Reunion ideas needed

I am organizing my family reunion this June and need some ideas to keep it fun and entertaining so everyone will feel like it was worth the trip and want to come again next year. It will be outdoors at a park, and the food will be potluck. Other than that - the plans have yet to be developed. Have any of you got any ideas to share of good - and not so good - family reunion experiences?

Other than the two DG Roundups that I've been to (One in Tenn and the other in KY) I've never been to a family reunion.

I would think a laid-back atmosphere is most important tho. And a "gathering of the group" time where memories can be told, and a SHORT period of pics (like a slide show so people don't have to huddle around a book).

Of course there will be meal time (and I wish I could be there for that!)

Any chance the family members play music? How about a live music time? If not, a scavenger hunt is fun, too!

Also, just sittin around shootin' the breeze and saying hello will be some good quality time.

Are you planning a big group to show up? Small group?

I truly believe that those two Roundups that Shoe was telling about were really family reunions. We were all "Heart" family there. I kept telling my husband at both reunions that it was just like a family reunion except that there is usually some old grouch or grouchette that everyone hates to see at a blood relations reunion. At our "Heart" reunions there wasn't a single one of those! LOL!

I have organized two very successful first time-ever family reunions for my father's side of the family. It took 2 years to trace everyone, organize an email committee, organize and then have our first one. I entered the search words "family reunions" on the internet and read bunches of stuff in magazines and books. In the end, I chose to have a simple, loving gathering that wasn't filled with entertainment but rather with folks sharing stories of their remembrances and remembrances of their parents or grandparents. We asked everyone to bring pictures or momentos to share if they so desired. Several family members made wonderful posters and one person even made a video of treasured family photos and documents that she played in the entry area. She later gave the head of the household of each family a copy. For the second reunion I decided to ask everyone to bring silent auction donations to help cover the costs of the reunion that weren't covered elsewhere. We got enough money to do that with some left over for the one next year. It was alot of hard work but well worth the effort. We did decide that it was a hardship on some who had to come so far to have it every year so we are now planning to have ours every other year.

I go to my family reunion in Texas every other year and all of these sound like great ideas! depending on how many days you will be there you might consider making sure there is some "free time" so that people can go off on there own if they want to.If its one day that probably wont be needed.

I have 8 brothers and sisters and with all 9 of us+husands and wives and kids there are about 58 of us. we rent 3 houses on the river for 3 days. with this many siblings fee time is needed LOL.

One thing that always goes over well is to have everone bring photos to share with the others. I always make up a envelope for each of siblings of duplicte photos or ones I think they might like. They love it. Or you could just put them in a pile and fight over them LOL. good luck, let us know how it goes

All great ideas! There will be around 100 or so people we think, and not all are familiar with each other, some have never even met. We talked about a scavenger hunt for the kids, and a watermelon seed spitting contest, as well as a horseshoe tournament. The silent auction idea sounds great, but how do you auction off the items? Like a regular auction with someone holding them up and taking bids? Let me know more how you did yours because that idea would help with reunion fees, and everyone would go home with something. I will post a message on our family website about all of these great ideas, and we will be able to plan for some fun. I absolutely agree that it shouldn't be so busy with activities we can't relax, but I do want to get them all to mingle and talk to each other. You know how some of the quiet ones go off to a corner to observe all of the action, and others hook up with the ones they know, and before you know it - we have little groups of people not interacting. The photo and memento idea will be a good conversation starter too. Have any of you been to MyFamily.com? That is where we have our family website, and it is wonderful. It's like an online reunion, and keeps us all connected. You can post photos, recipes, news or files on it. The trial 5mb is free, when you get more activity and space gets limited, you can upgrade the site. We love it, so I wanted to share that with all of you - especially if you have a lot of family out of state etc.

Sounds like you have a great number attending. First let me say, if you are having special activities, be sure to post a list of the activities and times so that people won't miss anything. It is rather difficult to stay on time but it is essential if there is much planned activity. W

We have a restaurant meal to kick off our reunion and this takes place on Friday night. That is our get aquainted time. That is when we also pass our our program for the next day. People start bringing the items for silent auction that night and ontinue bringing them the next day. We place them on a long table and put an index card and pen at each item. Starting bids are written on each card along with the name of the item. Bids can continue until a vocal announcement announces the closing of bids. Only the Reunion Committee knows when that is to happen. Quite frankly, I think more money can be made if you have a regular auction with a really good team encouraging the raising of the bidding so that more money can be made for the worthy cause. Lots of folks really get fun from the raising of the bidding to outdo someone else. If it is a fun game, it raises more money that way. We never have enough time for that but I recommend it if you do have the time.

