HSA 65th Anniversary Book

fy
06
FEBRUARY 1, 2005 –
JANUARY 31, 2006
St. Martin’s Press slashes
the Let’s Go title line
fy
07
FEBRUARY 1, 2006 –
JANUARY 31, 2007
Financial storm clouds gather
PRESIDENT
Caleb
Merkl
OFFICES
67 Mt. Auburn St.
17 Holyoke St.
52 JFK St.
HARVARD
STUDENT
AGENCIES
LET’S GO TITLES
Wow! Talk about a whirlwind, roller-coaster year. HSA said goodbye to Anne Chisholm, who ended her
12-year reign as Assistant General Manager in September. Vice President Nahu Ghebremichael ’06 headed
up a massive project at Cleaners by completely revamping the freshman linen program. The old system of
outsourcing for a percentage was dropped, and the entire program was brought in house. Rentals pioneered
a successful grocery-delivery service that brought snacks in bulk to students’ doors — only to see its manager
and three other students abruptly quit to start a direct competitor. When DormAid announced plans to
provide laundry- and grocery-delivery services to the same Boston-area colleges HSA was planning to
expand to, HSA accused the mutinous cabal of breach of contract.
Simultaneously one of the most exciting and most devastating ventures, HSA’s planned mega-concert
fell just short of realization. The Board’s approval of $200,000 in funding along with the college’s and the
Harvard Concert Commission’s cooperation made the idea of a concert at Harvard Stadium seem like a
possibility. Interest on the part of the preferred performer, the Dave Matthews Band, made the project seem
even more promising. However, in one quick and painful blow, the effort collapsed: an offer popped up in a
competing time frame from the difficult-to-top venue of Fenway Park.
Still, all was not lost for FY06 and bold entrepreneurial projects. Unofficial Publications expanded the
successful Guide to Summer Opportunities to other New England schools. The Harvard Fun Czar also
approached HSA about initatives to make Harvard fun again; displaying the keen business acumen typical
of HSAers, someone suggested alcohol may be a winning solution. HSA thenceforth hosted a series of “Pub
Nights” in Loker Commons, drawing up to 1,000 revelers per weekend with bunches of kegs, a DJ, and
endless amounts of Noch’s pizza. After several weeks of successful events, the college agreed that alcohol
was in fact the solution and plopped down the funds to renovate Loker into a permanent pub.
At The Harvard Shop, the One Ring Program gained momentum and saw student interest in rings double
from FY05. Major changes were made to the stock system, as inventory moved to the basement of Burke-
McCoy Hall to allow for greater storage and fewer stock outages in the store. Product offerings included the
ever-popular Vineyard Vines Harvard tie for the first time.
After only three years of the rebooted Let’s Go, St. Martin’s opted to pull the plug and rebrand Let’s Go
once again. The covers donned a more youthful, artsy-craftsy collage motif, and the series stabilized to a
manageable number of guides. A new business model called for only 24 of the most profitable guides to be
updated going forward — six annually, nine in even years, and nine in odd years. RWs avoided unfamiliar
territory as Let’s Go did not introduce any new titles for the first time in several years. Instead, Let’s Go
unveiled an improved website, complete with RW blogs and forums for travelers to connect. One blog, for
example, answered the all-important question, “Why you should always stop to talk to Czechoslovakian
ex-pats permanently residing in Australia but currently planning to spend the night curled up on a patch of
dirt near a 13th century cathedral.”
PRESIDENT
Brian
Feinstein
OFFICES
67 Mt. Auburn St.
17 Holyoke St.
52 JFK St.
HARVARD
STUDENT
AGENCIES
After years of prosperity from thriving Let’s Go
sales, HSA found itself in leaner times. In what
was dubbed a rebuilding year, nearly every agency
cut unnecessary expenses and sought new sources
of revenue. HSR dished up a new summer course
for eager high-school students: the first SAT
SOS Course. Undergrads could be seen sporting
backpacks with the bright Leadership in Law
Conference logo, a recurring new sibling to the
Center for Enterprise’s flagship Business Leadership
Program. Not content with dry-cleaning and
laundry, Cleaners gave seniors a cheap alternative
to the Coop’s monopoly over cap and gown rentals.
The FY07 management team at Blair Brown Day.
The agency also swallowed up HSA Storage, which
caused some heartburn: the outside company HSA contracted with, Collegeboxes, lost some student items
and didn’t deliver others on time, sparking a rash of complaints.
A tech team led by IT Director Patrick Carroll ’08 worked furiously to keep HSA on the cutting edge.
In just a single year, they revamped The Harvard Shop’s website, brought The Unofficial Guide online, and
upgraded the IT infrastructure in Lorraine Facella’s well-oiled back-office machine. Despite the Cleaners
and Rentals storefront’s resemblance to a warehouse, Carroll’s striking new HSA website helped push
Harvard Summer School sales to record highs.
By the end of the year, the FY07 team had brought HSA closer to breaking even. With Bob Rombauer’s
tenure approaching its end, the Board of Directors began its search for a new General Manager and
introduced a Long-Range Planning Committee to sniff out ways for HSA to return to its days of heady
profits.
The Harvard Shop continued its steady growth. Classrooms from Pound Hall to Longwood echoed with
the sound of metal tapping on tables, thanks to the expansion of class rings to Harvard’s many graduate
schools. Sales from the One Ring Program hit 500, a significant milestone in only the third year of the
program. The Harvard Shop struck partnerships with the Square’s omnipresent tour buses, convincing
some to pull over directly in front of 52 JFK St. in exchange for a tidy commission. Still, one of the greatest
successes on the year was convincing Doris Jones not to quit despite the team’s endless pranks on her.
Let’s Go sales continued to decline, spurring St. Martin’s Press to remarket the redone guides. However, its
mostly ineffective strategies just further soured the relationship between Let’s Go and its publisher. On the
road, the 71 RWs kept on trucking, producing 15 more guides to everywhere from Australia to Vietnam.
• Europe
• Britain
• France
• Italy
• USA
• Greece
• Spain & Portugal
AGENCIES
• Mexico
• London
• Ireland
• Eastern Europe
• New Zealand
• Western Europe
• Amsterdam
• Puerto Rico
OTHER TITLES
• The Unofficial Guide to Life
at Harvard
• Bartending 101: The Basics
of Mixology
• The Unofficial Guide to
Prefrosh Weekend
• The Harvard Guide to
Summer Opportunities
• The Unofficial Guide to Life
in Boston
LET’S GO TITLES
• Europe
• Britain
• France
• Italy
• Spain & Portugal
AGENCIES
• New York City
• Germany
• Paris
• Australia
• Western Europe
• Hawaii
• Costa Rica
• Thailand
• Vietnam
• Roadtripping USA
OTHER TITLES
• The Unofficial Guide to Life
at Harvard
• The Unofficial Guide to
Prefrosh Weekend
• The Harvard Guide to
Summer Opportunities
• HSA Cleaners
• Let’s Go Publications
• Harvard Student Resources
• Harvard Distribution
Services
• Let’s Go Ad Sales
• Unofficial Publications
• Center for Enterprise
• HSA Rentals
• The Harvard Shop
• HSA Storage
• HSA Translation
• HSA Cleaners
• Let’s Go Publications
• Harvard Student Resources
• Harvard Distribution
Services
• Let’s Go Ad Sales
• Unofficial Publications
• Center for Enterprise
• HSA Rentals
• The Harvard Shop
86 HSA 65th Anniversary History Book 87