Class Reunion? Family Reunion? What do you get to plan this year?

It’s only January you might say, why do I need to start planning our summer or fall gathering?

Give or take seven years, I have worked for Meetings Northwest.  Who knew I would end up planning two high school class reunions?  In 2008, I used my newly learned event planning skills to organize, invite, reserve, and coordinate activities for my 10 year high school reunion.  I was fresh, excited, and the planning was fun!  This time around, chasing teenagers and a toddler, I attempted to hand off the bulk of the planning to a friend from high school.  The only problem was, we both live out of state with several states between us and our hometown.

We thought we’d beat the process and assign a local, on the mountain (as we refer to our little town of Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona) committee to plan and execute the dinner. Well, that didn’t work out so well. The committee of four, or so, created a Facebook messenger group and threw out ideas of where to host the dinner, benefits of different locations, and their preferences as far as money collecting and reserving a location. At two months out, I inquired of the lead planner how the dinner was coming and when she checked in, we both went into panic mode upon finding out that nothing was in place or reserved. I think it boiled down to the issue that no one was willing to pay the upfront reservation fee and collect money ahead of time from classmates to attend the dinner.

Planning a class reunion can be a daunting task – so where does one begin when planning a class reunion, family reunion or other group gathering?  Here is a brief overview of my 20^th class reunion planning process from start to finish and some how-to tips to consider when planning your high school reunion, family reunion or similar gathering.

The first thing that needs to be done is to select a date. An online survey was created and sent out to our class Facebook and Instagram pages to get feedback on when people prefer to attend a class reunion.  Summer would seem the ideal time, but summers tend to be busy with family vacations, family reunions, club sports, and/or responsibilities at home or on the farm (those of us with short growing seasons have to take advantage)! Different school schedules – modified year round, year round, and traditional – shrink the summer window even more. With survey results in hand, I deferred the decision to the committee. After all, they would be the ones doing the planning or so I thought; shouldn’t they pick a date they could all make?  In our case, we ended up with a weekend at the end of September during our hometown’s Fall Festival and “Run to the Pines” Car Show. No one would be able to say there was a lack of nostalgic activities to attend.  There was also a home football game at our high school on Friday night.

We wanted to get the date out to people as soon as possible, but how is that done quickly, efficiently, and with little to no cost? Our ten year reunion was in 2008, just when Facebook was getting under way.  I resorted to emails, phone calls, and even snail mail.  This part took up way too much time.  Luckily, social media now has many platforms and most people are on at least one. A Facebook group was created some years past for our graduating class, but not very many people were a member. We ran in to several that received the information through word of mouth the old fashion way of phone calls and text messages.  I still wonder how many people we did not reach. My head reunion planner went through all her yearbooks and compiled a list of anyone that went to school with us over the K-12 period.  From there, she posted lists of names every day for about 10 days to the FB group so that others could tag or link to people they were in contact with that may not be aware of our FB page. We also figured if people were wondering if there was a 20 year reunion happening, they would be looking for information. We kept it to two social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, with hopes that each person that saw the information and wanted to come would contact three to five of their friends/classmates as well.

We wanted to have some events where people could bring their children. I didn’t like the idea of people not attending because they didn’t have a babysitter or want to incur the extra cost of hiring one. In addition to the football game, we planned a family picnic at a park where many childhood memories were made. I wish I could say it was as lovely as I remember, but the lake was mostly dry (as is an irrigation lake in Arizona in the fall) and the playground hadn’t had many updates in 20 years.  I reserved the main pavilion two months in advance; however, I would recommend three or more months early. I emailed the town’s parks and recreation department to inquire about the date and the cost. They were very prompt in replying and sent the reservation form. Upon review, the pavilion had a $60 fee. I emailed them back and upon asking, they were willing to waive the fee for our class reunion! Sometimes all you have to do is ask.  That was one less expense I was out-of-pocket or having to add to the collection job.  We kept the picnic simple and made it a BYOP, bring your own picnic, event.  I asked a friend who returned to our hometown for her career if she would be in charge of decorations.  Her daughter took it a step further and wanted to do a piñata.  The older kids helped run it and helped the younger kids.  Other than not being able to visit without the interruption of a toddler or having to do an eye sweep of the playground for your kids, it was an enjoyable time.  Wait, I forgot to mention the wind. It’s funny how you can have a rain plan and then something like wind can really put a damper on things.

Book your dinner early.  Either the past senior class president in me or the meeting planner came out and decided something had to move forward when I found out the committee hadn’t planned the dinner event.  A few phone calls, follow-up emails, and a leap of faith as I gave my credit card number to the restaurant and we had a location reserved! I was bummed, however, because our first two choices were booked as well as was any other venue large enough for our group in our hometown. We had to venture ten minutes up the highway to our rival school’s hometown to find an open venue. I reserved The House, a restaurant that had an outdoor space and bar, games, and an ice cream shop in Show Low, AZ. It was a fantastic location.

Here are some items to consider when selecting a venue. Can it hold the size of your group?  Is there a rain plan? How much is the space to rent?  Is there a minimum dollar amount to be met? At the ten year reunion, I’m afraid cost kept many people from coming.  If my memory serves me right, I think it was about $45/person.  The location was a local restaurant that was reserved for our group only. The dinner was plated (meaning that it was served to each person restaurant style by a waiter) and the choices were a steak or chicken main dish along with salad, cooked veggies, bread, and a dessert.  It was served in three courses. Non-alcoholic drinks were included.  We had about 30 people attend the dinner. It was a lovely evening.  Being indoors, we didn’t have to worry about weather and people were able to dress up a bit. Later, I received feedback that the cost kept many new parents and people at the beginning of their careers from coming.

Jump ahead ten years and I wanted to keep cost in mind. The dinner committee’s consensus was to keep the cost down as much as possible and let people just order off the menu to fit their own budget. No one on the committee wanted to front the reservation fee and they hoped they would find some restaurant that wouldn’t require it, hence not having a location reserved until the end of July. Having worked in the industry, I knew that a deposit was just part of hosting an event for a large number of people.  You have to take a leap of faith and someone has to pay the deposit.  This is where a cancellation window comes into play.  Find out the date that you can get your deposit back and if it is entirely refundable.  From there, know your minimum attendance needed to break even and decide how much of a hit to your pocketbook (business or personal) you are willing to take.  Then market your event and let people know the deadline to register and the possibility of cancellation if there is not enough commitment. Luckily (do you hear the sarcasm), in the restaurant business with large groups, they only want to send one invoice.  This means you have to collect money in advance. The dinner price is made up of the base price, taxes, gratuity (in large groups, they often add it in beforehand at a set rate, usually 18%), and each person’s portion of the reservation fee, which often is less than $5.

This reunion we opted for a buffet option with the goal to keep the cost under $30. We selected a menu at $19/person, which included two main dishes, a couple of sides, non-alcoholic beverages, and a buffet attendant. After adding taxes, tip, and $5 for the rental fee, the total came to $28/person. We didn’t plan for dessert as there was an ice cream parlor onsite.  We used PayPal Money Pool to collect the individual payments, but there are several other mobile payment apps out there.

There you have it – class reunion, family reunion planning in a nut shell, minus lodging….that’s for another day and another blog. It’s all in the timing. Timing to have your first choice of venue and time to give people enough notice to attend. Best of luck!