Family reunion planning involves coordinating many volunteers to commit to, and execute on their assigned tasks.
Planning a reunion without the help of volunteers is not recommended as you will end up doing all the work yourself.
Not only will the reunion be disorganized, it will also prevent you from having any fun.
It is best to get volunteers to help in the planning and organizing process to lift some of the burden off your shoulders.
Depending on the size of the reunion, you may or may not need to make a distinction between Committee members and volunteers. If your reunion involves less than 50 people, then all you really need are some volunteers to help you get organized.
If you family reunion is larger, then you may need to form committee’s to organize the effort and volunteers to carry out the tasks.
The following are tasks should be assigned:
- Treasury coordinator– Some who keeps track of which family members have paid. Also keeps track of all expenses, and fund raising activities. Person who gets selected to do this should ideally be an accountant or a bookkeeper of some sort.
- Potluck Coordinator– Aunt Betty or Uncle Bob can be pretty good for this one. No special skills needed other than the need to call and make sure there is going to be enough food for everyone. Also, they need to keep track of what each family member is bringing to avoid duplicates.
- Kid’s Activities Coordinator– Look for someone loving and caring that is good with kids in your family. The ideal person is high spirited and fun loving and does not get annoyed by small children or silly questions. Person would be familiar with kid’s games, board games, and family friendly activities
- Adults Activities Coordinator– Volunteer should be the type of person that gets along with everyone in the family, regardless of age. Person should be level headed and good with research. Encourage the volunteer to contact the CVB and go online to see what activities are in the area. Once a list of activities has been put together, conduct an online survey of all the members to see what activities are the most popular.
- Banquet Coordinator– Getting a couple of volunteers for this position is probably advisable since it requires a lot of coordinating between hotel sales staff, and family reunion committee members. Also, you probably want to enlist people with different skill sets. Ideal candidate should have a great palette, good menu creation ideas, and be able to negotiate on behalf of the reunion committee.
- Communications Coordinator– Over the last few years, this volunteer position has become a key element to the success of any family reunion. The communications coordinator is someone who makes phone calls and sends out regular emails updating family members of the upcoming reunion. Necessary skills include the ability to keep things organized and on track.
- Arts and crafts coordinator– You need someone who can create the right invitations (Actual or electronic), design family reunion newsletters, and set up the banquet hall with the right ambiance for the reunion. Getting the right centerpieces, choosing the colors, and picking the linens are what make an event unforgettable so make sure you pick someone who is good at design. This person can also help out the kid’s activities coordinator in setting up some arts and crafts games too.
- Computer/ Website coordinator– One of the easiest ways to keep things organized is via a facebook page or by creating a family reunion website. Instead of asking people individually, you can send out a mass email to all the family reunion members asking them to go the website/facebook page and take a poll on what activities/hotels/budget they desire most. This kind of input used to take weeks to organize but now it can be done over the course of one day. You can also provide people regular updates on the organizing effort, recognize volunteers and provide a forum for people to catch up ahead of the actual reunion. The ideal person for this position already has a facebook page or runs a website.
- Set up/Clean Up crew– You will need several people who can help set up/break down/ clean up a banquet hall or work an outdoor barbecue. We would recommend having at least one person per fifteen people that are expected to attend.
The list above is by no means exhaustive but it should get you started in the right direction. The main message here is to make sure that you match volunteer’s talents, skills, and interests with the tasks.
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