Welcome to Reunions Magazine. Reunion planning starts here.

We found these tips for a successful high school class reunion in The Black Chronicle, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Choose a reunion theme and have it in every detail of your reunion, from invitations to activities. For example, a western theme can feature hay rides, Western-themed food, decorations (checkered tablecloths), etc.

Have a welcome night that is casual and intimate with drinks and light snacks. A local pub or small restaurant where you hung out during school days is perfect.

Place disposable cameras at every table and have the disc jockey/band/master of ceremonies remind everyone to take candid photos. After the reunion, post photos on a website and send links to everyone.

Position a reunion display where classmates will enter the main event, with photos, memorabilia, awards, news clippings, yearbook photos, etc.

On nametags, have the person’s photo from the senior yearbook, so that everyone can identify each other more easily.

Are you a Southeast High School (Bradenton, Florida) alum from classes of 1975 through 1980? What started as the Class of 1978's 30th reunion evolved into a much bigger bash. When they started planning, someone from one class talked to another, and then another, and they said they would like to be included. They thought it would be fun to include classes from preceding and subsequent years because they had all been friends. The committee had at least one person from each class represented. Southeast alums from 1975 through 1980 can contact SEHS75_80@yahoo.com.

The Cornell University Class of 1998 committee came up with this very clever way to find classmates. It is a contest, which we expect to be copied! This was their message.

Want to come to Reunion “on the house?” We are looking for the classmate who can provide current contact information for the greatest number of our classmates. The winner will receive complimentary reunion registration for one (meals, registration fee, University fee, etc., not including accommodations).

Participating classmates were to gather as many contacts as they could and send the information via email (to include as much up-to-date information as possible: name, undergraduate major, married name, email, phone address, employer, etc.). A deadline date and email address to which the list should be sent were included.

Decade reunions are pretty cool. That way, brothers and sisters can all come home at the same time. We get to see the siblings of our friends or kids who were older than us. We may have had older kids as mentors or find out that we had been admired by younger kids. These decade reunions are even better for the older crowds with numbers diminishing due to age.

We found this comment posted by plainjane on the Daily Advertiser (Lafayette, Louisiana) website.

Ask the disc jockey/master of ceremonies/band about ideas from other class reunions where they’ve provided music. One said she dismissed tables for the buffet by asking trivia questions unique to the school and class. For example, “Who got caught for t.p.’ing the school senior year?” “Who got booted out of McKowen’s English class and sent to the principal’s for writing notes too many times?” “What was our class prom song/theme?”

Plan a tour of your alma mater. It’s amazing what memories and stories come back and are shared!

For classmates too ill to attend, create giant “get well” cards that everyone at the reunion can sign. Try new awards that are more fun: First and Last to Register, Most Body Piercings/Tattoos, Person with the Oddest Experience, Humanitarian Awards (include all those involved in community service personally and professionally), Still Class Clown After All These Years. For those with a good sense of humor, find who has been married the most times and create an award—but avoid embarrassing surprises.

Invite feedback at the end of the reunion. Have feedback cards handed out or mailed (postage pre-paid, if you can). Feedback should always be taken with a grain of salt, but if the majority of people have suggestions on the same issue, it is worth taking note for the next reunion.

Very important: make sure you know time restrictions at your booked location, from the time you can access the location until the time your party must end.

In an effort to offer our Bell Gardens High School Class of 1986 classmates an affordable price to attend the 20-Year Reunion, the Committee is soliciting advertisements for our evening program and door prizes from sponsors to offset the cost of entertainment, decorations, gifts, postage and printing.

Option I – Door Prizes. This can be complimentary dinner passes, gift certificates, company products, etc.

Option II – Advertisements. This is an opportunity to obtain publicity for you and your company. The ads will be published in the program, and there will be a verbal appreciation acknowledgement the night of the event. In addition, if your company would like to use advertising space for a “coupon,” it would create just another avenue in which to gain new customers or keep the old ones coming back for more.

