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)
4. Extra charges for bar tenders and cashiers if it's a cash bar $475.00
5. Audio Visual services supplied by the hotel - projectors/screen 875.00
6. Video production costs 00.00 see posting on: To Video or Not to Video
7. Party favors 450.00
8. Entertainment 350.00
9. Printing costs for Class Directory (expense best to skip) 00.00
10. Decorations 200.00
11. Class Superlative gag gifts 75.00
12.. Software expense to run surveys 20.00
13. Website hosting costs 2 yrs. 240.00
14. Name Tags. 40.00
15. Paypal service charges (if 50% use Paypal to pay)
(you charge $85.00, they keep $2.77.) 173.00
16. Discounts for early birds 1250.00
17. Scanning charges - 100.00
18. Website 00.00
19. Office expenses, postage, shipping 125.00
___________
Total Ancillary Expenses $4373.00

$4373 divided by 125 our minimum number of people required by the hotel = 34.98 per person

If the price for food per person is $60.00
And Ancillary Expenses per person is $35.00
_________
Your ticket price should be $95.00 per person


You see there really are a lot of costs beyond the price of food. Some you can't control. Some you can. As a result, you may decide, as we did, that a cash bar is the only way to go. Alcohol makes the price of dinner skyrocket. We wanted to keep the costs down and keep the tickets under $100. per person.

As for how much ancillary things cost, it all depends on what part of the country you're in. Do you best to beg, borrow and steal. I mean get classmates to do your favors whenever possible. Everything marked $00.00 we got as a favor. We suggest you do the same.

Don't spend over your budget number unless you have a slush fund from previous reunions. Any number of people that come beyond your minimum 125 will allow you to collect contingency money, or it can be put toward you your next reunion's slush fund or "scholarships" for needy classmates. (see the posting for Helping People Defer Some of the Expenses of a Reunion.)

Running a reunion requires good financial management. Budget things out. Ask classmates for favors. Make the numbers work.

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