Any school alumni website webmasters out there?

Question No 1.

Do you run an alumni website with WordPress?

I could run a WordPress alumni site on my own server or host it at WordPress.com — but I haven’t decided yet and would like to hear about your experiences first.

What do you think of WordPress used for this purpose? Can you show me your alumni website? (If you’re not comfortable displaying the link here can you contact me privately with a link? ms dot amazon at gmail dot com

Question No. 2

In talking to some alumni (1960s through 1970s) I realized most aren’t comfortable with computers. I forsee a lot of hand holding with a WordPress site. Looking for an easier way out, I found:

Project Alumni, an open source “lightweight” alumni application. It’s a little too lightweight for what I want to do, though.

ClassQuest.com: they give you free hosting/software but get 6% of reunion ticket/merchandise sales.

MyEvent.com: $9.95 a month.

OurClassOnline.com: $119.95 a year

I’m wondering if alumni website webmasters have tried any of these options and think they’re worth the money, rather than trying to shoehorn WordPress into this kind of job.

Most features I want, though, are available through WP and associated plugins, like password-protection and photo galleries. It’s just that it may be a lot more work for me.

I appreciate any feedback on this type of project. Thanks!