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Showing posts from 2009

Recouping Costs by Selling Your Reunion Video

I always recommend that no one should produce/direct/or shoot their own reunion videos. You've waited all these years, why work at your party? Let someone else do the schelping and the interviewing. You should be free to enjoy yourself and not be chained to a camera all night. Consider having a professional video production company that specializes in party videos shoot and edit your program. Try to make a deal that if they shoot and edit it for free, they can "sell" the dvds to classmates after the fact and keep the profits. This only works if you have a fairly large class, but it does work. For example for our recent reunion, the production company is selling the dvds or digital downloads for $25.0. The video is a good value because not only is the party on it, but also all the party videos that we rolled in during the night's festivities. These included multiple shorts featuring scenes around town, the best tv shows, Time magazine covers, and montages of the deca

The Check-In Table at the Reunion

Don't forget to properly manage the reunion check-in table. It is very easy to overlook this important aspect. It is also very easy to understaff it, and the reason is simple. Nobody wants to "work" at the reunion. Who can blame them? They've waited all these years to see everyone, and don't want to be stuck at the table. There are a few remedies for this - all of them must be managed by one responsible person on your team. Find a person who would be happy to build a team of classmates who will greet people at the door and sign them in. This person must also establish and supervise the check-in process for at least the first hour and collect the money from people who pay at the door. Believe it or not, this job is very important. The check-in table, it is the first impression that your reunion guests will have and if the first impression is total chaos. That is not a good thing. Depending on how many guests there are, I've recommended two long tables

Ten Tips When Designing Reunion Floor Plans

Another detail you'll want to review with your venue event manager is the floor plan. It's a mundane but essential part of making a successful party. The smooth flow of traffic is essential to keep a somewhat inebriated herd content. Here are ten floorplan "must-haves" to keep things running well: 1. two sign-in tables -usually in the foyer outside the main room for people to check in or pay if they haven't already. Consider splitting up the alphabet by last name - half at one table, half at the other. 2. name tag table - for people to pick up their pre -printed name tags or write their own if they paid at the door. 3. table for seating cards - if you have pre -assigned seating for your reunion (I don't recommend this), but if you do, people will need to pick up their table numbers outside the main room. Arrange the cards in alphabetical order by last name. 4. bar(s) -to avoid bottlenecks. Some places recommend 1 bartender per 100 people. Keep them away from

Audio/Video Equipment for your Reunion

The party's set, the food is on the tables, the guests have all arrived and then you push "play" on the DVD player... and guess what? Nothing happens. Avoid an encounter with the technology gremlins. About a month before your reunion, you should have a talk with your event manager and ask about equipment needed the night of your party. He/she may put you in touch with their audio/visual coordinator or may handle the discussion him/herself. VIDEO For DVD or PowerPoint playback you'll want to discuss: 1. A playback source for DVDs or CDs a. If you have a Standard Definition (SD) DVD, you'll need a (SD) or Blu-Ray Player (either a DVD player or a computer with a DVD player). b. If it's a Blu-Ray DVD you're playing, only a Blu-Ray Player will work. c. If it's a CD for a slide show, a laptop with a DVD player will work. Make sure you test your media on the actual player you are going to use BEFORE THE PARTY. 2. Projection system. The intensity of the bulb

Part 2 In Memoriam: Remembering Classmates at the Reunion

One of the hardest things about being a reunion planner is keeping the list of classmates who have passed on. You know they are gone, but you see them as they were - vibrant teenagers with their whole lives ahead of them. You are not alone in this thought. You share the zeitgeist of the entire class - the collective spirit of your alma mater. Together you mourn the loss of even one classmate. And as you get older the numbers rise, and it gets more surreal. Therefore, it is very appropriate for you to create a tribute to those who have "moved on." 1. a special page on your website or class directory dedicated to their memory is appropriate. 2. a video montage or slide show on the website is appropriate. 3. if you have an online yearbook with the ability to write blog messages on the yearbook page, encourage classmates to write their memories of those who died in the blog. I would not, however, suggest a video or slide show tribute DURING the reunion because it may irrevoc

