Check here after the reunion for ways to improve for the future. With the internet is is easier than before to keep in touch. Anyone is free to orchestrate and plan the next reunion. Until someone volunteers for the job I will keep this website available for planning the next one.
I'm not exactly sure how I ended up as the main person doing this, I really tried to get out of it at first. I didn't even realize that my name was listed as the contact at the Hoover Alumni Association. People started calling me and wanted to know when the reunion was. I said there wasn't one yet, would you like to plan one? It seems I wasn't the only one who didn't want to be the one to plan it. So I asked Laura Lou at the Hoover Alumni Association for advice and she said a lot of classes were hiring professionals to do the planning and gave me a recommendation. This was all 5 years ago. In case your were wondering why we had a 36th instead of a 35th that is why. No one who had been on the committee previously wanted to be in charge. Finally I just called Sallie and said, I'm getting calls, should we just hire a company? We decided why not. So we hired the recommended company, Golden State Reunions and they did it all. If it is one thing I have learned it is " you can't please everybody". There are always complaints. Usually the vocal people are the ones with a complaint and not a compliment. We got some complaints, not too many, things like the music is too loud, the music isn't loud enough and it is too expensive.
Well this time we decided to use the exact same company for the 40th reunion. They changed their name to Elite Reunions. The jury is still out on how well they will do. At the time this is being written I have only had a few complaints, mainly too expensive, and what about Sunday. We'll see what comes up after the weekend of the reunion. After the reunion please send in your feedback, what went right, what went wrong, so the next one will be better.
The reunion company is expected to do the following:
Search for addresses for all 800 plus alumni, send out announcements/invitations, keep an updated database of all responses, they are not allowed to share any information unless given explicit permission from the alumni. Contract with the venue and pay for the deposit, provide all decorations, nametags etc, man the doors, collect on site payments, deal with any issues between the restaurant/hotel/caterers, hire and deal with the DJ, and that is just for the main event.
The Friday night cocktail party was planned by us. It is a keep it simple, just show up event. We didn't plan anything else, we just didn't have the time or energy for more. We asked for volunteers to plan something for Sunday, we did get a couple of people who expressed the desire for something, but no takers on the planning.
A couple of people volunteered to help with decorations but I expect the Company to do that.
So the question is, for the next reunion do we want to hire a company again or do it ourselves? If we hire a company it will be more expensive. If we do it ourselves we need more "ourselves". I would think that with the size of our class there must be some pretty talented individuals who can do a lot of things. Such as, the most important thing in my opinion,
1. Deciding on the venue, should it be a dinner, a BarBQue, a picnic, a cruise, a brunch, a cocktail party, some or all of the above.
2. Searching for all the addresses and maintaining a database. Is there anyone willing to take on that responsibility for five years from now, starting now and keeping it current?
3. Printing out and mailing announcements and invitations.
3. Signing the contract with the chosen venue/caterer and giving them a deposit if needed.
4. Collecting all prepayments and payments at the "door".
5. Arranging for any entertainment, music, etc.
6. Arranging for any decorations
7. Bookkeeping
8. Answering all questions, putting up notices, general "customer service"
9. Be in charge of planning a cocktail party.
10. Be in charge of planning a Sunday event.
11. Designing and maintaining a web site.
12 Proofreading everything for grammatical errors ( just kidding...I know there are errors in this)
If anyone has any interest in any of the above categories and wants to plan the next reunion Please step up!
Any and all feedback is welcome., the number 1 question being, should the next reunion be handled by a company or by ourselves? If by ourselves we need to fill all of the above positions and maybe some more.
Waiting to hear from you,
Nancy