Kudos for Tom Hoster


Tom received an extraordinary number of notes from class members expressing sincere appreciation for his efforts in leading 72's Annual Giving campaigns.


2016

Bob.Wright


Dear Class of ’72 Executive Committee members:

Here is Tom Hoster’s final report on our recently-concluded Annual Giving effort.  Even though I know what the results were, it still amazes me to read them in final, summary form.  It also amazes me to feel the spirit Tom exudes through his enthusiasm and through just the down-and-dirty work he does all on his own, without request and without fanfare (on top of all the calls and letters, 537 personally-written thank-you notes?!).  This year’s effort was one for the ages, and is now safely a part of history.  As Tom points out, it positions us very well going into our 45th Reunion.  Thanks once again to you, Tom, and to all of the others of you who helped Tom out.  The over-65% result was truly amazing, particularly when stacked up against our neighboring classes and the University’s results as a whole. 

I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer. 

On to the 45th!

Bob


Alexander Stuart


Stunning...again!


Monoyios, Nikos


Outstanding effort Tom!  Big locomotive to you and your volunteers. You set the bar really high for our 45th but thanks to your hard work you have built the foundation for our continued success.


Larry Sanford


We have the best Class agent of any class in our decade and possibly in the entire University system. He is unparalleled and passionately relentless in his efforts to make our Class shine like a nova in the Annual Giving universe (see enclosed AG Astronomy 1.0 chart )

Larry

William D. deGolian


Tom, Don't know where we would be without your dedication to AG, but for sure no where near 65%. Thanks from all of us.

Cheers!

Bill deG


Christine Loomis


Tom,


Congratulations AND thank you very much for sharing your winning ideas for Class dues!


Tiger cheer,


Chris

Peter Wendell


Tom -- You are the absolute master at what you do...the finest of all.  We are so lucky to have you as our classmate -- THANK YOU!


Pete


Murley, Robert S.


Last week, Bill Hardt '63, head of AG at Princeton for the last 30 years, told me that Tom Hoster is now the longest serving Class Agent at Princeton and one of the most effective in Princeton's history. He is also one of the longest serving members of the Annual Giving Committee. The exceptional results this year, another in a very long string of exceptional results, are another confirmation of Bill's high praise for Tom. Of course, this comes as no surprise to all of us who have observed Tom over all these years. Thank you, Tom. Your classmates are grateful to you and proud of you.

Excelsior!

Bob


Hunter, David M.

As members of the Class of ’72, we all get to take a bow in the footlights.  But we all know that our class’s strong performance is due to Tom’s diligent and effective work over the past 24 years…  Many thanks, Tom!

Jim Robinson


If you were better looking Tom, there would be a bust of you in the AG office. You will just have to settle for kudos from the likes of me. Awesome job. You seem to keep topping your untoppable results.


R.


Ed Strauss


A truly epic achievement. What also deserves commendation is Tom’s cheerful, motivating encouragement of calls by other volunteers, taking some of the burden off his shoulders. 


Ed S


Monoyios, Nikos


 great General has good officers and inspires the troops!



Jack Griffin


Kudos once again to my roomie and great friend Tom.

People who are the best in the world at whatever they do - be it playing a sport or an instrument or math or science or raising money… are just superhuman.

Hard to comprehend, easy to admire!


Daryl English

Tom Terrific! You are truly one of a kind, and we are uniquely blessed! 

Best to all,

Daryl 



2015

Bill DeGolian:

Kudos again to Tom Hoster and the Classmates who helped with this year’s AG campaign.     Proud to be a member of the Great Class of 1972!    See all of you in the Fall.

Cheers!

Bill

Peter Wendell:

Tom --

What a great outcome you have produced for all of us and for Princeton -- just incredible and consistent!  A million thanks.

Pete
 
Larry Sanford:

Tom,

Great job. Your tenacity and tireless hard work on behalf of the class is legendary, as is your status in the halls of the Alumni Giving Office. While there may be a shortage of water in CA, apparently there's still an abundant amount of persuasive wind power.

Larry

Sandy Stuart:

Stunning report.  I’m not sure even the most leather-lunged among us could deliver a locomotive  that would be loud enough to properly acknowledge Tom’s extraordinary work on behalf of the Class. But we’re all proud, grateful—and cheering from all parts of the country.  Well done, Tom!

Charlie Kireker:

With accolades from the likes of DeGolian, Wright, Wendell and Sanford, there is nothing left to say other than quoting Smoky Robinson – "I second that emotion(s)”!   Robby should lead us in 37 locomotives at a future class gathering, to acknowledge all the other classes left in our rear view mirror.   Cheers, Charlie

Jim Robinson:

I will put it on the agenda for our next Class event!!  Great job Tom. I will say that I am often taken aback when someone I call tells me they won’t give until they have an actual conversation with Tom. I feel like the set up man to Mariana Rivera……  R.
 

David Hunter:

Without question, over these many years, Tom has demonstrated that he is the "closer” without peer…

 Best to all,

 D




2014


From Bill De Golian:

Proud to be a '72er and thanks once again to Tom and his crew.