In Memoriam: Remembering Classmates at the Reunion

I'll never forget the story of my girlfriend's brother,John. He was three years younger than us and had always lived life on the edge. Sex, drugs and heavier drugs. Therefore at the twentieth high school reunion, many of his classmates were not surprised to see his name listed among the "dearly departed" in their printed directory. "Too bad about John. He was a great guy, but I didn't really think he'd live this long," were typical comments. There was, however, one person who was very surprised to read about John in the memorial pages- and that was John. He could say as did Mark Twain, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Indeed John was alive and well. How did this happen? Well the reporter in this case, didn't check his/her sources. Whenever I hear about the passing of a classmate, I always try to get three people to corroborate the story and then verify it with a search in the Social Security Administration's

Do I Need a Professional Photographer for My Reunion?

Should you enlist the services of a professional photographer? The answer is a resounding yes and no. Yes, you should bring aboard a photographer: 1. if it's free 2. if prints or downloads can be made available at a reasonable price 3. if you'd like a group shot of the whole gang 4. if you want formal table shots of each table If you publish your class reunion on public sites like http://www.reunionannouncements.com/ you will undoubtedly be contacted by several vendors selling services. One of them will be a photographer who will come and shoot your reunion at no charge, in exchange for being able to sell prints after the reunion. This is a win/win situation, particularly if you answered "yes" to any of the above. But read on there may be a reason to avoid having a professional photographer. You may decide you don't need a professional photographer for your reunion: 1. because everyone with a digital camera or phone is a photographer and that's good enough 2.

Budgeting for your Class Reunion or How Much Should a Ticket Cost?

About a ten months before the reunion you should decide on where to have the reunion. Once that's decided, you'll need to figure out how much to charge for a reunion ticket so you can start selling tickets immediately. You will make the decision based on a number of factors: Basic Charges 1. Price per person for food. 2. Open bar vs. Cash bar 3. Tax and service charges _____________________________________ Say food is $50.00 cash bar is 0.00 Tax in NJ is 7% 3.50 Service Charge at our hotel is 21% = 10.50 ____________________________________ Price per person is: $64.00 So is that the amount you charge your classmates? NO!!!!! Because you have to take in account all the other costs involved in reunion planning Ancillary charges (try to get as much for free here as you can

Planning your Reunion Menu

About a month before the reunion, you'll want to check in with the banquet manager and review the details of the menu, the layout of the room, the location of the bars, the check in tables and any special needs you may have like multi-media playback. Hotels will provide projection systems and screens for a price, (and not cheaply, I might add.) The specifics of the menu can change up to about a week before (double check this with your banquet manager,) but you'll want to make the initial choices a month before. Things to consider: 1.Long before you've planned the menu, you've decided on whether to have a Cash Bar vs. Open Bar or something in-between (maybe wine and beer only.) This is because the price you charge for reunion tickets a year before must reflect the cost of food and drinks, if you are not having a cash bar. Double check that soft drinks, juice and water are free. That said, I believe a cash bar is the fairest way to deal with alcoholic drinks since not e

Helping People Defer Some of the Expenses of a Reunion

Even before this economy became unstable, some people were thinking that $95.00 for a ticket to their class reunion was steep. I've explained how it's not just the meal and banquet hall that costs so much. It's the entertainment, the party favors, decorations, cost of mailings, monthly survey and e-mail blasting services, video transfers, website hosting costs, office supplies etc. that really impact the final cost. For our reunion, I know $95.00 is the right price point. But I also know that some people would be more likely to come if it were somewhat less. How how do we help them? At the beginning of ticket sales (about 10 months prior to the event) offer a discount -$10.00 off the price. This is an important incentive to get people to sign on early, so you can meet the minimum that the hotel requires. It also helps them out financially - win/win. Another idea centers around what I call "scholarships." One month before the reunion, offer $20 off the ticket pri

