When do class reunions take place

If your classmates are of child rearing age, then summer is the best time to schedule any kind of reunion. Any other time would conflict with the school year and will result in lower attendance. If the class reunion is going to be held at the school, then find out ff there are any date restrictions. Some schools only allow class reunions on certain weekends e. Homecoming weekend. Another factor to consider is school availability. Is the banquet space at the college or high school available for the dates you have in mind?

If a hotel will be used to block rooms for out of town classmates, then it would be prudent to inquire about their availability during potential dates. You can get availability and rates easily by filling out our group hotel rates request form.

Additionally, research should be done to uncover busy and slow weekends so you can get low group hotel rates. Plan the class reunion around a slow weekend and you could score some great concessions. To learn more, read about how to block hotel rooms for a class reunion. If you end up scheduling the class reunion on a busy weekend, not only will classmates pay more for hotels, there will be a premium on photographers, videographers, caterers, and entertainers.

Where should your class reunion be? The most obvious and best answer is at the school. The advantages are tremendous in terms of cost and attendance.

Schools generally do not charge rent to class reunions for their banquets. In fact, many even provide linen, decorations, and AV equipment for free too. Attendance is another reason to have the class reunion at the school. Many classmates may not have been back since they graduated and will be very curious about what changes have occurred.

Another reason to host the class reunion at the school is that you have access to free help from student volunteers. What month do high school reunions happen? How do I find my high school reunion? How often do they have high school reunions? Are high school reunions dead? Who organizes a high school reunion? Who is responsible for planning a high school reunion?

Do spouses attend high school reunions? How do you impress a high school reunion? What is needed for a high school reunion? What do you do at a high school reunion? How do you get money for a class reunion? Begin at least one year in advance. High school reunions involve a lot of coordination. There are venues to reserve, catering to organize, and dates to save.

To ensure that you leave yourself enough time to plan a great reunion, begin to organize your committee at least 12 months prior to your reunion date. You do not want to have to rush or slap together a reunion at the last minute. Your committee members might live in other states or even other countries. Some classmates might have changed their names. The earlier you begin assembling your committee, the more time you will have to reach out to the appropriate people.

Contact your high school's alumni office. Many high schools have an alumni office. If the alumni office handles reunions, they might be able to assist you with the reunion planning.

If they do not typically handle reunions, they might be able to assist you in other ways, such as by providing contact information for your classmates or suggesting local venues. Before making any official decisions, talk to your high school administrators about how other class reunions were handled and about whether there are any class gifts you can use to help fund your reunion.

Reach out to designated committee members. Some high schools appoint a reunion committee prior to high school graduation. For example, many high schools ask their Class President or Student Council Members to take on the role of reunion planning. If your high school has already appointed a reunion committee, you will simply have to get in touch with the right people.

Write them an email or begin a phone chain to get the ball rolling on your reunion plan. If you have lost touch with other members of your reunion committee, contact an administrator at your old high school.

Many high schools maintain an alumni contact list. Recruit a reunion committee. Some high schools do not appoint a reunion committee prior to graduation. And sometimes pre-designated reunion committee members are unable to fulfill their roles.

In this case, you will have to formulate your own high school reunion committee. Send an email to your high school class list or use a Facebook group to ask for volunteers who can help with this important task. Remember that the best planning committee members will have the following traits: Planning committee members should be able to devote at least hours per month on reunion tasks during the 12 months leading up to the reunion.

Members should be able to devote significantly more time during the final weeks before the reunion. A planning committee should be diverse and represent students with a variety of interests. You do not want your planning committee to be cliquish or exclusive: a high school reunion is for everyone.

A committee should be large enough to allow tasks to be delegated to several members but small enough to be manageable. A committee size of members is ideal, depending on high school class size. Having one committee member for every 25 class members is a good rule of thumb. Delegate tasks. A high school reunion involves a lot of moving parts.

A single person cannot handle all these roles in addition to their other responsibilities in life. Use task delegation in order to make sure that everybody on the committee is pulling his or her weight. You should try to stick to your designated tasks as much as possible, while remaining flexible in case a task proves to be particularly difficult or time-consuming for your committee member.

Your committee will likely need to appoint specific members to handle the following tasks: A committee chair who helps keep committee meetings on track. A secretary who takes and communicates meeting notes and maintains a meeting calendar A communications team that gathers contact information for classmates and sets up a website, Facebook group, and email list to notify classmates of the reunion An events team to scout possible venues and research vendors caterers, bartenders, DJs, photographers, hotels, etc.

A financial subcommittee who manages the budget and handles registration, ticket sales, and donations A decorating committee who helps set up, decorate, and clean up the reunion space A welcome committee who staffs the reunion event itself, greets attendees, and manages volunteers who help staff the event An activities coordinator who helps plan entertainment surrounding the reunion, such as a class softball game, outing, or other events.

Create a tentative meeting schedule. One of your committee members should be in charge of setting a meeting schedule to keep everyone on the same page. Decide to meet at predetermined intervals and put them in your calendar right away.

Aim to meet twice a month while you are in the early stages of the planning process months before the reunion and once a week in the final two months before the reunion. If your committee members live in other cities or states, use video chats or conference calls to keep one another updated appropriately. Create a tentative timeline. Some tasks are more important than others, and some tasks have to be done before other tasks can be completed.

It is therefore important that your committee develops a sensible timeline to allow your reunion planning to run smoothly. Part 2. Set up a master list of class members.

You will be gathering a lot of information from a lot of people. It will be important for you to keep everything organized so that your invitations get sent to the correct parties. Create a spreadsheet that you can continue to update as you gather names, addresses, and email addresses.

The following categories should be included in your spreadsheet: Current name of the classmate Former name of the classmate if relevant Classmate's spouse or domestic partner Classmate's address Classmate's email address Classmate's phone number Classmate's social media contact information. Talk to your high school's alumni office. Most high schools maintain a detailed list of their graduates, including name changes and updated contact information. Your first step to developing a thorough invite list is to gather a list of all your class members from your school.

This will likely provide the bulk of the names, email addresses, and addresses you will require. High school reunions are a dying tradition, made obsolete by the overwhelming presence of social media in our daily lives. As one of my classmates pointed out during The Battle of the Class of , most of us know what everyone in our class eats for breakfast every day because we're all friends on Facebook.

Accept me, and I'll do the same for you. If you are running a class reunion, you could use your personal bank account as a way to collect and disperse funds, but for propriety's sake, it is a good idea to open a non-profit account. Skip to content May 30, Joe Ford.