Know Who is Family. Prepare an up to date family address book and information about who will be involved in the reunion. Reunion planners strongly recommend deciding early who will be invited and involved. Will this be a smaller, immediate family reunion? Or are cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. involved? Are you working from one common ancestor and looking for all his or her descendants? You have to get a box around the groups and families involved.
Build an Address Book. For every separate family unit involved, make sure you have all the needed contact information. Remember to get email addresses as well as street addresses so you can communicate electronically during the planning process. This will reduce time factors and stress!
Send Out A Survey. Once you know who will be invited, send out a survey to all the potential participants. In this survey, ask for information about timing issues, budget questions (appropriate travel costs, expected expenses, lodging, etc.), genealogy information and resources, ages and genders of participants, etc. Find out what the masses think will make a successful reunion.
Select a Date. Once you see the survey results, find a time that best meets the needs of the participants. Understand that you will probably not find a time to accommodate 100% of those invited, but you also want a date that will work for most of them.
Select a Location. Often, the reunion organization task rotates among family members, and there is an expectation that it will be close of the home of the organizer. However, this is not always the case. Depending on the way the reunion is structured, you may want to look for a park, a campground, a conference center, a church retreat or other location for the reunion. Use the budget information you received in the survey to focus your search. Free is always nice, but not always possible. Once you settle on a location, make a good map and provide detailed driving directions from nearby freeways and landmarks so no one gets lost.
