Plan the Perfect Family Reunion

Holiday Now, Reunion Later!

Is there a family reunion on your agenda for next year? Will the family be celebrating a big family milestone? Do you all plan a large family gathering every year? Never had one before but would like to? The holidays is the perfect time to start planning your group travel.

Take Advantage of Family Time Together

Instead of arguing politics or reliving the same old family drama, turn the conversation to vacation — now there's a topic everyone can agree on! The holiday season is an ideal time for reunion organizing. While you have all the important players gathered together, use that time to make decisions that can really move reunion planning ahead. First and foremost, settle on a firm date. Have all family members been informed of the intended destionation and dates? Have you chosen a travel agent? Have you chosen your location? Approve your budget and invite members to begin contributing generously to your reunion fund. Have you set up a bank account? Delegate. Decide. Be well organized.

Bring in the Professionals

Decide where to get help and start early to use all of it you can find. Contact your travel agent to ask for her suggestions and help. Remember, she can provide far more than just tickets and be an important member of your reunion planning team.
Contact the convention or visitors bureau at your destination, even if you are staying local. They offer many services to reunions. Ask if they offer reunion organizing workshops - many major metropolitan cities do.
When you contact hotels, resorts, cruise ships - wherever you'll have your reunion - ask to work with their reunion specialist.

Assign Committees

Get committee meetings (or conference calls) on the schedule now, while everyoen is together. This is a good time to establish committees to plan games for kids, banquet program, memorial service, special activities, raffles, auctions. There is no reunion task that can't use some help. Volunteers are important at all steps in the planning process and essential on reunion day.

Summer Will Be Here Before You Know It

Successful reunions require plenty of planning and lead-time. If your group has decided to produce a quilt or publishing project (cookbook, family history, memory book or directory), starting early is the only way to ensure the project is completed on time. Use holiday visits and correspondence to ask family members for a decorated square for a reunion quilt, a recipe for a cookbook, stories for a family history, and anecdotes or pictures for a memory book. Relying on many people to meet a deadline requires determination and patience.

Share Your History

There's always one person in every family who is the family genealogist or historian. Is it you? The family reunion is a captive audience for someone whose passion has been to collect family history and is a great time to share family knowledge. Family trees, charts, books, spread sheets, print-outs and scrapbooks are the obvious displays, but genealogists include many more ways to highlight fascinating family history. Pictures of ancestors and their homes must be collected and organized, and visits to the very places they lived have to be arranged ahead of time. Collecting artifacts and labeling them to explain what they are/were used for and assembling tapes of oral history from family elders are just a few things you can complete this winter in preparation for your summer event. Family history is the one thing everyone at the reunion has in common. Celebrate it .... and get started to prepare your materials for display and sharing at the reunion.

Christmas in July

Think ahead! If you're planning a Christmas in July (or June or August) theme or party for next year's reunion, think about the details right now. Take advantage of sales to collect decorations, ornaments, gifts and wrappings; pack those you'll want to take to the reunion next summer. Seasonal supplies will never be as accessible or as affordable in July as they are the day after Christmas! Plus an important reunion detail will be d-o-n-e.

Ready to book your family reunion trip? Have questions? Let's talk!

(443) 852-1330 or (443) 306-7646