Andy Spurlock, Las Vegas, Nevada, is just starting to organize the 25th reunion of the Class of ’81 of Nevada Union High School (Grass Valley, CA). He sent these tips that work for him.

1. Start early and have perpetual communication. We have Yahoo! Groups, which has nearly all the advantages of a free website. We trade messages, maintain databases of students and teachers, lists, photos, chatrooms, etc. The only limitation we found so far is that only 30MB of photos can be stored. It is “reunion central” but doesn't even come across that way – just a fun forum!

2. It’s never too late to start a “buddy” list. If you have a database or list of classmates, add three columns next to each name and ask each classmate the following: “Please give me three other classmate’s names who, no matter how many years pass, are most likely to know your whereabouts.” This incredibly simple technique is my best-kept secret. Rounding up classmates every five years now is easy because they are cross-linked on this list. Hardly anyone will ever disappear again!

Hint: if you have kids in high school, strongly encourage them to develop this kind of list before they graduate. It’s a great gift to give them.

During the first evening of the Waukegan (Illinois) Township High School (WTHS), Class of 1947 reunion, classmate Pat Booth-Lynch, Lehigh Acres, Florida, announced that she had written a mystery, A Touch of Gold, involving a reunion. She distributed copies to anyone who wished to read it. Since it contained a rather unique surprise ending, she hoped it would stimulate some thought and perhaps inspire a bit of controversy as to the true culprit in the mystery. It wasn’t her intention to have class members concoct a solution prior to the end of the gathering. However, the following day there were several stimulating informal discussions about who really killed the villain. Booth-Lynch was amazed to discover that so many attendees had read the script later that evening and formed some fascinating conclusions.

Note to readers: Pat Booth-Lynch has generously offered to share her novella, A Touch of Gold, with any reunion interested in incorporating it into your program or anyone who wants to take up the challenge of solving the mystery. Contact her directly with your request at LynchEnterprise@aol.com. She’ll send the story as an email attachment.

Bill Williams reports that he took large computer generated get well cards to his 50th class reunion for classmates too ill to attend. Class members signed them and shared some thoughts. The classmates who received the cards wrote comments about how much they enjoyed hearing from everyone and the therapy it provided by looking up those at the reunion in the yearbook.

The combined reunion of the 1969 graduating classes of Oelwein (Iowa) Community High School and Sacred Heart High School will be the end of July in Oelwein, Iowa. Organizers have been using the Web and e-mail to good effect: finding "lost" classmates, generating enthusiasm, getting feedback and test-driving what they want to put in print and pay to mail to classmates.

One of the things "the 69ers" did in their newsletter was to ask 'mates to donate door prizes. The reunion committee solicited coupons from local restaurants and other businesses to include in the reunion packet. "We'll get them to town; whatever you put in our packet will get them into your business place." They also invited musically inclined class members to bring instruments and have a jam session, at the reunion site while the decorating committee does their thing, then, give a brief "all-star" performance at the reunion.

The organizers are developing a file to pass along to the next committee including lists of places to get information, what was done in the past, how much it costs and a few notes about why they made certain decisions.

One of the ongoing challenges with this class has been a reluctance to have the reunion at a nice restaurant "because the per-person price always sounds high." The committee voted (again) to have it at the Knights of Columbus hall, have food catered and do their own decorating. They want to give the next committee some bottom-line data on all the considerations because some believe a restaurant will cost about the same but require much less committee coordination and effort.

If you find yourself in charge of a class reunion, before you plunge ahead--choosing a date and booking a venue--stop and ask yourself what you’re really trying to accomplish.

The purpose of a reunion can and should be about more than meeting in a room for a few hours every decade. If a reunion means just the event, it can be pretty shallow and unsatisfying. Reunions frequently are roughly akin to speed dating: at typical reunions, you only have time to ask a few trivial questions — Where do you live these days? What do you do [for a living]? — before moving on to the next stranger, whom you may or may not have even known decades ago in school.