What to Wear to Your Reunion

As the checks come pouring in, you'll find notes accompanying them. Many of them ask the question: What's the dress code? As planner for the reunion, you are setting the tone of the party and people believe you have a "vision" of what it should look like. And maybe you do. Essentially the "place" seems to dictate the level of formality when it comes to dress code. But there is no question that everyone wants to look their best. For the banquet hall reunion that I am planning cocktail dresses and jackets and ties would be appropriate. But my advice is: don't overdo it, and make sure you look like yourself. You don't want to put people off. For casual reunions at the poolside, lakeside, at picnic groves, or in someone's back yard, tee shirts, shorts and bathing suits may be the order of the day. Or not. You'll want to wear what works for you, particularly as you launch into your 40th and 50th reunions. Just wear what you feel good in. I tell

More on "People Finding" - The Most Popular Search Engines

Back in June, I wrote a little bit about about "people finding" websites in How Do I Find My Classmates? There are several to choose from if you Google "people search" as a subject. the differences between the are subtle, but each offers value to your search. 1. http://www.whitepages.com/ is a good basic "name," "address," "state," "phone number" tool which offers basic and advanced searching, but there is not a great deal of difference between the two search modes, and it very quickly wants to hand you off to a helpful, but paid service called www.USSearch.com . (Note USSearch promises to give you a free search for your first 24 hours. So if you can work long and hard, you may get a lot accomplished for free here). 2. www.zabasearch.com/advanced.php is the advanced mode of http://www.zabasearch.com/ . The advanced mode allows you to search also by middle name, and approximate birth year, as well as the usual "name,&q

To Video or Not to Video

That is the question. Actually it's more than one question - because videos can serve several different purposes. You can create: 1. videos to entertain at your party 2. videos to document your party and/or 3. videos to inform classmates on your website or Facebook page First rule of video production: ask someone else to do it, if you are the class reunion planner. Canvas your classmates and see if anyone wants to handle it. Reunion planners like us have enough to do. Entertainment Think about starting your party with a video. Nothing is more exciting than launching the party with a great video with a rocking soundtrack. Consider editing the following elements together to make a short and sweet, 2-3 minute party tape: contemporary footage and old photos of your favorite haunts around town, pop culture and news footage from your decade, headlines from the town paper from the year you graduated, photos of classmates horsing around. Combine fast-paced cutting with favorite anthems

Incentives to Motivate Fence Sitters

Sometimes people are funny. They don't want to be the first to sign up to buy a ticket and would rather hedge their bets to see who of their friends have committed first. We've solved that problem by offering incentives to our classmates and, believe me, they work. 1. Most successful is the "early-bird special." Assuming you have started a whole year in advance. Offer people a discount for those who sign up in the first three months. We met our minimum number right off the bat and were breathing a whole lot easier. We promised the hotel a minimum of 125 people, and during the "early bird" phase we sold 124 tickets. Amazing how that worked. (This, of course presumes, that you have a margin of extra money to play with.) 2. Another phenomena that I didn't predict was the "free drink on me" incentive. Several classmates helped with the sign up drive by each offering to buy the next ten people who signed up a free drink at the reunion.&qu

Custom Designing Your Website

There are many services out there that will offer templates for high school reunion websites. They are better than nothing, but if you want something a little less boilerplate, you'll have to make it yourself. If you have a dedicated web designer in your class who will willing to volunteer his/her services, as we were fortunate enough to have, (thank you Jan Reisen of http://www.perfectisite.com/ ) you can custom design a site to meet your needs. Make sure your designer understands that this website will have a life long after the reunion and that he/she is an intrinsic part of the reunion committee forever and ever. Jan understood this and has exceeded our expectations time and time again. She designed our site based on a few basic components we felt we had to have. 1. A news page for updates about the reunion 2. An on-line yearbook (our directory) with blogs on each page to write messages to classmates and a in-memoriam page 3. A place to upload photos with instructions. We chose

Is Planning a Class Reunion Like Planning a Family Reunion?

A friend of this blog asked me today if planning a class reunion was similar to planning a family reunion. "Well," I answered, "planning a class reunion is no picnic." I believe school reunions are more challenging than family reunions. And I believe family reunions, for the most part, are just that - "picnics." 1. Class reunions are much larger. My class, for example, was 620 people, and it's a huge management effort to coordinate communication, databases, bank accounts, ticket sales, teams of people, etc. Planning the class reunion is a big management gig. 2. Classmates are not connected by family ties and therefore are not easily found, especially when women marry and change their names. That, in itself, makes a huge difference. Thankfully we have social networking tools - huge resources for finding classmates - like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Classmates.com, and Google to find people. 3. Once we found the right location, (in our case a hotel with

Party Favors, Por Favor?

