<p>I’m helping with an upcoming reunion and, having not been to one in many, many years, I’m looking for interesting ideas to make the night a success. Has anyone been to a reunion where they’ve been impressed with how the evening is organized? Fun things to do? Was there a memento table? Powerpoint display? Our evening will include a dinner and music but we’re looking for things to keep people engaged and enjoying themselves. Someone suggested a speed-dating-type game. Has anyone tried that? Did you have assigned seating for the dinner? How about some sort of favor or something to take home? Would appreciate any advice and/or suggestions about what was good and, of course, what didn’t work. Thank you!</p>
<p>We went to our 40th last year, and it was really fun. Personally, I wouldn’t like too much organized activity because there are so many people that you want to see, and having it too structured would ruin the ability to linger and connect with the people you want to talk to. I advise against assigned seating or games.<br>
Ours was in a restaurant meeting room- they decorated with a beach theme, which fit well with the restaurant location. There were large round dining tables and a wonderful buffet. I think the quality of the food is important. We did have a memento table- people were asked in the initial flyer to let the organizers know if they had anything to contribute- photos, trophies, jackets, newspaper clippings, etc. Yearbooks were displayed. We had a large class, so it was a fairly impressive table.</p>
<p>The one organized thing we had was a photo opportunity. A professional photographer took professional portraits of couples or groups (voluntary) that you could order later after you saw them online. There was also a roaming photographer (someone in the class who was the yearbook photographer-) who volunteered to take candid pictures and then posted them online later for everyone to see.
You really don’t need to organize the people. The event should be well organized in that the food should be well-presented and ample, the tables should be set so that people can get up and mill about to see everyone, and the music should be present but not intrusive. If you have a live band (we didn’t) be sure that they don’t dominate the event with the volume) We didn’t have dancing, and I’m glad. We really just wanted to talk to everyone!</p>
<p>I agree with moonchild; I think organized events would interfere with people mingling on their own. If you had a huge class where people were not likely to know everyone, the memento table will give people something to talk about. At one of my reunions, the organizers asked class members that couldn’t attend to send a letter telling their classmates what they were up to. I have found that the further we get from graduation, the nicer people got. For the first few reunions, people tended to be more competitive. Now, we can laugh at ourselves more.</p>
<p>My sister’s recent high school reunion was very well organized. A couple of things that they did that really went over well–photographer who took photos of couples/groups–a la Prom–and inviting as many teachers from that era that you could find alive. Students AND teachers had a great time!</p>
<p>Name tags or buttons with the high school year book picture are fun. </p>
<p>My absolute favorite activity though (doable at a small girl’s school) was an event where everyone brought a favorite poem they had memorized (or not) and recited it to a favorite recently retired English teacher. (She was at the school for almost 50 years - so we had a lot of generations of former students in that room!) The German exchange student from my year had the entire Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock memorized. I was impressed!</p>
<p>I went to our 50th last November. There were a bunch of old people there. What was that about?</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^:)</p>
<p>We are planning our 40th for October. Someone suggested name tags for front AND back. We had a mini-reunion barbecue this past weekend at someone’s house. It was fun.</p>
<p>I’, going to my 40th next month–really looking forward to it. Our 30th was a great time. We had nametags with the photos from our senior yearbook–I did the names in calligraphy. One drawback with our live music was that it was far too loud so it was hard to talk, which is what everyone wanted to do. I think that popular songs from your high school years (recorded music) would have been better.</p>
<p>This 40th reunion is more low key than our 30th. The 30th was at a hotel with buffet dinner and the live music. The 40th is a potluck picnic in a park (with hot dogs and lemonade), followed by a tour of the high school, and then an optional buffet dinner at a restaurant. I’m worried that it will be really hot and humid to be sitting outside at a park. But I’m still really looking forward to it.</p>
<p>I just attended my 30th a few weeks ago. We had an informal get-together at a classmate’s home on Friday night, then rode a class float for the parade Saturday morning. (My town has a Heritage Days weekend every June and the classes always have their reunions that weekend - many people are in town from all different classes that way.) Saturday night was the dinner and class photo. We didn’t have anything special, but I can tell you even with two nights, I still didn’t have enough time to catch up with everyone I wanted to talk to.</p>
