Class Reunion Planning 101 (High School or College Reunions)

Some of the members in our Linkedin .com Group "Reunion Planners (High School, College, Family, Corporate)" have mentioned that short reunion cruises are wonderful alternatives to land-based reunions if you're near a major port city.   Linda Hilson of cruise planners, All Points Beyond  https://www.allpointsbeyondtravel.com /   tells me that there are several options. First, there are dinner cruises like those provided by World Yacht, http://www.worldyacht.com/ , which circles Manhattan. You depart at a certain time and return 4 or 5 hours later, having had the time of your life. But that's it. No down time together to relax. Strict in and out times, etc. Then there are two-day cruises to nowhere. Imagine going out to sea for two overnights, all meals included. It's a party on a beautiful ship where your reunion group can take part in festivities all weekend long. This type of cruise departs only a few times a year out of major cities and may not coincide with ...

I recently came across a New York Times blog called "Bits," written by a recent college grad, Jenna Wortham, who posed the question, "Who Needs a College Reunion? I've Got Facebook." http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/who-needs-a-college-reunion-ive-got-facebook/ . She was invited to her five-year reunion and adamantly stated that she had no intention of going because Facebook kept her up to date on each and every classmate she cared about. She knew who married who, what their children looked like, what gainful employment they had, what community groups they supported, and so on. And there's no doubt that she was keeping tabs on everyone that was important to her. But I have to extrapolate forward 10, 20, 30 years and wonder if she'll still feel the same way then? Somehow the passage of time, the frailty of the human body, and the growing nostalgia for days gone by takes its toll on our curiosity, and I believe she'll want to go back to se...

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 ...

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 ...

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...