What is it?
Continuum is a social network for all who shared the Woodstock Country School experience – alumni, faculty and staff. It is for us, by us and about us. It is an outgrowth of a story-gathering project conceived after the 2010 reunion and will function as the communication vehicle for the WCS Alumni Association. Continuum will thrive on the participation of all who become members. It has most of the Facebook features that many of us already enjoy, but is privately managed and therefore not subject to encroaching commercialism and unwelcome roving eyes. Furthermore, it includes areas for professional networking, life passages and announcements of current news and events. It supports longer-form submission and commentary, so it will evolve to form the basis of a collective, conversational memoir, including all the assets we can gather, organized into one, proprietary website for our own enjoyment.
Who is "WCS…"?
This is the administrative identity given to the collection of individuals who are directing the development of the site at any given time on behalf of the WCS Alumni Association. Presently, these individuals include Bill Boardman, Annika Hurwitt Schahn, John Williams and Catherine Fort. It is hoped that this group may grow and change over time, and those interested in getting involved are encouraged to send a note to admin@woodstockcountryschool.com.
How does it work?
Built upon a highly interactive social network platform, the content of Continuum is defined by the participation of members. Each contribution from any member expands the value of Continuum to all. While many features are still under development presently, such as photo and video archives, professional network, etc., members are absolutely encouraged to begin doing any of the following:
• Complete the Member Profile, adding a photo
• Post a brief status message at the top of the activity feed
• Post an item of any length on your profile page or in any of the categories under Stories; or in the News or In Memory areas under the Community tab
• Comment on others' postings or activity
• Add photos and/or artwork under the Archives tab
• Join a conversation in one of the categories under the Discussions tab
• Use the Chat area to enjoy one-on-one contacts with other members
• Make a donation to the WCS Alumni Association at Support Continuum under the Welcome tab
Problems using the features and functions?
In time there will be an FAQ page developed to address common members' questions. In the meantime, you can send an email for guidance to admin@woodstockcountryschool.com, or enter your issue in the Continuum Feedback area under the Discussions tab.
Getting started: how do I post a story on Continuum?
One of the most powerful benefits of Continuum is that members will have the ability to share stories – from their experiences while at WCS, how they got there, the reunions that followed – thereby contributing to a collective memoir from that special time and place that transformed so many of our lives. Here's how to add your piece:
1. Click on the "Stories" tab and choose any story category
2. Click on the "add" button up near the menu, just to the right of center.
3. In the fields shown, enter a title, then text and other content. The little icons allow including attachments, photos, videos, etc., if you like. Please choose a title that picks up a highlight of your story, rather than just "How I got to Woodstock," for example.
4. After you've entered content into the text field, look below that and choose the appropriate category from the roll-down menu button labeled "Tags." and choose the category or categories where the story belongs (i.e.: "How did you get to WCS"). Don't leave this page until you take the next step…
5. Scroll to the very bottom and click "Publish Post" to post your content. You're done. If you feel the need to go back and edit your post at any time, click on the "options" menu button that now appears up near where the "add" button is located on your post page and select "edit."
How do I control the emails that I receive from Continuum?
Many of us are inundated with more information in our inboxes than we want. You can control the email notifications you receive from Continuum by clicking on the "settings" link in the upper right panel with your name in the title. In the area called "my settings" you can control all the details of your own interaction with Continuum using the five links at the top left: Profile, Privacy, E-mail, My Page and Connections. Click on "Email" to set the level of notifications you wish to receive.
Please give us feedback!
Continuum will thrive only on the enthusiasm and participation of its members. It is also a work-in-progress. Those of us "admins" who are currently developing it need to know if we're hitting the mark, or if there are important enhancements we ought to address. In both cases, your comments will be greatly appreciated. Please either send an email to admin@woodstockcountryschool.com, or enter your comments in the Continuum Feedback area under the Discussions tab.
Comments
My story of how I got to WCS is very different as I went there for my first teaching job after graduating in Feb. 1951 from Yale with my BA in psychology and 8 months working as a psych. aide in the Yale Psychiatric Clinic. In the middle of that after signing with the Yale Placement Office I received information that various schools were looking for teachers. As WCS was one which sounded more interesting than others, I wrote and was invited to be interviewed by David Bailey. It was a rather strange interview in that David lay in his sick bed at his mother's home in New Haven, CT. We sat and talked for a while and then he offered me a job teaching sciences. As I had been pre-med at one time, I thought I might be able to handle that, so I accepted. Of course, I would be living in a boys' dorm with, on the other side of the ground floor, in a single room and a family on the other side, on the Green in Woodstock and had no idea what that would turn out to be like. Before the 1951 semester was to begin, I drove to Woodstock, parked in front of the dorm and, as I was unloading my things into my single room, a student greeted me and said after my introduction, "Well, you follow a loser!". That was my introduction to WCS.
I could provide many stories of those early years living with some 20 boys overheard and a great family next doork and my memories, even though I am 90 years of age, are plentiful, colorful and permanent even though many others in my life are gone. Classes were up the hill where the girls' dorm, Greenhithe was located with classrooms, including some new biology and chemistry labs to be built, where we remained with me enjoying greatly my first teaching meeting Priscilla J. Baird during the 1st year and us marrying in June of 1992 and continuing there until the classroom building burned down one night - to the ground. The faculty gathered in Greenhithe faculty room to dicuss 'what next?'. Buffy Dunker, who lived very close by in her house, immediately offered her kitchen for use for my biology and zoology classes, and we met there for dissecting as well as other matters. The remainder of the year was without any special memories other than of many of the students, and Upwey was bought, I worked with Ivan Shove helping during the summer months to convert the horse barn into library, school office, dining room & kitchen, common room, David's office, faculty room and classrooms, bathrooms and possibly a few other space I don't remember. The large dorm of boys moved into the loft overhead and the girls moved into the farm house the the Moon home. Thus 1954-55 year started in the new Home of WCS in South Woodstock, Vermont.
I will stop now to see if there is any interest in my continuing on with a very few of my experiences at WCS. I remained until winning a National Science Fellowship for the Academic Year 1959-1960 at Harvard University, so we moved to Cambridge, MA next.
Curtis P. Hinckley
St. Petersburg, FL
<chinckle@gmail.com>
(727) 864-7435
{I'm not sure the above qualifies as "a comment."]