5 Things Reunion Planners Should Stop Doing-Now!

Stop Sending Invitations Through  Snail  Mail

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For more than a century, the mailbox and the rotary dial phone were how we communicated.  But times have changed, we no longer have eight track tapes, floppy disks,  typewriters and . no one is using shorthand.  Family reunion planners should embrace the advances in technology when sending invitations and keeping  in  touch with family members.

I’m all for sending thank you cards, Christmas and birthday cards and wedding announcements by sail mail but when it comes  to family reunion invitations and flyers using email and texts just makes sense.

First off, consider the cost, at almost 50 cents for a stamp, the cost of mailing every family an invitation adds up quickly, especially if you have a large family.  Also factor in the cost of paper and ink to  print it on  or the cost  of taking your  invitations to a print  shop  to have them professionally printed.  You also need to figure in  the labor involved, sorting, stapling ,folding and putting  your  invitations into envelopes.

A reunion  planner can sit at her computer, compose a quick message, or create a beautiful custom invitation and send it off to the entire reunion family in a matter of seconds. No stamp is required, no trip to the  post office,  and no time is taken to physically fold, staple and lick. Just send it out and your whole family can be reading  it in a matter of minutes.

Our family has enjoyed sharing our family news and information on our family Facebook page and I know some families that have created their own family websites.  Both are convenient, instant and inexpensive ways to keep in touch.

However email isn’t perfect, Grandma and Grandpa and great Aunts and Uncles may still need a  physical invitation that arrives in their mailbox but using the latest technology is a great tool for reunion planners. 

Stop trying to do everything yourself

DeLoy and Marilynn Stewart family - Copy

This one is huge.  As a reunion planner you have enough to do without  worrying about every detail of your reunion.  Form a committee and give out assignments or if working solo, make a list of activities and give out assignments.  A simple way to make assignments is by family group.

There are 6 children in my husband’s family.  They are all over 60 years old now and have adult children of their own.  For most reunions, each family group receives an assignment to do an activity and plan and cook a meal.  When my family is given an assignment my children help with the planning and implementing of that assignment.

The theme of our last reunion was, “Game On”.  Every family group  was in charge of a JUMBO sized family game.  Our game was one of 6 games we played at the reunion and one of 6 activities the reunion planner didn’t have to worry about.

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Many years ago, we planned a “Cruise” themed reunion.  Each of the family groups choose a port of call and planned activities and a meal that represented the culture of that port.  Because there was six families, we sailed to six countries including Mexico, Alaska, Africa and Paris, France.

cruise camp 2012

 Stop spending your own money

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No matter how much you love each other, it still costs money to hold a family reunion.
You may charge reunion goers a fee for attending their reunion or you may ask them to donate food or other supplies but if you are a reunion planner I guarantee that you are spending your own money (Probably more than you think) to make your reunion  successful. 

For many families, putting someone (or a committee) over managing the money is a huge help.  This person should be  responsible  for all things money including any fund raising that takes  place.

Our family does a family auction to help with reunion expenses.  The responsibility for the auction including encouraging family members to bring donations  to  be auctioned  off  is up to  our reunion financial  guru.  She keeps track of all winning  bids and  collects the money.  She  also deposits the cash in  our family reunion bank account and  pays all the  bills. It’s one last thing the reunion planner needs to worry about.

Every reunion organizer needs a notebook to  record every purchase they make for the reunion. Glue an envelope in the back of your notebook for keeping receipts and at the completion of your reunion, review your purchases and submit your receipts to the money manager. 

Keep in mind that the purchases you make are made with  precious funds and  take care to spend wisely but if there doesn’t seem to be enough funds for one  of your activities unless you pay for it then it’s  time  to cut it from  the list. 

Stop worrying About Those that don’t attend the Reunion

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When you’re the  one  that  has  worked so  hard to plan  and implement  a reunion  it’s pretty hard to not take it  personally when someone tells you they can’t  attend.