Done right, reunions are about bonding, which should happen before, during and after the event. But for bonding to occur, there are two necessary ingredients: finding and communicating. Most reunion committees fret about the former while forgetting about the latter, If your committee is spending all of its time planning and publicizing the event, then it's setting its sights way too low.

Try instead to rebond your class in a way they’ve never have been bonded before. It is quite possible with the right techniques. And, if you do this, be ready to expect some miraculous results. This is what the Class of 1965 from Garland High School in Garland, Texas, has been able to accomplish.

Our story begins in the spring of 2004. The organizer of our 30th reunion died and the address list was lost. Our class missed having the 35th, which we’d voted to hold. With no one grabbing the baton for the 40th in 2005, I took it, elected myself head of the non-existent reunion committee, and used classmates.com to make contact with several dozen classmates. By the middle of June 2004, we had formed a reunion committee (26 members) and met for one of only a few meetings. I lived a half continent away in California, so we used email and phones to coordinate everything.

From the outset, we set ourselves a goal of making sure everyone felt welcome whether they were the star of the football team or were the most obscure member of the out-crowd in school. We also wanted to find as many people as possible. This we did in spades, locating every single member of our class of 751 as well as every one of our 150 teachers. (The accomplishment of finding everyone after 40 years, and the reunion itself, were covered by the Dallas Morning News.)

We felt that the more people who got actively involved in the reunion committee, the more the excitement would build and spread. So whenever anyone expressed any interest whatsoever in helping, we immediately found a job for them, even if it was small. The net result was a reunion committee of almost 100 members, which is bigger than the total attendance at many reunions. Whenever we met, we did it as a group, rather than trying to get just the committee heads together. And when we communicated to the committee, the email went to the entire committee. We never let anyone fail. When something important wasn't happening, we didn't wring our hands, we just pitched in to help that person succeed.

The single most important thing we did was to start a weekly email newsletter that now goes to over 600 people. Newsletters have about a half dozen articles each week, with two regular articles: one feature about what has happened to one of our classmates or teachers since graduation, and another announcing the upcoming week's birthday list. Other article series have been about such diverse subjects as summer jobs, funny stories from school years, memories about things and places from our youth, reunion planning and locating lost classmates. Generally we have a backlog of articles. The beauty of this newsletter is that content is submitted by other classmates, making it simple to assemble and distribute.

In the months before the reunion, we used newsletters to build excitement, provide information about the reunion and get everyone involved in tracking down lost classmates. One of many things we did to make newsletters fun to read was to run contests. One was to choose the theme of the reunion — the winning entry was the same as the title of this article, “Excited, Delighted and Reunited!” The most popular game was guessing the reunion headcount—i.e., how many people (including spouses/guests) would attend. For the record, the total attendance was approximately 1,000 (500 students, 100 teachers and 400 spouses/guests). Our high school's previous record class reunion, we believe, was around 250, so we definitely set a new record.

Because of what newsletters accomplished, classmates and teachers arrived already bonded and excited. Many people traditionally fear going to a reunion since they no longer feel a part of the group. Our newsletters fixed that. The result was that a large number of people came who had never ever been to a reunion before and had never even considered coming.

Our newsletters were definitely effective because 75% of those who got the newsletter came to the reunion. So, what about those with no email? To assure everyone felt included, committee members sent handwritten letters to everyone without an email address. We felt we owed teachers so much that we sent handwritten letters to them twice, whether they had email or not.

Our easy to remember website address (Garland1965.com) was used to build excitement and to communicate. One reunion subcommittee was in charge of photographers. Website photos provide a way for those who couldn't come to vicariously join in the festivities and for those who did to forever remember it.

We distributed a directory with names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses so people could stay in touch.

Five teachers in their 90s were coming to the reunion, so we formed a subcommittee to provide rides. We were surprised to find that people were so motivated by then that they found a way to get there on their own and didn't require our help. This subcommittee ended up being the least active.

