Class Reunions

AOX81 · #1 08-14-2002, 09:46 AM

Anybody ever been involved with planning a class reunion? My 10 year reunion is coming up and I think that people from my class are going to be slackers.

Any suggestions?

thetakates · #2 08-14-2002, 10:35 AM

No suggestions, just wanted to say I bet my class will be slackers too. Which will suck because I will be looking forward to seeing who married who, etc. in like 7 years! Maybe you could try to contact someone to see if something is going to happen with it.

Hope it works out!

josh8o · #3 08-14-2002, 07:24 PM

i was senior class president when i was in high school, so i have to be in charge of my class reunions... i wish i could give you some tips, but since i have only been out of high school for 3 years i'm of no help. let me know if you find out anything good!

#4 08-14-2002, 08:08 PM

Does your HS have an Alumni Association? If so, that'd be a great place to start because hopefully they'll have the most recent addresses of your classmates. My alma mater's big on reunions every five years, and this year my class had a mini five year reunion at Dave and Buster's.

My suggestion is to start planning early...maybe even a year in advance. Once you get the addresses of your classmates, send out a letter to see how many of your classmates are actually interested in attending the reunion. With that to work with, you can determine how many events you should have, where the events should take place, etc.

Having a reunion website totally helps too! I know a lot of classes like to list "WHO'S GOING TO THE REUNION" as a way of letting everyone know who's actually attending.

Hope this helps! Getting everyone together for our mini five year reunion took some work, but I had fun helping with the planning. I have a feeling I'll be called on once again in 5 years for the big TEN YEAR!

Hootie · #5 08-14-2002, 11:42 PM

Anyone else's class reunion coming up? My five year reuninion will be this Spring sometime. How scary! Has time flown by THAT much?!?!
I know my personal goal is to lose some weight (for myself not them) so that'll probably be about the only difference they'll see in me.

Anyone have great stories?

Hootie

kdonline · #6 08-14-2002, 11:50 PM

I was Student Govt President when I was in high school & I also chaired our 10 year reunion committee. Coincidentally, I was also teaching at my old high school.

People contacted me to help out w/ the committee & early on, we decided to hire a company who specialized in reunion planning. (www.reunited.com - I think they're just FL based.) We had a class of 650 & everyone was in early-mid career, so it worked out fine, since they did all the grunt work of finding people.

My sister (who was also SG pres her year) just had her 20th & used the company we used & she felt it was a rip off. But at least she has a solid list of alumni to plan their 25th.

BTW, my sister is a KD - yes, I suppose I was one of those sisters who copied everything my sister did. But I think it ended at pledging KD!

Good luck!

DeltaBetaAGD · #7 08-16-2002, 05:19 PM

My 10 year reunion was last Saturday and I was on the planning committee. We chose to go through a reunion company since it makes things a lot easier. They are able to put money up front, etc. We started with the website www.classmates.com to get information out to our classmates.

It was a ton of fun but a lot of hard work! Make sure you get a good committee that will follow up on things needed. I suggest for everyone to at least check out reunion companies prior to doing it themselves. The *BIG* plus...they do all the set up and clean up.

lifesaver · #8 08-16-2002, 08:28 PM

Mine was this weekend, and I missed it.

Was sick and didnt feel liek driving 10 hours cross state to attend. Too much work stuff too. I do think I'll go in October tho for homecoming. Its been since 96 since I was in my hometown. It did seem kinda sketchy tho... it only cost $50 for a couple. I am used to greek life and formals as an alum and having to sheck out $150 - $200 so I was a bit taken aback at how *cheap* thisd was going to be. lol.

RubberSoul · #9 08-16-2002, 10:31 PM

Everyone always told me that the 10 year sucks because everyone is posing, trying to impress......I believe it. They say that at the 20th you get a much better feel for where everyone is in life and who they have become. I skipped my 10 year because I just really didn't care. I knew the only people who were going to be there were the core cheerleader clique who live right near and I see frequently and possibly my ex, and I just didn't feel the need to interrupt my summer vacation at the lake for that. Plus the fact that I was 8 months pregnant at the time and I really didn't want to have to make 14 unnecessary hours of driving. As it turns out, I was right.......my ex and the cheerleaders, that was pretty much it. (Nothing against cheerleaders but I see these gals all the time, so what would have been the point?) Here's hoping that the 15 or 20 is a little more interesting.

Steeltrap · #10 08-16-2002, 10:36 PM

My 20th reunion is this month. I've no intention of going, but would love a video.

CutiePie2000 · #11 08-17-2002, 01:04 AM

I went to my 10 year and had a blast, even though I didn't think I would.

Another good website is www.gradfinder.com

DeltAlum · #12 08-17-2002, 01:10 AM

I am ashamed to say that my 35th reunion was in 2000 -- and I haven't been to a single one of them. I've always lived too far away, and they've always been in August which conflicted with the NFL pre-season, and I have always been televising the games.