Over the last 40 years of family reunions I have heard  some   pretty ridiculous reasons /excuses that someone can’t attend a family reunion but I’ve also learned that if someone doesn’t want  to come to the  reunion they’re just  not  going to come, no matter what you say  or do to change  their mind.  The reason they give you for not attending may have nothing to do with the  real reason  they’re not coming.

Focus instead on all  the wonderful people that come to the  reunion- cousin  Toby that planned his wedding so that his  anniversary would never  fall on the reunion weekend and Aunt Jean and Uncle Mack who save their work vacation every year so that they can attend.  Those are the people that need your attention and perhaps you’ll see some of the non-attenders next year when they hear how much fun everyone had at the reunion  they missed.

To encourage attendance at the next reunion, send out a nice,  personalized email or text to those that didn’t attend letting them know that they were missed.

have very strong memories of being around my extended family while I was growing up. It was so meaningful to the older generation to sit around talking and spending time together. Seeing someone’s child, the extension of your family play and run with other family members was a joyful and celebrating occasion.

There was a time when people felt such a connection to their family that even though they may have moved to another city or state, they still longed for home.

In past years, when I attended family reunions we end up divided into groups of people that we associate with on a regular basis anyway, and never get to know distant cousins and other relatives who have traveled great distances to be here, so what’s the point?

11. (Enter name) will be there and I refuse to be in the same room, let alone city with that..

I can’t justify spending (enter amount) dollars to travel across the country to spend time with people I will not see or hear from again until the next family reunion.

To have a strong family, we have to be a strong family member. We can’t sit back and say what someone else isn’t doing when we aren’t doing those very things ou

reunions can be an opportunity to solidify or even create important boundaries that have been ignored or neglected in the past. One way to do that in advance is to remind a spouse, sibling, in-law or parent if you’ve told them something you want kept private from other family members.  Another is to set ground rules with your spouse about maintaining a united front in discussions about your marriage, child-raising, financial status, or any sensitive topics that are just between the two of you.

They may come next year when  they hear how much everyone else had.

Don’t Reinvent the wheel

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We live in an age when everyone is sharing their expertise and experiences on the internet. 

AmazingReunion.com is a simple free online service helping people plan their next family reunion. They can help with registration, hotel reservations and collecting fees.

Familyreunionhelper.com is a website that offers reunion theme packages that are packed full of reunion ideas- activities, games, recipes, printables and templates that take a lot of the “planning” out of reunion planning.

Glean from  the experiences of others when organizing your reunion.  Talk with friends and work associates,  find out what their favorite family reunions are. The  experiences of others is a great jumping  off  point for creating the  perfect reunion for your family. 

Planning a family reunion is a huge responsibility for reunion planners but as you work through the reunion process keep in mind the reason you’re having a reunion.  Don’t wait for a funeral to get together, plan a reunion where your family and  play and have fun together. The work you do will assure  that children will get to know their distant cousins and is a way for families to reconnect with their roots and find a sense of belonging.

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A Question of 3’s

A printable version of the Tribond game

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One of our local radio stations is having a contest.  They give you three words and you have to to figure out what the three words have in common.  The example I heard on the radio was- Penny, Ford Motor Company, Nebraska.  I was pretty excited when I  figured it out. (Too bad I was driving and couldn’t call the station to win my prize.) 

It did give me an idea of a printable game I could share on familyreunionhelper.com and after doing some research, came up with the  printable game that I call “A Question of 3’s”  All you need is a copy of the  game  for each player which you can find below and a pencil. Oh, and the answer to the puzzle I heard on the radio- they are all Lincolns.

Answers

1. All are tables
2. All are worms
3. All have rings
4. All are cracked
5. All have whites
6. Types of berries
7. All have holes
8. All have Lincolns
9. All are pitched
10. Types of boards
11. Types of poles
12. Types of tellers
13. All have shells
14. All can be carved
15. Types of winds
16. All have capes
17. Types of mail
18. Can be tuned
19. Make deliveries
20. All have pockets

Planning a School Reunion Party

 

Whether it’s been 10 years, 20 years or 50 years, high school reunions are a time to catch up with old friends and reminisce about days gone by. Planning a school reunion can be a daunting task but the ideas shared in this article written by Sally Fain gives many  helpful suggestions to help you start  planning and soon you’ll find yourself catching up with bygone friends.