<p>The one thing I did do starting 3 weeks before the reunion - dove into the containers in the basement where I store my pictures and memorabilia from high school. I put a bunch of old pictures on facebook and had lots of comments as we all reminisced. Also, one of our classmates printed out copies of our senior wills from our last school newspaper (a custom in our school newspaper for seniors to “will” things to friends and teachers before leaving the school). We all had a great time reading those.</p>
<p>Hope you have a really great time!</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you for the great information and suggestions! Much appreciated. MOWC and bookiemom, it’s my 40th, too! It’s interesting to see who it is who will be attending. Most of us who are going will be travelling quite a distance to get there. Those who remained in the area, or who are close by, for the most part, aren’t coming. We have several teachers who will be attending, too, so that should be fun. One sad part of being involved in the planning and organization is discovering how many classmates have passed away.</p>
<p>Going to my 30th next week. A survey was sent with the registration materials–questions like: number of miles traveled to the reunion, # of kids & grandkids, # of years married,
favorite HS memories, etc. Prizes will be given based on some of the questions. They also asked everyone to email family photos for a slide show. They asked for stuff to display–yearbooks, letter jackets, uniforms, old photos, etc. They are going to take group photos during the evening–including middle school and elementary school groups. There is a free event on Friday night and a more formal one/dinner Sat. night. I’ve heard from a member of another class that more people attended the free event last year–it would be a good idea to keep the cost down. (Ours is $60-$70/person which includes dinner, but still, I think it is a bit much. I’m not taking my H).</p>
<p>I remember that they played the music too loud at our 20th reunion. And they also were playing music from after high school–I only wanted to hear the stuff that was popular when we were in high school. We also had nametags with our senior yearbook pictures on them, which was helpful and funny. Sometimes they don’t do a very good job of advertising, locating “lost classmates” and encouraging people to come. (I wouldn’t know about our reunion, except that I have a twin who still lives in that town, her kids go to the same school, and she regularly runs into people from our class.)</p>
<p>I attended my 40th last weekend in Ohio. My class was the largest in school hsitory (526) and not particularly close knit. That said, the cliques were forgotten and egos were checked at the door and we really had a great time.</p>
<p>We had a really informal gathering on Friday night at a local bar which was surprisingly well attended and a great ice breaker. Saturday night was casual as well though there were a few of the “girls” in some pretty fancy/expensive cocktail dresses…</p>
<p>Other than photos, nothing was planned and it was really good that way…plenty of time for socializing and mixing.</p>
<p>We too had our senior yearbook photos as name tags. One thing that was fun was having the photographer also take group photos of us grouped by our elementary schools… this was not a planned activity but we asked if he would do it that night and it turned out to be a big hit. We had three parochial schools that served the area along with three public elementary schools. I honestly think the evening really got going after the elementary school pics were taken…everyone really loosened up as there were plenty of very old tales being told and more laughter and subsequent mixing than I have seen at any previous reunion.</p>
<p>We had the hall reserved from 6-11 PM and ended up paying for two more hours because people just didn’t want to leave. A good number of us ended up at the same bar from the previous night until about 2:15 and then a few of us went for coffee until 4:30 AM. I walked into my hotel room at 4:45 AM honestly very surprised at how good a time we all had had.</p>
<p>Interestingly, we too had a disproportionate number who traveled a good distance to attend while many who still live in the area were not there.</p>
<p>What a great idea to do group photos for the elementary/middle school groups! Part of the slideshow and photo display is going to be the 8th grade graduation photos from all of the feeder schools so it would be a great tie-in to those to have new group shots done. Thank you for that idea!</p>
<p>atomom, we’ve really made a huge effort to get in touch with as many grads as possible this time. I’ve spent countless hours for the past 3-4 months tracking them down. I had my high school’s alumni directory (am I the only one who buys these?) and we have called every single grad who responded with a phone number in the directory. I’ve emailed everyone whose email address was listed, and have found so many people through Facebook and classmates.com. The few of us who are organizing this really wanted to have as many attend this one as possible because the older we get, the more difficult it becomes! 
