High School Reunions

[DVCisME]

Hi! Our class president dropped the ball on our 10 year reunion, so...
Can anyone offer any suggestions on how to organize a reunion?
Or can you give your opinion of what you would like if it were your reunion?
Open bar...cash bar?
Buffet ok?
How much would you be willing to pay? $75 too much?
When is a good time of year...Oct?
TIA!!!

 

[Duckyiam71]

I cant answer much because I did not organize ours. You need to get a Facebook account then search for your hs and get the word out via that route. It was very effective for ours. We paid $35 a couple if they got so may people and $50 a couple for so many people. We had it at a local restaurant/pub and it was catered and you could drinks for free from a bar but they were limited in selection. It was very casual. Good luck!

 

[AKL_Megs]

I'm trying to AVOID my 10-year-reunion. I am hoping they can't find me Although... my parents still live at the same house

Opinions...

If I went, of course...

If I paid $75, I would expect an open bar.

Buffet? GREAT!

I like September.

When you get addresses (I tend to think the school district helps with this and getting old addresses), send out a questionare and ask for a new photo. My aunt "in-law" had the coolest thing from her 20th reunion. It was a booklet that everyone got, and it had questions like, "Married?" "Children?" "Career?" "Where would you be found on a Friday night Senior year?" "Best memory from Senior year?" And each person had their HS senior photo and the new photo next to their answers in the book. We didn't know any of the people and still found the book fascinating! It would probably take time and money to make these, but people could PAY for them if they wanted one. On invite, include something like, "Add $15 for Catch Up book" or something.

 

[bumbershoot]

Facebook and Classmates are really good resources, though Classmates requires a paid membership to do anything really meaningful, and that's going to knock out many classmates of yours. I did NOT want to pay for the membership, so if they had solely relied on it for our 20th I would have been out of luck.

Price depends on your area. Our 10 year was too expensive for me to have dinner there, but they had a more reasonable "get in the door" price for after dinner. Alas, they'd had the "awards" during dinner! That was STUPID, do NOT do that. There were NO drink tickets, it was a cash bar.

The 20 year was even more expensive, nearly $100. Two drink tickets and a HORRID buffet. Well, for me, at least. I'm vegetarian and they had ONE item that I could eat. Bruschetta. That's it. And the rest of the buffet was just offensive to me, with legs of ocean-spiders (crabs) draped over bowls and whatnot, gag. Try to not offend or disgust people, LOL. Or if you must include those things, also include some other items as well, that will make people who do not eat such things happier.

The nice part of the two were that they had blocks of rooms in the hotel that each was held in, and the prices were very reasonable. That was nice.

They had an informal thing at the bar the night before I got there, the formal thing, and the next day they had a small spot at a local park festival. We did not go, as I haven't lived in CA for years and am NOT used to (late) summer festival weather. Had no interest in passing out from 100 degree heat. I don't remember anything beyond the dinner/reception for the 10 year.

For the 20 year, it was too expensive for DH to come. Plus, we didn't know anyone in town who wasn't at the reunion, so we had no babysitter. Therefore, DH and DS hung out in the hotel room, watching Ratatouille, while I was at the reunion downstairs.


DH's 10 year (I wasn't there for) was very reasonable in cost, invited families, and he really enjoyed himself. His 20 year will likely be reasonable, will probably involve families, and we will probably have more fun. His is in WA. So the prices are different than my Silicon Valley/Bay Area reunions.


My 20 year was in Sept, and I found that to be an odd time of year. The 10 year was more June'ish. DH's is in June, and I think his 10 year was as well.


There WILL be some families there, and so I think having it before most schools go back into session is a good idea. I don't think I'd do Oct...that seems like it would shoot the reunion in the foot, so to speak, dooming it to failure just b/c the kids that already exist might already be back to school and parents won't be able to come.

Oh, and don't focus totally on those who are still local. There will be some who have left, but might still want to come back. If you really focus on the locals, you will alienate those who have traveled, and that HURTS. If you have a "who traveled the furthest to come to the reunion" award, try to not make the winner a popular girl who came from the southern part of your state. If there are people coming from WA and GA, all the way back to CA, try to mention THEM instead. It's really only fair. Even if it's not someone you knew in HS.

 

[Shyvioletisme]

Our 10 year is happening this fall. I'm not sure exactly what the class officers are planning, but I know I definitely wouldn't pay $75...wouldn't even pay $50. For a 20 year reunion...maybe, but not for 10.

Buffet would sound great! Cash bar or open bar really depends on how much you think people are willing to spend to come, obviously if you have an open bar, the "admission" price is gonna climb, but then again if people would be drinking a lot then it might be worth it.

I suggest maybe starting a group on Facebook and looking for old classmates. That's what our officers did...we have an "our high school" class of 2000 group and that is where all the planning info goes and I think we've got 88 out of about 140 of our graduating class in the group. Then maybe ask around and see what kind of thing people are interested in. big party? smaller get together? restaurant? rent out a hall? once you do that you'll be in a better place to understand what all needs to be planned and how to go about doing it.

