by Pamela Ashton

Created on: August 28, 2009   Last Updated: August 29, 2009

With a little organization and effort, planning a family reunion can be a rewarding experience that will only be enhanced by the actual event. Prioritize the tasks by beginning at the beginning, counting the cost, organizing the family, processing opinions, and breaking down the plan itself.

Whose family is it? Begin at the beginning. Reunions are generally planned to bring together branches of a root family. For illustration, we'll use my husband's family, and the reunion we recently attended. The last reunion this family held was when my husband's parents were alive; they have since passed away, but their influence in the family is alive and strongly felt. It was determined that many of the cousins, children of my husband and his siblings, didn't really know one another. A reunion was in order. Beginning at the top of the family tree and working down, a list was developed of who would be invited to attend. That list started with my husband as the oldest living family member, and branched out to include each of his siblings, their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Of course all spouses were included.

Once this information was gathered, there was some initial opinion gathering. The question was put forth, Would you participate in a reunion if we had one? A simple, straightforward question, to determine if it would be worthwhile to put the time and effort into further planning. In this instance the response was overwhelmingly positive. If there is not enough positive feedback at this point, reconsider. Perhaps there would be an alternative way of reconnecting with those family members who are willing, if there are too few to warrant a reunion.

Perhaps one of the most important steps in planning a reunion is to count the cost. There are a lot of variables to consider in funding a family reunion; travel expenses, meals, lodging, activities. Costs may be only generally estimated until some of the other variables have been decided; however, having some idea of what funds are available will be useful in establishing guidelines for other areas. For example, if it can be determined that each participant is able to contribute $30 toward the reunion, and there are to be 80 participants, then roughly $2400 would be available to fund the reunion. If each family is to be on their own in providing for their lodging and meals and transportation, then it is only necessary to provide lists of available lodging and area restaurants. In our illustration, the individual

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