Challenging, tedious, and a little bit expensive—these are just some terms to describe the process of organizing a homecoming or class reunion. Class or batch reunions are held 10 or maybe 20 years after graduation. They can be nostalgic, memorable, and a bit exciting, most especially if you were close with each other.
Challenging, tedious, and a little bit expensive—these are just some terms to describe the process of organizing a homecoming or class reunion. Class or batch reunions are held 10 or maybe 20 years after graduation. They can be nostalgic, memorable, and a bit exciting, most especially if you were close with each other.
In planning a homecoming reunion, here are some tips and steps to guide you effortlessly through the process.
1. Organizing a school reunion takes months, or even years. So, before entering the committee, be sure to have enough time and perseverance to endure the painstaking process. Connect with some people you were able to maintain connection through the years and ask for their cooperation. Set a leader, or someone to head the planning and execution of the class reunion.
2. Retrieve contacts of batch mates or class mates. Engage massive social networking to complete the contacts list. Know their current names, civil status, residence, contact number, and occupation. You can use your year book as a reference or if you have saved your graduation program then you can also refer to it. Don’t do this on your own, rather tap people to look and get the information needed. One of the fastest ways to do this is to create a group in Facebook and allow former classmates to add other people.
3. Updating your contacts list and connecting with former classmates may already take 3 months, so if you have gone past halfway through the peoples list then start preparing the invitations. Create a general invitation and sent it to them via courier service, social media, and print publications. If you have connections, then you can also announce it via broadcast mediums. It setting the date, provide at least 2 months from the day you distributed the invitations. This is for them to save the dates, or notify their attendance. Also, if possible, choose a low-cost venue. You can choose your former school as the venue or have it in a hotel where your batch mates can also stay for the event. Most reunions last for a day and may even extend up to 3 days.
4. Secure financial support. Some classes or schools have ensured savings account or funds for the students to use in the future. But if you don’t have these, then look for sponsors for the mean time. This will help you relieve one load off your chest. Get five or ten people to spare funds for the reunion. And during the event, collect contributions from your former batch mates to refund the money spent and allocate for the future.
5. Don’t offer to cook for the event, unless you can take care of feeding more than a hundred people. Spare yourself and go instead for catering services. Since this will be a whole day event, they can take care of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. This will also provide a spontaneous event, no need for you to be worrying about the distribution of food.