From Sandy Stuart:

Dazzling that with your leadership we  exceeded the university-wide participation!

From Bob Wright:

What a great result.  ’72 has kept the bar high and continues to demonstrate why it deserves recognition as one of the great Princeton classes!

 I’m glad this could be the result of teamwork; thanks to all on this email for all you did, and Tom, to you for another magnificent feat of orchestration as well as an incredible amount of just plain, hard work!  We helpers all have a much better appreciation of what attaining this level of success involves, and that achieving it wouldn’t be possible without your leadership of our AG efforts over all these many years. 

 Tiger cheers!


From Traslyn Butler:

Team ’72-
On behalf of the Annual Giving office and Princeton, thank you for your dedicated effort and commitment!  The Class of ’72 continues to be a leader in AG generosity and commitment and we greatly appreciate all you do.  Here’s to the continued success of the Great Class of 1972!


From Jim Robinson:

Spectacular- another great stretch run


From Marty Franks:

Congrats to Tom et al!  Bravo!

Tom Hoster is not only a great Class Agent and fundraiser, he is also a gentleman.  While I appreciate very much the nod to his predecessors, the truth is that he is in a league of his own.  Princeton and '72 are lucky to have him.


From Peter Wendell:

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone else that we all regularly deal with was as effective at their craft as Tom Hoster?

Tom - you are a real shinning light to all of us -- consistently producing great results, engaging classmates in the effort, and bringing out the best in everyone...all while being a totally classy individual!

All of us really appreciate what you do!


From Pam Lloyd:

When exceptional performance is sustained--and sustained and sustained--it is so difficult to avoid taking it for granted.  Yet Tom's record performance, coupled with his humility and grace, remains consistently exceptional,  existing on its own special planet, a parallel Hosterian universe. So we are reminded again and again of how special he is and how fortunate we are that he is "ours".

Kudos and thanks once again to Tom and to his trusty helpers!


From Christine Loomis:

Tom,

It was a great pleasure and honor to work with you.  I learned a lot and was thrilled to participate in our Class victory.  Your team spirit is contagious.

Looking forward to next year!




From Daryl English:

Hi Tom,

I join my voice with the rest of our group in singing your praises -- grand master of AG!   Special thanks for your expert guidance, gentle persuasions (albeit more insistent toward the end!), and unfailing good humor.

 And to all, I have to say It was great fun working on this together -- comparing notes, exchanging words of encouragement -- loved the esprit de corps!  Hoping we can continue adding numbers to our group to help ease the load at the top a bit more year-by-year.

 


2013


From Bill Degolian:

Hats off to Tom and to our ‘mates that assisted him: Merc, Daryl, Wright, Robby and whoever else I have failed to mention. Let’s expand the roster of classmates who help Hoster in this thankless process, starting with me!

Hooray for ’72!!


From Peter Wendell:

This is such a great team effort by so many in the class, but all teams have leaders – and we have been so fortunate to have Tom Hoster as our class AG leader for such a long and distinguished run. 

As Bob requested of us all, take a minute to read the attached – it’s really a stunning testimony to the difference a great leader can make!

Congratulations Tom…and to the whole class!!


From Fritz Cammerzell:

Astounding! Kudos!


From Jim Marshall:

Ditto that! Thanks Tom.


From Bob Murley:

Yet another amazing performance by Class Agent extraordinaire, Tom Hoster. Thank you Tom for your continued leadership and stewardship of '72. Princeton and the Class are enormously grateful.


From Sandy Stuart:

A stunning report from Tom. Makes me proud to be a classmate of such a dedicated Princetonian. Thanks to all of you who helped Tom reduce his phone calls and emails. And congratulations to the whole class for such a splendid effort in "hangover" year.


From Nikos Monoyios:

Tom Terrific and all the Volunteers deserve great praise and thanks for an outstanding job. Let me also add that some credit also belongs to our great Reunion and Class Trip organizers for they have brought many of us together on countless happy occasions and fostered the team spirit that makes this possible.

looking forward to another class gathering with our Left Coast friends.


From Kip Hewitt:

So let’s just get this straight Tom. It appears that buried in your report on page 3 is an important and compelling detail that is worth savoring.

It appears that, paraphrasing a famous quip -- some blow-hard in ’76 said, in effect, "In three weeks, ’76 will have your neck wrung like a chicken. …. ‘Some Chicken, Tom!….Some neck!”


From Skip Rankin:

What a great way to conclude our 41st year as alumni. Way to go Tom, and all who helped this year!


From Ron Brown:

Having worked in the Development Office at Princeton for 15 years, and in a similar position at Fordham for the last 20 months, I am aware more than ever that Princeton is the Mount Everest (Nikos might prefer "Mount Olympus") of Annual Giving.  And among Princeton classes of the 1970's, thanks to Tom Hoster, his merry band of volunteers, and our generous classmates, '72 stands out as the best damn class of all!


From Marty Franks:

Amazing and wonderful.  Congrats to all, especially Mr. Hoster.  While he is kind to cite the efforts of yours truly, Murley, Strauss and Murphy who preceded him, suspect I speak for each when I say Tom lapped us all a very long time ago. 