Part of communicating is the personal touch, so we formed a subcommittee called “greeters” whose job it was to greet every person as they arrived to make sure they felt really welcome. A separate group of people handled registration. We provided picture badges so people would be able to remember each other after 40 years. Given our ages, we made sure pictures were large and names were in a font big enough that aging eyes could read them at a glance. Nothing is more embarrassing than staring at a man's, or especially a woman's, chest before looking at their face to say hello.

Finally, our ability to communicate was tested dramatically right before the reunion. Less than a month before the event, we were notified we would not be able to use our high school as planned because of unanticipated construction. This meant we had to contact 1000 people and verify they knew the new site. We were so successful that no one went to the wrong place. If that isn't a testimony to the effectiveness of our communicating abilities, I don't know what is.

My work in leading what I consider one of the world's greatest reunion committees is something which has been so extremely rewarding, words are not adequate to capture my feelings. Rarely has so much hard work been so much fun and produced such positive results. Because of the reunion and our continuing weekly email newsletters, I have an opportunity to talk electronically to several of my old classmates every day now. Before this reunion, years would go by between communications with anyone from my old school. I feel very lucky indeed.

About the author
Steve Rhodes has enjoyed three careers. After getting a PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, he worked at several high tech firms, including Bell Labs, Apple and HP. After that he became one of the world's most prolific on-line film reviewers. Lately he has been helping other reunions in finding their lost classmates and in their planning. He can be reached at 408-374-7704; Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com. The class’s website is http://www.Garland1965.com.

I graduated in 1965 from Garland High School in Garland, Texas. We won the state football championship two years in a row and were the last class before the town added a second high school.

We never had the 35th reunion we intended, so in June 2004, I put together a reunion committee for our 40th reunion for June 2005. In the process, with help of the increasingly large committee, we did the following.

1) Found every one of the 751 class members, although we started with only 50 known addresses; 14% are deceased.

2) Found 80 more classmates who were with us along the way but moved away before our senior year.

5) Established an active reunion committee of almost 100 people, larger than most reunions.

6) Started a weekly email newsletter, now at the 61st edition, full of what-ever-happened-to and funny stories.

7) Held a 40th reunion of two nights, attended by 1,000 people, including 500 students, 100 teachers and 400 spouses/guests. Five teachers in their nineties came and a large percentage of classmates who were attending their first reunion.

8) Launched a great website (www.garland1965.com/) and plan more activities so we can be together more often.

As fortuitous by-products, we produced many heart-warming, incredible stories, including one in which I was able to reunite a mother and daughter lost to each other 25 years ago and one in which a baby given up at birth was reunited with his mother after 40 years.

Our reunion motto was "Excited, Delighted and Reunited!" which was exactly how we all feel now.

The purpose of the Silverton (Oregon) High School Alumni Association (SHSAA) is to create a scholarship fund large enough to offer every graduating SHS senior a scholarship to further his or her education. It need not be a state college or university, but may be a trade school including beauty school, barber college, pet grooming, or whatever interests that senior. We publish a newsletter twice a year to promote scholarship donations and keep alumni informed of upcoming class reunions.

The newsletter is created in PageMaker and posted on the website in pdf format, so anyone can read it online or print it out. Click on the button “Alumni newsletter” at www.shsfoxes.com.

We hold an annual all-class party and Silent Auction at the Oregon Garden for anyone who ever attended Silverton High and their friends. During the evening, a buffet dinner is served. Tickets are sold for a 50-50 raffle where the winner splits the "pot" with the Alumni Association. Silverton merchants, businesses, residents and alumni donate items for the auction. Bid sheets are prepared with pictures of the items so when the item is claimed at the end of the evening, there are no questions. Our former principal builds furniture, mostly tables of various sizes, and offers them for the auction. In 2006 we raised $5,500 and in 2007 surpassed our goal at $7,800.

The auction consists of many items donated by local merchants, residents, alumni, and businesses. Some businesses (like the funeral home and real estate brokers) make cash donations in lieu of an auction item.

