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Guide To Planning A Reunion

“The family is a haven in a heartless world,” American historian Christopher Lasch once said. Perhaps it’s this need for comfort, joy, laughter, support and connection that drives us into planning a reunion. Part of every individual soul sinks when there is a funeral — and yet, the after-funeral party is a welcomed gathering that has people saying, “I wish we didn’t have to always get together under these circumstances.” Family reunion ideas often sprout from this notion that we should be gathering to commemorate birthdays, celebrate weddings and enjoy momentous occasions, rather than just mourning the loss of a family member. To organize your family reunion, you must first come up with a guest list and decide who will be invited and who can be contacted. This may sound simple, but it often requires months of calling around, gathering updated addresses and inquiring about emails.

The best starting point for planning a reunion is to send a general letter out to family members, letting them know that a reunion is in the works. In this letter, you can ask for volunteers, include possible dates, propose a reunion type, ask for suggestions on a general location and inquire for family reunion ideas regarding activities or theme. As with any invitation, politely request a timely response, so your letter doesn’t get shuffled away with other paperwork. You may want to set up a personalized family reunion website at www.myfamily.com to send with the letter and keep tech-savvy relatives up-to-date with the planning procedures.

Once you get other family members involved and send out a survey letter, your next step of planning a reunion will be to select the date. What good is a family reunion if no one can attend? Look over the survey poll results and try to find the date that is conducive to the most people. Many families select a holiday like Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter or a special family milestone. If you plan on turning this into an annual gathering, your best bet is to pick a date and keep it the same each year. You’ll also need to consider how long your gathering will last — just a few hours, a weekend or even an entire week. If you have a lot of family members coming in from afar, then you may want to make their family reunion vacation last more than just an afternoon. It’s important that you understand you can’t possibly please everyone, so try to choose a date that will accommodate the largest number of kin.

Other steps of planning a reunion include nailing down a reunion location and deciding upon a theme. The location can be an all-inclusive family reunion resort, cruise or camping experience. It can be at someone’s house, a local park/picnic area or a restaurant/banquet hall. Hopefully, you did your homework and sent out those surveys to get an idea of people’s budgets and availabilities, and to get some reunion ideas. The theme, of course, is optional, but it can be a great way to interest family members and make them more likely to attend. Hawaiian luaus, murder mysteries or Mardi Gras themes can tie decorations, activities and food together nicely. Now that you know the planning steps for a family reunion, you should be well on your way to creating new memories and forging new bonds with your loved ones!

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