A class reunion website is much like a plant. It needs to be cared for, pruned, fed, and watered. The days of just putting up a few pages of information one web page are gone. Nowadays, your classmates are expecting a highly interactive class reunion website.
If you don’t know how to create one, we suggest you read our class reunion website page.
Listed below, you will find all the day to day responsibilities of the class reunion website site committee.
What are the responsibilities of the website committee?
Compare and select a class reunion website builder
While there are many companies that offer to create a class reunion website, there are three reputable ones that we have reviewed. You can read our detailed review here “Class Reunion Website Builder Reviews“. All three companies make an excellent choice depending on your needs. And they are all reasonably priced too (with one being free).
Alternately, you can Google the term “Class Reunion Website Builders“.
Finally, if you don’t want to bother with the reviews, then just go with MyEvent.com. They have all the features you will need to create a great class reunion website for under $15 per month.
Once you have a class reunion website started, there are going to be ongoing responsibilities to keep the website up to date.
Upload or add classmates names
You can start by adding all the names of classmates into the class reunion website. If your school provided you with a list, then you can upload it as well. Once you have the names added, classmates that come to the website can create their own profiles and add more of their information without your assistance. This is a big time saver too since you won’t have to update all the information manually.
Update attendance
As registrations start to pick up, you will have to update the website with who has committed to attending. Maintaining this list, while a bit cumbersome, has its rewards. As classmates begin to see who is attending, they may recognize a few names from their past, and that is enough to spur them into attending as well.
Update classmates and ask for help
Keep the class reunion abreast of the latest developments in the planning process. If you have questions about something, ask away and one of your classmates may be able to answer it. For example, when we needed a lawyer to read our catering contract, we asked for help in one of our class reunion update emails. As a result, we had two classmates (who were both lawyers) help us for free.
Update class reunion budget
Bring people up to date on how much money is needed to have a class reunion and ask for donations to cover any shortfalls. It may seem like too much to ask, but it has worked for us in the past. As a general rule, the more involved we kept our classmates, the more we got out of it.
Create surveys and polls
Confused about what the class gift should be? Don’t know whether the theme should be the “Friends” or “Seinfeld”? Just post a poll online and ask your classmates what they think. Putting up a poll or even a survey is very simple on most class reunion websites, so there is no excuse not to ask.
Maintain FAQ section
Once you start planning a class reunion, you’ll begin to realize that classmates will ask the same questions. Instead of answering them again and again, set up an FAQ page online with the most frequently asked questions. This alone will cut down on dozens of emails and phone calls.
Set up registration form online
There are two ways to register classmates for a class reunion, online or by sending physical registrations. If you are using one of the website builders, then setting up a form online is simple. Both MyEvent.com and Class Creator offer online registration forms.
Set up payment processors on to sell reunion tickets
Find out if the finance committee wants you to accept credit cards on the class reunion website. This way, classmates can register for the class reunion and pay for it all in one step with no need to send manual checks by mail (major time saver).
Setup message boards
Have one person on the committee maintain the message boards and set up regular chats between the class reunion planning committee and the rest of the classmates. The chats provide a nice open forum for questions and also provide a great way for classmates to interact with each other. Events like this lead to greater buy-in and increase attendance at class reunions.
Setup class gift page
Maintain a page with class gift information. Make sure the page is regularly updated with donations, how much is needed and a list of the top ten contributors.
Create photo albums and where are they now pages
How many of you are curious about what your classmates look like? We all are. So help everyone out by posting then and now pictures on the class reunion website. This section of the site will be the most viewed page and will leads to lots of fun discussions on the message boards as well.
While setting up a class reunion website sounds simple enough, it requires lots of maintenance, and a crew of 3-4 people to update the different sections. With the list of responsibilities above, you now have a better understanding of what needs to be done to create, and maintain a great class reunion website.
What should you do next?
Read our Class Reunion Website Builder Reviews. We have researched each company thoroughly so you don’t have to.