Unless you are planning on doing everything yourself, a finance committee will prove to be an invaluable asset when you plan your next reunion.
A committee that handles all things related to money will result in a much smoother reunion and will help avoid poor planning, cost overruns, and unhappy reunion attendees.
Setting up a family reunion finance committee right at the beginning of the planning process will yield great benefits.
They can make sure that the event is funded properly and all records of expenses are kept. There is a lot of money involved when it comes to larger reunions so you want to make sure the people you select are honest and level headed.
Recruit A Businessman.. Or an Accountant
Volunteers for this committee should obviously come from some kind of financial background. If there is a successful business owner in your family, then try to get him/her to join the committee. People that own their own businesses typically know budgeting and bring good leadership skills as well. Another person you would want to recruit is an accountant or a bookkeeper as they can manage the banking and the daily ledger as well.
Job Duties Are The Key
Once you have a finance committee, you want to assign goals for them to meet. Specifically, they need to make sure they:
1. Create a finalized budget– Setting the budget will require knowledge or a general idea of whether the family reunion event is going to be a large catered event at a five star hotel or just a toned down event over a weekend (It could just be a potluck dinner, in which case, you won’t need a finance committee). While there are many things to consider before finalizing a budget, the most important will be the financial obligations that family reunion attendees will be responsible for. It is the finance committee’s responsibility to make sure that the reunion is affordable by all attendees. Here is a sample family reunion budget that you can download and adjust to your needs
2. Open a bank account
3. Negotiate hotel rates for the group– If your reunion involves hotel rooms, it is best to get multiple bids from hotels. Here is how to block hotel rooms for a family reunion.
4. Keep track of inflows and outflows and adjust budget accordingly.
5. Negotiate costs among vendors before opening the checkbook. By keeping track of expenses and making sure that they negotiate the very best deals, the finance subcommittee can save the reunion attendees thousands of dollars in just one reunion. T-shirts, badges, hotels, dinners are all negotiable so never take the first offer from any of these vendors.
6. Advise the fund raising committee on how much will be needed
In order to make things easier, we have created a list of responsibilities for the finance committee in MS Word that can be downloaded and adjusted to your needs. This list can be given to the person heading the finance committee.
An organized finance committee can help keep the planning on track and under budget. By providing financial guidelines, it will help take stress off the other volunteers as they plan the rest of the family reunion.
What should you read next?
Since you’re planning a family reunion, take a look at some money saving ideas for your next event.