 Tom, profound thanks for further burnishing the great and still growing legacy of Princeton ’72.


From Larry Kurtz:

Yesterday, thanks to Jack Griffin, Tom and me, and our wives, were aboard the "America" on the 162nd anniversary of its 1851 win in the first America's Cup race ... as it sailed across this year's finish line at exactly 12:37 pm -- GMT 8:37 -- to the minute of the anniversary.  At a point during the sail, I asked Tom about Annual Giving ... he was typically modest and at no time did he bring up the impressive results recounted in his memo ... but because a recent e-mail to local classmates about our upcoming West Coast event went completely unanswered, I was interested in his experience across the full class.

He had some heartwarming anecdotes about tracking down non-responsive classmates, but bottom-line, only about 40 classmates out of about 800 have never participated in AG. Tom is not only ingenious, but sincere and persuasive, qualities that any effective fundraiser must have. Because he is not only effective, but off-the-charts successful, it follows that Tom is one of the greatest ambassadors Princeton has ever had ... and a focal reason why '72 is truly Princeton's Greatest Class.


Thanks, Tom, for bringing out the best in us.

From Barbara Julius:

If we all step up to the plate to help with phone calls, as deGo suggested, I think we should aim for 72% participation from this great class and really make Tom proud!


From Dave Hunter:

A '72 locomotive to Tom and his volunteers. His hands on leadership has allowed our class to set this lofty standard.


From Grif Johnson:

A worthy aim, Barbara, a concrete goal, and one which (if I've not botched the arithmetic) can be achieved by adding 67 non-donor classmates from this past Annual Giving year to next year's donor rolls (assuming that we don't lose anybody). If a few more of us can step up as Daryl, Merc, and Bob did this past year to help out, we can take a run at the 300 non-donors in the 2012-13 AG year and try to pull us up to the magic 72% participation level in 2013-14. That would require a 22% success rate among 2012-13 non-donors. Achievable?


From Merc Morris:

As you now know, Daryl English, Bob Wright and I joined veteran Robby Robinson (and certainly others not named) to help Tom with Annual Giving calls this year. I think I can speak for my fellow novices on this point: our classy agent gives us too much credit for the results except for one fact—we took a few names off his list. We toted a few buckets for Tom; we gave him a little bit of his life back and it seems to have yielded some results. I will admit that my first calls felt awkward, but the process became easier as I began to realize that Annual Giving calling is really an excuse for reconnecting. The outreach on behalf of us, our class, is what matters—sure it may yield a few dollars more and Lord knows, Princeton needs money, right? Ever the coach, Tom guided us to engage our classmates on behalf of the Class of 1972.We are known for this--while ’71 does bands; we do participation and crush challengers to our crown.

Think of how effective our outreach could be if each of us on the Executive Committee called five, or maybe ten classmates-your friends that you see at class trips or reunions? I can promise you that Coach Hoster would be more than happy for a rookie training camp and if you sign up to help, you will learn from The Master that it is easier done than said. And it’s a lot more fun than you think.



From Ed Strauss:

Tom is characteristically generous to mention my long-ago stint as Class Agent for '72. More recently I've been involved professionally in higher-ed development work. As I'm sure Ron Brown can say, too, I'm proud to see the reverence and awe which Princeton's annual-giving performance inspires among fundraisers, worldwide. Princeton's pinnacle achievement is directly attributable to the dedicated hard work of Tom himself and other Class Agents and volunteers who witness and seek to emulate what he is accomplishing, year after year. It's a wonder to behold.


From Andy Dayton:

We've been blessed for many years with deep talent and enviable, admirable dedication in our class leadership and Tom is one of the best.


From Daryl English:

Merc has expressed my feelings as well, with grace and eloquence! I just want to add my voice to the appeal for more callers to help lighten Tom's load. As Merc suggests, committing to 5 or even 10 names each -- which is really a very manageable task individually -- would make a tremendous difference to the total effort. A few observations from my personal experience....

o "Tom's tips" made it quite easy to get over any initial awkwardness in making those first calls, and getting best results throughout. Strategy and tactics, scripting and other practical tools , not to mention timely reassurances and general cheerleading -- Tom was always right there with exactly what I needed. Just as he has been for our class in every campaign he has led. Tom, I am deeply grateful, on all counts.

o I started out contacting old friends and acquaintances, many of whom I hadn't talked with in years, and reconnecting was a lot of fun. I then reached out to people I didn't know, with whom I shared some connection -- other women in the class, other former Wilson College residents (TigerTracks made it easy to find them) -- and had the pleasure of establishing some brand-new acquaintances. Even after all these years -- very rewarding!

o If you have a chance to jump in on a Cane Spree Challenge, take it! The narrow window for those donations, with the bonus award as incentive, made it very easy to make the case (and get over the hurdle of making those first calls). And the immediate turnaround on donations was very gratifying!

Stating the obvious, we have an amazing class, both as individuals, and as a collective force -- thanks to the dedication and drive of our leaders and trip organizers over many years. With special thanks to Tom, 72 locomotives to all of you!