How to Have a Successful Family Reunion

Planning a large family reunion can be a challenging task. Be sure to think about all of the details. Here are some guidelines to get you going.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Help from other family members

How to Plan a Successful Family Reunion

1. The family historian; everybody has one. The only problem is, the person with all the family information is, generally, too overwhelmed to gather everybody together and organize a fun family event. So, where does that leave you?If you are in charge of a large scale family reunion, don’t worry. It’s not as daunting a task as it may seem. Much like a wedding, there are arrangements to be made and people to contact but, unlike a wedding, you will have committees doing the leg work.The success of the reunion hinges on the committees. Start contacting relatives you are familiar with and are near your location. Set a meeting date and see who shows up. From this group form subcommittees.

2. The date and location committee will be responsible for choosing the location, catering and decorations. The accommodations and travel suggestions would be their responsibility as well. Large family reunions should be held over the span of a few days if people are traveling to a distant destination. In order to make everything flow, you may want to book a large hotel banquet room and use the same hotel as the suggested accommodations. If you have attendees staying in the hotel, ask for a discount on the price of a party room and, usually, you will get it.

3. The events committee should be in charge of games, entertainment and activities. You might decide to break these up. If you decide to go with a large hotel, golf and spa packages should be available and arranging a mini tournament can be a great way to get the guys involved. For the kids, locate the nearest zoo, water park or amusement park and schedule an outing. At the event itself, you will need a DJ and one other form of entertainment. Consider a magician or celebrity look alike to rev up the party goers.

4. Make sure you have reunion t-shirts made up. Just as there is a family historian in every family, there is also the artistic one. Get her involved by asking her to create the design for the shirts. Tee shirts are also a great idea for the outings with the kids. Finding them in a crowd just became easier!Another reunion item to have is a large chart of the family, with places to affix each person’s picture. Remember to ask, beforehand, that the attendees bring a picture, along with a favorite recipe for the family recipe book. You can assemble the book and hand them out when your family arrives at the hotel.Get that family historian busy printing out a coat of arms and some origination information on the different surnames that will be attending the reunion.

5. None of this, however, will come together if you don’t have a group in charge of announcements and responses. This committee is essential to the success of the family reunion. Ideally, this committee will gather the cost information from the other committees. Have them develop a family directory. They can also develop and distribute surveys on family information and events attendees might enjoy. After all the information is gathered, this committee will send out the announcements, collect payments, and distribute the funds to other committees.Before you know it, the extended family will arrive. Have all the hard workers gathered together one last time to welcome everybody. Be sure to give a little speech to start things off, hand out a schedule off events and name tags, and then watch everything fall into place. You need to be prepared for the unexpected and remember: you’re all family. Keep it light and have some fun!

[mandela10]

on 6/8/2009 My family is really close together, we have a big family, but interestingly enough we have never had a family reunion, we would like to but our schedule is so diverse, it is really difficult to organize one.

[hmvont]

on 3/19/2009 If you don't feel like you have that much time to organize, but want to get together nonetheless, another way to do it is to go to resort. We did that last summer. We went to Sebasco Harbor Resort in midcoast Maine and had a great time. They organized a lobsterbake for us and the kids even had a mini camp each day called Camp Merrit. I think their website is www.sebasco.com. Good Luck!