I suppose that many of us consider reunions – organising them or attending them – as duties or obligations to be met instead of something you actually enjoy being involved with.  I freely admit that I when I think about reunions I'd rather imagine more pleasurable activities instead, such as visiting the dentist or painting the fence; however, when I went to the 40th anniversary reunion for the Daramalan "class of '69" I was surprised how easily one's preconceptions can change.  It was a wonderful opportunity to reminisce about "the good old days" and regale one another, our spouses and partners, with stories that might ease their suspicions we'd always been grumpy old men.

This recent event prompted me to make a long-overdue effort to find information on the whereabouts of some of our former classmates, if not only to help prepare for the 50th anniversary of Daramalan (due in 2012) then at least to see if we can get together again informally somehow, someplace. I believe I’ve located a number of people and I will be writing to them soon. Of the others, I fear that most of them have long ago left Canberra for whereabouts unknown. Undoubtedly, our busy lives have not left us much time – or dulled our interest, perhaps – to maintain much contact with old schoolmates. Also there wasn’t the organisational support during that time that allowed us to track former classmates. I confess these were my reasons for not having kept up with my friends from school. The internet is a modern wonder. Wouldn't it have been great if it had existed 40 years ago?

I realise that the fog of 40 years has clouded our memories but I've had this feeling – or perhaps I developed the feeling over time – that when I was at school there wasn’t a person whom I disliked or with whom I had difficulties. We really were an easy-going bunch and, even though we didn’t necessarily socialise with everyone every single day of our school lives, my greatest memory of school was how well we all seemed to get along. This was quite evident at our recent gathering – we all mixed together as if very little had changed.

I agree that attending class reunions is not for everyone just as it's not to everyone's liking to use the internet to preserve contact with one's friends or family. I also agree that other people will not share my naïve, rose-coloured view of the world and that they're entitled to carry on their lives in such ways as they're accustomed. However, in the case of "keeping in touch", it's not only what we want but it's often about others' needs. Also, if I've learnt anything in this life, the only certainty in this world is that everything changes.

If, therefore, I have managed to convey a sense of my motivation perhaps I should also lay forth my hopes for this website. A number of you reading this would be aware that Daramalan already has an alumni website and you may be wondering what could I possibly hope to accomplish. Let me state at this point that I have no desire to diminish nor compete with the efforts of others who are dedicated to the needs of the Daramalan alumni community; that work deserves high praise. Indeed, if I achieve nothing else, I hope that my efforts will complement and serve as a signpost to the Daramalan alumni website.

Despite the best intentions of website designers, builders and administrators, no matter how well their sites are designed, built and administered, there will always be niche groups whose needs lie outside a website's scope. This is particularly true of alumni websites which attempt to cater to a wide range of people whose only common interest, perhaps, was that they shared the same piece of geography. While the Daramalan alumni website embraces this eclectic notion there are special needs of my generation that are of little or no interest to recent generations of school-leavers. I had this idea to create a website for anyone who was at Daramalan in the late 60s early 70s (not only those who, like me, completed their final year in 1969) as well as for their families and friends. I feel that we should preserve our own narrative of school life and what has happened in the years since but I wasn't sure how this could be done (nor whether it was entirely appropriate to even attempt something along these lines) within the framework of the "official" alumni website.

At this time I've only put together the basic site framework but I'm fairly confident that the forum will be a major focus: a place for people to drop in and let us know that they're still alive and kicking and to share their news with others. A start has been made. Though you have many questions – I won't pretend that I'll be able to answer them all – from my preliminary discussions one that stands out is "Why should people do this?" If there's to be any kindling of enthusiasm for an idea then someone has to light the match. Naturally, there will be some who would prefer to let the fire die out but I won't resile from being labelled a nostalgic arsonist! In very broad terms, we have an enormous potential and the means to exploit it in every way imaginable: from sharing stories, to posting a simple "G’day", showing us your photos, videos, news and contact information, as well as arranging to get together with one another; it's pretty much whatever you would like.

The next step is yours. You've read my "mission statement" but it's up to you whether you want to get on-board.