Planning a School Reunion Party

By Sally Fain

If you’re curious about what happened to all your old school friends, who married who, what jobs they’re doing now and how many of you have kids, why not find out by having a school reunion party?

Locating Your Old Friends

The first thing you need to do when planning the perfect reunion is find all your old friends.

The Place to Start is Facebook

As more than one billion people worldwide have a Facebook account. If your friends have identified what school they attended in the education section of their profile, you may be able to find them that way as Facebook can link you with others who attended your school. You can also search by name and surname but this is more difficult as people get married and change their names and some choose a nickname for their account.
You do have the option of posting a request for your friends to get in touch with you via the site and for a very small advertising fee, you can ‘boost’ your post so that it is highlighted and appears on Facebook’s News feed. This will attract more attention to it.

School Search Engines

You can also try Gradfinder, an entirely free search engine that allows you to search for your school and covers all states.

If you don’t know the contact details of your school, you could try the American School Directory – an extensive nationwide directory that provides fax numbers, phone numbers, addresses and other details for all public, private and catholic schools.
Once you have located the school you can ask if a reunion request can be published on their website.
Once you’ve found your friends form your reunion committee. Planning things out will be less stressful and more manageable with help!

Pick a Sensible Location 

Some of your friends may have to travel from other countries so you should pick a location that is nearer for the majority. It should also be near a hotel so that those travelling long distances have somewhere to stay overnight.

Keep the Venue Affordable

If some of your friends are paying a lot for fuel airline tickets in order to attend the reunion, don’t hire out an expensive venue which would then require you to sell expensive tickets. This will reduce the turn out for your event. For more affordable venues, ask about hiring your church hall or community center.

Another great idea to is ask your old school authority if you can hold your reunion at the school that you all went to. Not only will it add to the charm of your reunion, but the money you spend on hiring the school hall will be given to the school to benefit its current students. Its other advantage is that school accommodation is usually large so it shouldn’t be a problem if your mates bring their husbands, wives and children with them.

Fundraise in Advance

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 Don’t pay for everything up front as you may get people dropping out. Attendance should be by invitation only, where guests who wish to come send a ticket fee with their invitation slip (or for ease and speed, you could set up a function via facebook and paypal and have them send their acceptance and ticket fee online). If you don’t want to individually charge for tickets, you could try fundraising by appealing on social media or setting up a GoFundMe page.

Decide on the Theme of Your Party

Discuss with your friends the theme you would like for your get together. If you want to give your party a high school theme you could specify that guests come in fancy dress. Costume hire stores and ebay sell school uniform costumes, graduation hats and gowns and other accessories.
You can ask guests to email copies of high school photographs that you can then use to decorate the walls with.
Another idea is to play music from the year you graduated or theme your event around the music and media from that year.

Play Group Games

Consider playing group games after dinner to get everyone involved and talking to each other. Family Reunion Helper can provide downloadable print outs for group games. Print outs contain instructions for games, patterns for game accessories and themed ideas.

Give Goodie Bags 

You could give parting goodie bags with small items from your graduating school year, for instance, a coin from the year, small fashion items or chocolate.
Remember the Place Tags – Put named place holders at the table where you eat or, if it’s a buffet, ask everyone to wear name tags. Everyone will have changed a lot since they were 18!

Consider Having a Slide Shown or PowerPoint Presentation 

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Have a slide show or one comprising home video footage of everyone when they were younger and give everyone the opportunity to say what they’re doing now. Revisit the “good old days” by showing pictures of memorable high school moments.

Give Everyone a Throw Away Camera

Give Everyone a Throw Away Camera  so they can take their own unique snapshots of the event from their perspective. Alternatively, make your own reunion website and ask guests to take pictures on their cell phones and download them to the site so everyone can share their snaps afterwards. 

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