Planning a family or a class reunion can be overwhelming. But it does not have to be. If you are organized and plan early, it will reduce your stress level by up to 50%.
"How" you ask. Well thanks to the internet, help is only a few clicks away. For instance, this site will help you get the ball rolling so to speak. It has information on:
How to Plan your guest list.
How to set the date.
How to budget for activities.
There is a great site that will help you by organizing online. This site has a free sample demo download. This trial version is a working version of Family Reunion Organizer which is limited to 5 families, & has a few features disabled. You can purchase the full version if you feel the need to. Each of the category has some helps listed. This Free version has the following and more:
Getting Started
Initial Planning
Select the Location for the Reunion
Tell the Family About the Reunion
Paying for the reunion
Plan what to do at the reunion
According to FamilyReunionTips.com, over 20 million Americans a year participate in some 400,000 family reunions a year. It is a free site that offers many tips on planning your reunion.
This is a five generation photo taken at family reunion 2007
Family Reunions are the perfect place to take all those generation photos.
A great way to show your support for the family reunion is to have each individual a Family T Shirt. This site is a great place to design your own T Shirts online and they will make them up for you. You do have to pay for these but you can add the charge for them into the family reunion budget.
There is no better way than to attend family reunions, when it comes to finding information on family history. If you put a note in the invitations that they should bring photos of family members and any other genealogy items that they have. You will need access to a copy machine to get the real benefits of this. Assign someone to be in charge of informing the attendees of what they need to bring as well as the task of making the copies to be distributed to all families. You may even want to purchase a cheap folder or notebook for each family to put their information in.
Do Not Overlook your local library. You can find some great books on family reunions as well as how to access the genealogy records. The library will also have a copy machine. They charge per copy but if you take your own copy paper with you, they will reduce the cost and sometimes even make them for free.
Some items you may want to have each family bring is births, marriage and deaths that have occurred during the past year. Videos or scrapbooks that the family have made is great also. If you have access to a VCR/DVD player and a TV, you can show these videos over and over during the reunion. You will be amazed at the conversation this will spark.
I love to make a word search puzzle with various family themes. I will have each family to join in a group. I then hand out the puzzles and pencils. The families will work together to try and find all the words in the puzzle before all the other families do. I then offer a gift to the winning family.
There are many different activities you can plan for the reunion. If you are planning the reunion to last all weekend, you may want to have a place to camp. At night, sit around the campfire and have the older family members to tell stories about what life was like when they were growing up. Make sure to tape them talking. This is a great addition to family history.
How do you plan Family reunions?
Do you go to family reunions?
Do you get into the family history at the reunion?
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Comments: 36
I went to my 10 year class reunion and the people I wanted to see weren't there.
My dad has a family reunin every year.. There is usually over about 100-200 people there.. He is the 15th of 15.. and the family is huge!! The live pretty much all over the world. His mom passed away I guess about 5 years ago.. dont seem that long but she always attended them as well.. My dads dad passed away when he was like 2 so He had no dad.. Thank God he had many older siblings to help care for him.. he did turn outt o be a wonderful dad for not having one when he grew up!
Anyway, I could have used the site back in 2002 when my sister and I planned a celebration to honor my parent's 50th anniversary. That was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it turned out fairly successful. Thanks for sharing this, Connie.
The Saturday night of the reunion, we hold a family banquet, discuss family news and review the treasurers report. I didn't mention we pay dues. The money is used to pay for mailing expenses and use towards deposits and other expenses. The money is passed on to the committee for the following year's reunion.
My mom's side used to get together. Those reunions were great Irish blowouts and so much fun!
Hubby's family never had reunions - unless weddings and funerals count.
That can be a problem.
Heck no! The only time I go to family reunions is if someone drags me kicking and screamin'!
I've never been interested in High School reunions either, never attending one. I didn't enjoy school much anyway... ;-)
Take care.
Very good article Connie. Very well written, and very informative.
We don't have family reunions, but every time some one turns 30, 40, 50, 60 etc. there id always a big party.
(my dad's family is almost all gone except his sister & 2 half bros.) We haven't had a family reunion on my dad's side in a long time! I wish we did though!
My parents tried a family reunion of their own, but my mom didn't delagate anything to anyone & so she ended up in the kitchen most of the day & she lived in a manufactured home & expected everyone to stay with her & there was just no room! There are 5 kids & each kid has at least 5+ kids...you do the math haha. My mom said she would never do it again...makes me sad, cause it could be so great! You just can't expect people to be crammed into a 2 bedroom 2 bath manufactured home...especially if they have never been to the town they came to & they want to go site seeing. Maybe someday we will get the plan on ;o). I know we need a family picture for sure!!