How to (and How Not to) Plan a Reunion

Kate (Addison) Macdonald ‘04
It was hard to believe that it had already been almost a decade since we donned the white graduation robes and caps and attempted “not to fall” as we crossed the stage in our matching white, high-heeled shoes.
Nevertheless, the time had come to plan a reunion. Four of us decided to undertake planning the reunion, and we learned a few lessons along the way. Here, I will set out the top three lessons we learned about how NOT to plan a reunion...

  1. Plan everything by consensus. When we set out to plan the reunion, four of us wanted to plan it. Rather than putting one person in charge, we attempted to plan everything by agreement. Unfortunately, trying to accommodate everyone’s ideas ended up stalling the planning process because no one wanted to go ahead with their ideas and take initiative to move the process forward for fear of stepping on someone else’s toes. Instead, we recommend choosing one person who will take the lead on planning and decision making, and having two or three others help along the way. If this is clear from the beginning, it will help everyone.

  2. Try to please everyone. This raises the same issues with consensus planning, but with the broader class. As soon as classmates heard we were reunion planning, we got a lot of requests. Unfortunately, sometimes the requests were for completely opposite things. Some people would only go if it was on a Friday; others suggested Thursday since Friday is often busy. Some people wanted a laid-back, evening event at an outside venue; others only wanted to go if the reunion was at the school. Instead of trying to incorporate everyone’s conflicting “must-haves”, it is important for the people planning to lead the way. The planners should think about what others might want, but remember that ultimately, they volunteered to organize the event and that people will be happy as long as they get to catch up with their classmates.

  3. Have busy people with incompatible schedules attend every meeting. Having four busy young professionals plan a reunion was probably not the best choice. For our second meeting, we ended up having no dates in a three-month period where everyone was available. Instead, having one person lead the way helps to avoid group attempts to schedule. If one person cannot make a specific date, try to use Skype or phone that person in. Better to get underway than postpone making decisions for three months until everyone can be in the same room!
Now that you know what not to do and how to avoid those problems, here are some things that worked well for us...

  1. Choose a date early and tell people. There is never going to be a date that works for everyone, but the best way to avoid disappointment is to choose a date about six to eight months in advance and send out either a Facebook event invitation or an email asking people to save the date. Try to consider Thursday or Friday nights since May and June (typical reunion time) also tends to be wedding time and weddings tend to be on Saturdays. At least for a 10 year reunion, you can expect lots of weddings to be going on!

  2. Keep it simple. The focus of the reunion is just that—reuniting with your LFA classmates. While in an ideal world the reunion would be the event of the year, what your classmates really want is to get together with old friends and catch up. The best way to do this is to focus on creating a comfortable, laidback atmosphere, rather than focus on planning twenty activities down to the minute that prevent people from mingling. A few activities, perhaps a slideshow of photos or an ice-breaker event, are a good thing, but they are not the most important thing.

  3. Plan ahead. After putting in the effort to plan your reunion, make sure you get to participate in it. The best way to do this is to ensure that the logistics are being taken care of by someone else or that all the details take care of themselves. For us, this meant having the event at a venue which would provide the food, drinks and serving staff. This way, the planners could organize everything ahead of time, show up early to set up, and then actually catch up with classmates. People feel more welcome if they can chat with others when they arrive, rather than waiting for their classmates to finish serving food to see them.
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