 

[barkley]

more and more reunions are done in the fall for several valid reasons-

end of school year reunions conflict with other highschool/college graduations (and lots of weddings),

schools have such a wide variety of end dates that it can be impossible to narrow down the ideal weekend that will facilitate the largest number of people able to attend,

and the number one reason (from my experience planning our 20th, and being the resource person for our 30th)-

the places most groups rent for these events (hotels, service clubs, golf course banquet rooms...) charge WAY less for a fall event than one during the peak of wedding season.

when i planned our 20th i took into consideration what kind of family committments people might have-june was out b/c of weddings, graduations. summer was not popular with the classmates b/c they either wanted to do vacations with kids (and where we graduated was not a great family destination) or they were limited b/c of the nature of their jobs in taking summer time off-and they wanted to use what time they could for their family plans, the spring was iffy-lots of people pointed out that was when kids had band and choral concerts, sports teams were forming/practicing. i opted for fall-early october worked well b/c the kids were back in school and settled, noone was yet prestressing over the holidays-and the weather where it was held was generaly very plesent (and it did'nt hurt that we could get lower priced flights and lodging vs. peak season).

10 year reunions tend to have much higher bar tabs than subsequent ones-so a cash bar is best (and idealy at a place that has an atm handy). have food that people will eat to absorb that alcohol (buffetts are good-and remember to consider a vegetarian option).

with the 30th i sent questioneers that included a question about what song most reminded people of highschool. i had the dj include every song named on the play list-and he had to finish the night off with 'stairway to heaven' (it was the song that everyone of our jr and sr high dances ended with).

people will initialy say they are absolutly attending, then they never end up buying tickets which makes it hard to solidify the numbers for the venue/caterers. set a definitive date that tickets have to be purchased and paid in full by (paypal works well for this). then set another date that ends maybe 30 days later but costs the person maybe an additional 10.00 per person. this gets the stragglers to purchase ahead of time. don't sell tickets at the door or it wreaks havoc with the caterer (and the venue if they have a maximum capacity).

 

[golfgal]

DH's 20 year reunion had a casino theme. They hired a company to come in and run the game (they brought in everything they needed) and everyone was given "money". It was great for the spouses as it gave them something to do while the classmates talked. They also had a optional golf earlier in the day. I want to say we paid $100 or so for all of that and we were given 2 drink tickets. I would NOT do an open bar, mainly for liability reasons but you are still going to find people in the drink all you can mentality and that can ruin the party. They had heavy appetizers to eat, which were plenty filling.

 

[NCRedding]

We're in the process of planning our 30th reunion. We always plan for fall reunions for several reasons. We like to have reunion around a football game to offer that as a chance together. We find that summers are just too busy for people to plan around vacations, weddings, graduations, etc.

We've always done a buffet of appetizers, usually including a carving station or heavy meat dish. We've never been able to do a seated meal because the size of our class prohibits having a facility large enough to do that.

OUr reunions have been in the $45 to 50 per person price range to keep it doable. The bar is always a cash bat. We still get complaints about the cost, but really have not been able to figure out a way to do it cheaper, absent a pot luck, or no food.

This year, we're trying to get as many email addresses as possible to do this electronically in an attempt to save money on postage and printing. We've had great luck using Facebook, not so much classmates. Be careful in pricing your reunion and make sure that you plan to cover all expenses so that you don't have to go back and ask for more money, or cover the additional expense yourself.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Okay, well, I've never planned a reunion, but most around here seem to be Thanksgiving weekend (most often Saturday), for convenience; graduates who've moved to other parts of the country are more likely to be visiting then anyway, making attendance easier.

The other thing - if you have to guarantee a minimum number of attendees or your price will be higher, charge the HIGHER price and keep excellent track of who paid what. Then, once you sell the minimum number of tickets - remember, no refunds for nonattendance or cancellations - you can return the overpayments to the early responders.

Why do I suggest this? Well, one sibling's reunion at a hotel apparently didn't have the guaranteed attendance necessary for the price quoted - so those that did go were billed an additional $15 or so each, several weeks after the reunion! Don't do that to your classmates... or, do - if you don't want to have to plan any reunions in the future

 

[MushyMushy]

The same thing happened with my class, but we had gone 20 years until some of us finally got it together to have one. Do you know how far people have scattered after 20 years???

Do you have a committee? You need about 5-6 people, not too many more than that. The more people you have, the more dissension you can have. We had monthly meetings in the year and a half leading up to the reunion. Now we had to actually do some fundraising to get started because our class treasurer had stolen our money. We did bake sales and small things like that just to have enough to make the deposits we needed to make.

For a 10 year, I think $75 is pretty high. I think keeping it as low as possible would be better -- do a buffet dinner, cash bar, DJ (check out the local high school.. we had a high school kid do ours and he was FANTASTIC! cheap, too!). Make sure to do some fundraising at the reunion, like a Chinese auction or something. We also had booklets made up with pictures, addresses, info, etc. It was so nice!

Have fun with it!