Class Reunion Planning 101 (High School or College Reunions)

I have learned a lot about reunion planning. It was several decades ago that I graduated from high school and was Secretary of the class. Somehow I knew, even back then, that I would be involved in planning the reunions. I deliberately never let anyone write in my yearbook, because I thought a "clean" version might be useful in the future. Little did I know that years later we would be photocopying it, and, today, scanning it, to make an online yearbook and name-tags. Every ten years I plan yet another reunion,  And each of them has brought forth a new set of challenges. In addition, new technologies have enhanced communication among classmates in ways that I never dreamed. In future updates, I will address many of tips I have discovered. I welcome everyone who has ever planned a reunion or been to a reunion to join me in this forum. Together we can help others who are grappling with the challenges of their reunions and share some fun stories at the same time.

Well, if not you, who else? I'm just saying, if the thought crossed your mind, then probably you're the one! But before you jump on board, be sure you can say "yes" to the following questions. 1. Are you sincerely interested in your classmates? Not that you have to communicate in detail with every last one of them, but are you interested in seeing them connect with each other? 2. Do you have an office at your disposal with a computer, access to the internet, knowledge to use it, fax, copier, and (ideally free) phone. These are all indispensible to being the point person. 3. Do you have an ability to delegate? You need to set up lines of communication and systems so that you understand how they work, and then teach others to do them, so things run smoothly. You do not have to do everything yourself - nor should you. 4. Are you organized? I am managing five teams of people: the search for lost classmates committee, the database team, the location finding team, the p...

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 ...

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...

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...

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. ...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...