Why agonize about party favors for a class reunion? There are many ideas to kick around if you want to give everyone a little memento of the occasion . Make your decision based on the fact that a good percentage of them get left behind on the table. Why is that? It's mostly because people are milling around, saying a thousand good-byes at the end of the night. They are not at their tables, sitting like good little guests. They have long forgotten their goody bags or engraved mugs, and are probably too buzzed to care. That said, let's talk about some sweet ideas that don't cost too much. Our class had a lot of talented musicians who rocked out at the Battle of the Bands and the school dances. Some did covers. Others wrote their own songs. We are asking classmates to send music from their bands in any format to our engineering genius Larry. He's going to compress the music and put it out on a CD, and that will be our party favor, complete with a nice label. Again this req

Social Networking VS Privacy

For the most part, people put themselves out there. They paste their pictures all over Facebook .com, share their family photos on Shutterfly .com, and put their entire resumes on LinkedIn .com. Twitter.com will tweet every last breath you take if you let it: "What are you doing now?" "I'm breathing." It's all voluntary. It's all good fun, and it's a great way to let people know you're still alive and well. With the special interest groups, you can direct people's attention to favorite charities, important public events, (like the reunion) and track your favorite celebrity's page. But there are some people who have no interest in social networking and prefer to remain private. They have not succumbed to the idea of Twittering their private thoughts in 50 characters or less. And some don't want to have anything to do with the reunion. So be cautious about posting private information on the class website when you have control of it. Re

Expand It! Events Surrounding the Party

Lou posted a comment after the article Should I Be the One to Organize the Reunion? about all the fun activities he planned for the entire reunion weekend I agree. Why limit the reunion to four hours on a Saturday night? Make an entire weekend of it, making it especially worthwhile for those who have traveled a great distance and may be staying in the hotel. Here are some ideas to extend the festivities: 1. A Friday night pre-party bash. It could be simply drinks at the hotel lounge or a pot-luck picnic at a local picnic grove. Perhaps you'll want to get together at a local hangout of 'yore. Create a simple "pay as you go" experience for those who wish to attend. No reservations. No money collected in advance. Keep it simple and have fun. 2. Saturday morning. Be creative. Plan a golf outing, a hike, a basketball pickup game at the courts, a brunch, a trip to the zoo or a botanical garden. Small groups can assemble for inexpensive get-togethers. Find creative, inexpen

About Signing that Contract

A contract is a legally binding agreement between you and the venue, be it a hotel, a restaurant, a resort, a caterer or other organization that's providing services . You will be committing to pay for "x" number of people at "y" price. If your contract specifies a minimum number of people that you guarantee, then you will be responsible to pay for that number. So if our minimum is 125 people and only 100 show up, the signer(s) of the contract is/are responsible for paying for those 25 people. At say, $50.00 a head, that would be $1250.00 you would still owe the venue. You don't have to pay tax for those 25 people, nor the tip (as much as 21%) on those 25 people. But you do have to come up with $1250.00 This is why negotiating to lower the minimum number of people to hold the room is very important. Now suppose you have a reunion planned and a contract signed and for some unforeseeable reason you have to cancel it. Well guess what? You are still responsibl

Contract Concerns

Your contract with your venue represents an agreement between the you (or your team) and the facility/venue. It outlines the specific conditions and services to be provided. Most contracts are negotiatiable so think of it as a "work in progress" that can be changed and adapted based on several conversations with your Event Sales Manager. And keep in mind that during these times of economic uncertainty, venues are tending to be very flexible. The idea is to create terms with which both sides are happy. So don't feel like you have to sign the very first document they put in front of you. I remember our last contract went through about 5 revisions back and forth before we signed. The following are points that can be negotiated: 1. The rate and the number of hotels rooms that will be held as a block for the classmates. Go for the lowest price you can and compare the price to other hotels in the area. The more rooms you can hold the better, depending on how large your class si