</p>
<p>eadad, I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed your 40th. I’m hoping that ours is as big a success and that people want to stay late! Our graduating class was large, too, at 628. The year after we graduated, an additional high school opened in the area so I think that our class may have been our school’s largest, too. I’ve seen the cliques and egos disappear already, just in the contact so many of us have had in the planning period. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone, even if they weren’t close friends during those years. What we all have in common, I’m hoping, will help to make the reunion a place for good memories and not so much a who-was-friends-with-who-back-then vibe.</p>
<p>Does your class have a website? Ours has one that honestly rivals FB. It has tons of information. I’ll send you a PM with the info. We had this set up at least a year BEFORE the events and honestly, folks made unbelievable connections. Our class had two events…one on Friday (a casual appetizers event) and then the reunion itself on Saturday. Both were very well attended. We had a band (one classmate still has his “garage band” and they are terrific). The only “complaint” I heard was that the band was too loud (aren’t they always) and folks would have liked to be able to talk at their tables, not out in the outer area (which was VERY nice too…). </p>
<p>Also some of our classmates planned smaller events during the weekend (breakfasts, brunches, tour of the high school, lunches, gatherings of old elementary school classmates) and these were also posted ON our website for all to know about.</p>
<p>I would agree…don’t have too many “planned” things. Folks want to talk. A running slideshow of pics over the years in high school might be fun…someplace where people COULD see it but don’t have to…that might be good.</p>
<p>P.S. Ours was the 40th too…also in Ohio…graduation class of about 1000 (No kidding). Agreed with others…all those high school cliques just weren’t there at this event. Our class enjoyed it so much that we are planning a 45th!</p>
<p>Well…I TRIED to send you a PM…your PM box is full.</p>
<p>thumper, I’ve cleared some space. Sorry about that, my inbox always seems to be full! </p>
<p>We do have a website but it was set up for the reunion. We’ve talked about expanding it and keeping it up afterwards so that people can keep in touch in that way. Surprisingly, a large number of our class are on Facebook so that’s been a great resource, and, of course, word of mouth has also reestablished many contacts. </p>
<p>I so appreciate everyone’s input. As frustrated as CC often makes me, it’s times like this when I remember why I stick around. :)</p>
<p>edad, Thumper, lol --I’m also an alum of one of those big Ohio high schools–(Give me a hint, I’ll guess your schools. . .Mine is “CHS”–suburban public on the south side of a large city/SW part of the state. School is known for sports and world class marching band.) 650 in my class, which was not the largest.</p>
<p>Mine was also a CHS but on the opposite side of the state…NE…city public on the west side of town…also a football factory but weren’t they all in those days? The lobby of the new gym is an homage to the football greats with larger than life size photos of former coaches, All Americans, a Heisman Trophy winner and those who went on to the NFL.</p>
<p>Ours had roughly 1500 kids in grades 10-12 back then, now they have 900-1000 in grades 9-12…the city had six public high schools when I lived there but is now down to two; my old school which recently underwent a face lift and doubling in size, and one other brand new high school…the students from the other four schools were consolidated into the two remaining schools. </p>
<p>We had a tour on Friday afternoon of the “new” old school. It is now an amazing place with features that we all would have loved to have had the chance to take advantage of but sadly the majority of kids that now attend there don’t seem to notice or care. They actually have these approx 4x8 rooms with a small reinforced window on several hallways that are lockable and are used for “time out” when kids get out of control…those of us on the tour were stunned to see them. As much as we enjoyed the tour it also was sad to see how much things had changed in the school we were so proud to attend “back in the day.”</p>
<p>*all those high school cliques just weren’t there at this event. Our class enjoyed it so much that we are planning a 45th! *</p>
<p>I haven’t gone to any reunions- but going by who is friends with whom on Facebook I would have to agree.
( You can see who some people have added) Some of the people are now FB friends with people that they wouldn’t have been seen even * talking to* in high school.
;)</p>