You need to try one of Dave's new websites like I am doing to keep in touch with folks. He has them set up just like the Garden and it is also free but has all of the necessary space, picture posting, etc. that you are getting now at the Garden. I recommend it highly! Doing business eith Dave is painless also, which is not always the case with all sites.

I haven't been to a reunion since I was maybe 8 years old. There never were any special activities for kids and that's the way I liked it. I had plenty of structured activities at school. I just enjoyed poking around the park with my cousin.

At a church picnic one time they had a treasure hunt where various things were hidden around the section of the park where we were (I don't remember what they were) and I did enjoy that. (You can get all sorts of little toys at Oriental Trading Company www.orientaltrading.com . They have all sorts of themed toys, like holiday, patriotic, animal, luau, and Christian. Yeah, they're made in China, but try to find something inexpensive that isn't.)

Where can I find some of Dave's other websites? I didn't know there were any. I'm new to this one - and so far I love it. Everyone is nice, interesting and very informative on so many subjects.

My family belongs to MyFamily.com....we have 6 sites...no...seven now that we have a new baby in the family and they started her a site of her own. We post pictures, news, recipies...just a great way to keep in touch.

If I was having a family reunion I would want everyone to bring a favorite family recipe...then have someone print them out into a small booklet for next year or mail them to the different families. Jo

My yearly family reunion has a silent auction. People who want to bring an item, (crafts, pottery, baskets, dolls,plants, books, etc.). A price is marked on each item and a card placed in front of it. People who want to bid, write their name and a higher price on the card. A time is set for the auction to end, and at that time the high bidder wins the item. Most just mark up the price 25 or 50 cents or so. Items that are not priced too high get a lot of bids and the auction is a lot of fun.

Just a short suggestion, but instead of scavenging for "things" perhaps your scavenger hunt could be for other family members? Since not everyone knows each other, put together lists kind of like:

One member of the family raises pygmy goats
An older female likes to race cars
Someone has an old family recipie for cheesecake
A cousin visited China two year ago
Someone's uncle is remodeling their kitchen

Then have a reward for whoever first identifies the most people on their list? You could get these clues ahead of time by asking people to list things about themselves to share.

It will help them get to know each other and open conversations.

Terre, now that sounds like fun!!

Would even go over good at our DG Family Roundups, too!

Yes - other fun activities around meeting people can include something like a dance card where you need to find ten new family members and find out something interesting about each of them and then write down the degrees of separation - the links between that person and you. Like - my mother's mother's brother...yes, another word for great uncle, but could be fun coming up with creative ways to link to the person.

I love Terre's idea... it would be a great way to draw out some of the more shy people who may have interesting hobbies or professions or activities.

You could also have everyone send the organizer a baby or childhood picture and have a friendly contest to see who can guess the most!


Gosh - now I want to come...

This message was edited Mar 13, 2004 6:43 PM

I love those ideas for reunion purposes. Now, that is now included in my notes for entertainment at the KY Roundup. I will start quizzing folks by email to work up a good set of questions. Right now, I am thinking about a printed sheet of paper with the questions to be given out at registration. Folks can then snoop around and try to find out the answers. (No sharing answers cause that would spoil the fun.) Then, at one of our group gatherings, we could have the person that the question applies to stand up when each number is called. The winner could get a name tag or sign saying something like, "The Biggest Snoop at the 2004 Ky Roundup".

What a great idea Terre! I will do that - it will be fun, informative and an ice breaker for the ones who don't know each other...It would work for all ages too :) Thanks you all - I'm getting some wonderful ideas...Keep 'em coming!

Elena....glad you're in here and on the ball! Jo

Jo, I was going to email that info. to you and Melody. I copied it in a Word Doc for that purpose. I will send that document to Melody since she hasn't seen this thread. I think that would be fun to do, don't you?

Melody always has too much on her to be quizzing folks but you and I can do that can't we? We could divide the list and start emailing them so that would be done way ahead of time and not put off till the last min.

Hey Elena...sounds like a plan to me...send me a list as time gets closer and we know who alll is coming....Jo

Will do, Jo. We will probably want to do like we have done in the past and start to notify folks in the area who might not even be aware of Roundups.