Choosing a Location for the Reunion

The place for the reunion is much more than a box to house "x" number of people for a party. Think about the following when you choose your location. 1. Keep your location relatively close to your school location, say within 20 miles. 2. Consider the advantage of having the reunion in a hotel that can accommodate people before, during and after the party. This is particularly helpful for classmates coming from a distance. 3. While the room isn't going to make or break the party, be aware of dingy lighting, run down appearances and by all means, check out the rest rooms to make sure they meet your expectations . 4. If you expect to serve liquor and food, make sure the menu suits your needs and don't forget that tax and gratuities must be added to the price per person. 5. Does that hotel offer other venues for getting together? Bars/pubs/lounges for Friday night. Restaurant services for brunches in the morning. You may want to schedule a whole weekend of activities ce

What Fields Go In My Database?

Your database, preferably a spreadsheet, should be comprised of information that is useful to you. You will use it time and again to send emails and snail mails to your classmates. It will also become the "master" list to check in classmates at the door on the big day. Each piece of information should be a separate "field" and will be searchable if necessary. Our fields were created based on the survey questions we asked. However, once we started collecting money from classmates, new fields were added. This is a sampling of the fields we used. Feel free to add your own. ATTENDANCE - MARK UPON ARRIVAL AT REUNION HIGH SCHOOL LAST NAME HIGH SCHOOL FIRST NAME CURRENT NAME EMAIL ADDRESS PHONE # HOME STREET ADDRESS CITY STATE ZIP COUNTRY PHONE # STATUS (L,F,D) VOLUNTEER (JOB) (from survey) ATTENDING (Y, N) HOW MANY TO ATTEND? HOW MUCH PAID? (AMOUNT) If you have others you would recommend. Please add them as a comment.

Contact Info Pouring In? Time to Create the Database

Once the survey results are back and your search teams starts finding people, you need to put the information you collect somewhere. A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is an excellent tool if one person is doing all the data entry. But there are other online options which function much like an Excel spreadsheet that a number of "invited" people can use either simultaneously or individually to enter data "live." That means that several of you can share the database and enter data all at the same time. It saves itself. The shared database we use for our reunion is called Zoho Sheet, one of many Zoho offerings available for free at http://www.zoho.com/ . You can create, edit and access your spreadsheets from anywhere. And no installation is required. It allows for collaborative editing of spreadsheets where multiple users can work on a spreadsheet simultaneously . You can import existing Excel spreadsheets and also export your Zoho Sheet to Excel spreadsheets for

Publicize Your Reunion

Tell the world about your reunion. There are so many channels to publicize it. 1. Tell your friends about progress using social networking sites: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. 2. Create a special "high school reunion group" on these sites and invite your friends to it and update it with basic reunion information. 3. Place notices in your local newspaper. 4. Write op-ed pieces for larger newspapers. Perhaps an article about the significance of your reunion as related to the social climate now vs. then - or something like that. 5. Write a notice for your community access television station about the reunion: date, place, time. 6. Take advantage of any media outlets classmates might have. We actually were on the Today Show with Al Roeker talking to him on national tv about the reunion, thanks to our classmate who was director of the show. 7. Send regular email blasts to found classmates on your list. 8. Create a website with reunion information, (more on this later.) 9. Adver

Start with a Survey

Once we gathered a respectable number of email addresses for classmates, we put out a survey to all of them to gather detailed contact information and to collect preferences about the reunion. There are many online survey businesses on the web that are relatively inexpensive if you Google "online surveys." We used http://www.surveymonkey.com/ "Intelligent survey software for primates of all species." SurveyMonkey has a single purpose: to enable anyone to create professional online surveys quickly and easily. You design your own survey and select from over a dozen types of questions, (multiple choice, rating scales, drop-down menus, and more...). View Example Survey Their basic service is free, but limited to only 100 responses a month. We chose the Monthly Pro option paying a monthly fee of $19.95 for only as long as we used it. There is also an unlimited, more expensive option. Here's is a sample of what our survey said: We have good, up-to-date email addresse