Three of us go door to door in Silverton, asking for donations. We split the list so we don't duplicate. Nearly everyone we ask has something to donate. We hesitated on three new businesses that had just started this summer, but introduced ourselves and explained about the silent auction. We let them know we understood if they wanted to skip this year, but all three wanted to support us! Two donated auction items, and the third made a cash donation.

It all started in 1993 when the Silverton High School Class of '63 could not find a reasonable use for approximately $900 left over from their 30th reunion. After discussion of possible alternatives, they decided a scholarship would be appropriate. Then they decided that, instead of one blast to one student, it could be "seed" money to establish a continuing scholarship program.

Mason Branstetter, a member of the reunion committee, met with Directors of the Silver Fox Foundation to ask if they'd provide temporary legal shelter while the Alumni Association was organized. They agreed; however, during the next several years, little was accomplished toward the creation of the SHSAA until Mason was joined by others in 1996. The financial report was $2,033.75. New business was to award the first scholarship of $100. A goal of reaching $100,000 in an investment account was established and it was established that scholarships would only come from the interest earned on invested principal.

Now, 10 years later, over 1,000 alumni are either paid full members or have at some time paid their $5 annual dues. The association grows exponentially. We have a databank of over 14,000 alumni from SHS starting with the first 3-year graduation class of 1908.

Our first major contributor was Verl Cochran, an ever-present Fox fan at every home and away game for many years. As owner of the school bus lines and other positions of responsibility, he was always there to lend a helping hand. His was the first significant donation, which pushed the investment account to five figures.

We have accumulated an amazing investment principal of $265,000. On one occasion, we received a "window" envelope that appeared to be a solicitation to another fundraising effort. Imagine our surprise at a check for $50,000 from a 1949 Silverton High alumni.

Because ours is a federally recognized 501(c )(3) not-for-profit corporation, donors get tax credit. For every $100 donors send, they get approximately $40 tax credit. The $40 figure is computed from 31% federal and 9% State of Oregon income tax bracket donor.

This is first and foremost an organization of people. Money is important and scholarships are the main reason for the organization's existence, but following very closely is the principle of alumni relationships. Without the unselfish support of all who help with class reunions and many extremely loyal and dedicated stalwarts of the SHSAA, we would simply wither up and blow away.

Minot, North Dakota, is a town of about 38,000. Minot Air Force Base, ten miles north, adds 10,000 or so to the population. Minot was a railroad town in the early days, named after Henry D. Minot, who came in with the railroad. It is a good, clean town, with a low crime rate and one of the best school systems anywhere.

Minot Model High School was established in 1926 as a school where Minot State University students could do student teaching for their education and teaching degrees. Classes were limited to 35, allowing close student and teacher relationships, with extra attention not found in larger classes. One main teacher supervised each student teacher and there were new student teachers every quarter. We had marvelous bands, choirs and athletic teams. Our boys basketball teams won five of seven Class B state tournaments between 1947 and 1953. In 1968, the state decided they no longer needed training schools. Students transferred to public schools, which was hard because Model was the only school most had ever attended.

Every five years we have an all-school reunion in Minot to renew friendships and relive our wonderful past at the training school. Every six months I send a newsletter, so we always have up-to-date addresses-very useful when we are planning reunions.

Five hundred attended our 2005 reunion. The three-day event included a social with hors d'oeuvres, class pictures, a banquet and program, dance and Sunday brunch. We honored veterans, those lost in 9-11 and wars, and alumni lost since we were last together in 2000. Very colorful decorations were the blue and red of the Beaver Kits of Minot Model. A revamped choir performed two songs before the banquet, and la local band played songs from the '50s and '60s.

We award yearly scholarships to descendants of Minot Model graduates or those who attended the high school until it closed.

Contact Judy Thorson Ross (judyann@srt.com), Class of 1961 and Editor of the Model Messenger, Minot, North Dakota.

Class reunion tips, ideas and advice