how expensive a car they drive, what their political philosophy is, their hobbies, their pet peeves, what their income level is, family pets, whether they feel they have achieved their goals in life etc. They may also have photos of themselves or family on file that can be viewed. They may also write a bio about themselves which can be accessed.
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III. CHSAAA will relay E-mail messages that alumni who are members of CHSAAA wish to send to any Cupertino High School alumni who has an e-mail address on file with CHSAAA. We encourage the member sending the e-mail to include their own e-mail address in their message. That way the alumni being contacted can reply and a connection can be made between the two of them.
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The commercial alumni web sites will also relay messages sent by members of their web site to other alumni of the school they graduated from. They don't encourage the exchanging of e-mails but would rather the communication continue to be carried on through them.
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IV. CHSAAA makes its data available only to CHS graduating classes organizing class reunions and other larger or smaller CHS groups working on getting together. CHSAAA also generates and facilitates multi-class events and even decade get-togethers. We are currently beginning to gear up for Cupertino High's 50th birthday in 2008.
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The commercial alumni web sites make most of their money not from selling memberships but from selling information. E-mail addresses can be neatly divided up into particular age groups based on when that person graduated. The same can be done with the profile surveys information that they acquire not only from members also often from the unsuspecting web site browser.
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V. All CHSAAA profits after administrative costs go to help extra curricular programs, dropped or threatened with closure, to continue at Cupertino High School. These very trying days of budget cutbacks for education in general. We hope we can do our part keep Cupertino High School as great as it was when we were students, faculty members, classified employees or parents of students. Some of us have played several of these alumni roles.
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All profits after administrative costs go of course to the commercial alumni web sites and they do very well. This is the "Information Age" and they have lots of it to sell.
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VI. It costs $25 annually
to be a member of CHSAAA.
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It costs $35 annually to be a member of Classmates.com which is the largest of the alumni web sites on the inter net. But what keeps them going is the information they have to sell from the over 38 million alumni that they claim use their site. To them a free loading browser is just as valuable as a dues paying member.
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