The closest I came was one year when Denver played at Indianapolis, and I managed to get to Columbus to a beer party the night before, but couldn't go the the formal reunion because the game was played that evening.

Senusret I · #13 06-16-2005, 01:26 PM

I am bumping this because I have an idea/question.

My high school has been having pretty shitty ten-year reunions. The class of '94 cancelled theirs last summer because they couldn't get enough people to buy advance tickets. I think they are now trying to do a cruise on the Potomac. I haven't heard what the class of 95 is doing. My class is 97 and all the lames have come together to do the planning. I feel that this, too, will suck or not happen for a few reasons:

1) The people planning it are lame and were lame in high school. They don't have the charisma to really bring people together.

2) DC is a small big city and on the whole, we all know where we are and don't miss each other.

3) Our class only had 200 people -- we were your average high school with average graduates. Some of us are doing well, most are just getting by. I believe the prices these guys are proposing are way too high for "regular people" with kids.

But I'm putting up with it because it's not like I stepped out and said I would plan it. THAT SAID....I'd like to run an idea by you all and get your thoughts. I don't want to see ANYONE have a sucky reunion year and I think this plan would work.

*****Senusret I's Reunion Plan*****

1) The School and Alumni Association would identify one weekend in the Spring/Summer as "Reunion Weekend." Let's say, for this example, it will always be the last weekend in June. What this accomplishes is that it creates a tradition for the school and alumni association to prepare for Alumni to return EVERY YEAR.

2) The Alumni Association sponsors the reunion banquet instead of the individual classes. That way an incorporated body will always assume the risk and make the best decisions about location based on interest, etc.

3) The Reunion Banquet can be for all classes in five year increments instead of just one class. Example, this year would be any classes ending in '5 and '0. This way, instead of an expensive event where only 75 people from a class of 200 show up, maybe 275 from a group of 500 show up. (Just arbitrary numbers)

4) During alumni weekend, the individual classes can have their own parties and happy hours that they sponsor on their own, during a particular slot of time. That way, the event has lower financial risk on the individual classes and individuals IN the class. (Most of the class committees aren't incorporated, so individuals could be sued or held liable in the event of something bad happening.)

5) Misc.: The alumni weekend could have community service, a career fair, tours of the school grounds, etc.

What do you think? I'm just brainstorming here since I know my school has small graduating classes but always has huge braodway sized ideas that never work.

Sister Havana · #14 06-16-2005, 02:01 PM

That sounds exactly like what IMSA (IL Math & Science Academy, I know a lot of people who went there and my mom used to teach there) does. They have a big alumni weekend, and within that weekend there are reunions for the classes in five year increments. (this year: class of 1990, 1995 and 2000. The first graduating class was in 1989 so nothing beyond that) Apparently it works pretty well.

AlphaSigOU · #15 06-16-2005, 02:15 PM

I planned my high school's 20-year reunion in Florida a couple of years ago. We also hired Reunited, Inc. to organize it. They do a good job of securing the reunion location and dinner, but it is entirely up to the reunion committee to search for and contact alumni; while this thankless task has been made easier by the Internet, it's still quite tedious. Reunited provided a basic list of alumni and kept us updated if their mailing address changed or was no good. I keep a relatively-up-to-date alumni database for my class; it took a lot of work to build it up, it's a lot easier to maintain it afterward!)

And just because you hire a reunion-planning company does not absolve you from keeping tabs on them to make sure they do what you ask them to do.

5-year reunions are rarely, if ever done, except for very small, close-knit high school classes. Most grads have either finished college, started law or medical school, or have just started their careers and family.

The 10-year reunion is usually the most popular and is well-known as the 'show-off' reunion. By this time, the law and medical students have finished their studies and begun their careers; most everyone else have either settled down, gotten married (and probably divorced) and had kids that mostly are out of diapers and beginning school.

15-year reunions are also 'oddballs', as you'll only probably see them with a very close-knit class, like the five-year.

20-year reunions are the first big milestone reunion - many are approaching middle-age and are settled well in careers and family. Beyond the 20-year reunion it's best to have a reunion every five years, as ten years between reunions may be a little too long. Some classes will do an informal reunion in odd-numbered years and more formal ones on milestone years. (20, 30, 40, etc.)

Don't be afraid to invite graduates from classes immediately junior or senior to you. It's not unusual for single-class reunions to have maybe up to 20-25% of your graduating class attend. Faculty members (current and former) should also be invited.

Those are good ideas you have there Senusret I. Unfortunately, not very many high schools have a very active alumni association. Shoot me a PM or e-mail and I'll be happy to share what research and information I have for planning a class reunion.