Timetable for Planning a Class Reunion

Give yourself enough time to make smart decisions. Allow: Build your committees - 1 1/2 years Start building the database of classmates - 1 1/2 years Prepare and send out your survey - 1 1/2 years Start looking for a venue - 1 year 2 months Start building your website - 1 year 2 months Book the venue/ sign contract - 1 year Block rooms at a local hotel - 1 year Open a bank account w/ checking - 1 year Start selling tickets on website & mail - 1 year Offer discounts to early birds 1 year - 8 months Hire DJ/Band/Entertainment - 8 months Launch the decorations committee - 8 months Buy/make party favors - 6 months Start planning retrospective video - 6-4 months Hire video co. to document party - 6 months Hire photographer - 6 months Make nametags - 2 months Plan &/or build centerpieces - 2 months Plan other activities on that weekend - 2 months Seating arrangements if desired - 2 months Plan menu - 1 month These are approximate start times. If you haven't allowed yourself enou

How to Build Your Search Committee

I had a funny email today from someone who tried to organize her grammar school's 50th reunion. After a year she said "we gave up. Everyone was either 1. dead 2. disappeared or 3. too dumb to open an email." So they had no reunion. What follows are some thoughts about how to put together a team so that you can succeed in finding at least two of the three: the "disappeared" and the "dumb." I mentioned earlier in one posting " Do It Yourself or Hire a Company? " how our search team was actually started by Steve, who was looking to build a database of people to build an audience for his singing duo "Steve and Steve." He had a vested interest in starting the list of found classmates, and found 250 of the 620 of them by himself. Now assuming you don't have someone like Steve to jumpstart you, you would do well to build a core group of interested classmates about a year and half before the actual date. You might want to get yourself

Choosing the Venue

Fancy, Formal? Casual, Relaxed? What kind of reunion do you want to attend? Be creative in your brainstorming. Here are just a few ideas: 1. a picnic grove 2. a classmates large house 3. A tent in the backyard 4. a country resort 5. a local pub 6. the school cafeteria or student center 7. a local restaurant 8. a city nightclub 9. a boat cruise 10. and, our choice this year, a ballroom at a fancy hotel. We chose the hotel for a number of reasons: 1. We wanted to decorate minimally and still have a beautiful place. 2. We wanted very good food, not the most excellent cuisine, but good food. 3. We wanted the set up and break down to be minimal. 4. The hotel has a casual place to hang Friday night for drinks and Sunday for brunch. 5. It has hotel rooms for people who wish to crash overnight or for the weekend. 6. The ballroom is expandable and can hold 300 people easily. 7. It is located within 15 miles of our alma mater with free parking. 8. And we negotiated very good terms. (More on neg

How Do I Find My Classmates?

Put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and sit down at your computer. You are about to become one of the best detectives ever! 1. Start with your yearbook. Look up the person who is lost and find out how they spell their name. Is there a middle name or initial? Full spelling is key to your success. 2. Start with boys' names because odds are they haven't changed their names over the years. Then try the girls' names. 3. Get referrals. When you find someone ALWAYS ask them who they are in touch with and get their friends' contact information. 4. Go to http://www.classmates.com/ to see if any of them are registered there. You will find that many of them are. You should also check for siblings who graduated before or after you to track lost classmates. 5. Go to http://www.google.com/ and type in the lost classmate's name. Some of them will have done noteworthy things and will be trackable. 6. Try http://www.whitepages.com/ People with odd or unusual names will be easiest to

Do It Yourself or Hire a Company?

That's one of the first decisions you'll have to make, and there are pluses and minuses to both. I've worked with reunion companies. They offer two distinct advantages: 1. They will find the classmates for you. 2. They will oversee your party, and check people in at the door. It's your decision whether you believe you can do a better job or not. With Google, classmates.com, whitepages.com, email and lower phone costs, it's much easier to find people than it was ten years ago. That said, this round I decided to build teams of classmates to do the work instead of the reunion company. And there's no doubt, it is work, but it's rewarding work. The search team was spearheaded by a classmate who had a vested interest in finding his long lost friends. He is a part of a singing duo called "Steve and Steve" and he performs music from the '60s in local venues in NJ. He was interested in connecting with classmates to invite them to his performances. He si