Tips for Family Reunion Planning

1. The best time to start family reunion planning is during the one you’re attending. Get together with the person who planned the one you’re at and find out from them any snafus they encountered. Ask them to provide a list of addresses that they sent announcements to so you don’t have to scramble to get a list together.

2. Check a calendar to decide upon the best date for the reunion you’ll plan and host. Choose a date around the time the reunions have always been held so everyone will be expecting it. Other things to consider are:

• Do you want to plan the date around an anniversary of the oldest surviving relatives?
• Will it be planned around a grandparent’s birthday?
• Once you’ve set a date, don’t change it unless there really is no other choice.

3. Decide early on in you family reunion planning if you’re going to inform family that hasn’t been able to attend thus far. If they live out of state and have enough notice, they may try to attend. Get a rough idea of how many people will attend based upon the number of people that have come before.

4. Will you have the reunion closer to where you live, or more centralized to everyone? A great family reunion idea is to find out what buildings or facilities are available in the area and begin now to check for availability. Will you use a community center, someone’s home, or a hotel conference room? Churches may sometimes allow you to use their fellowship halls if you can schedule it when it’s not being used.

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5. You’ll probably want to find a free alternative first, based upon the date you chose. If you can’t find a free facility, you’ll want to find one that is cost-effective.

6. Do you plan on scheduling events or activities, or will you allow everyone to plan their own fun? Many family reunions are an excuse for family that can’t get together often to at least get together once a year. They may be more than willing to forgo activities for the opportunity to chat and keep in touch and have a family vacation.

7. Two months before the reunion, begin family reunion planning by sending notices that the event is coming up soon. With the notice, include directions if it’s not a usual location. Be sure to have your home telephone number and cell phone number on the directions just in case someone needs better directions.

8. The day of the reunion, show up earlier than needed to be sure everything is clean and ready for your family. Arrange tables and chairs. Check to be sure there is toilet paper in the restrooms. If you have a sign, place it out where it can be seen.

Even though family reunion planning can be stressful, when the day arrives, don’t give it another thought. Even if things aren’t perfect, no one will make a fuss - they’ll be enjoying themselves too much. Now you can take time to enjoy yourself, too. You’ve earned it!

Best Family Beach Vacations recommends these resources to help you plan the perfect Family Reunion for everyone.

Groople - an online group travel agency dedicated to simplifying the otherwise difficult task of planning travel for your group. Groople gives any group of family members, friends, teammates or colleagues an easy way to plan and book travel arrangements online. Whether your group is three people or 103, Groople is the first stop for your reunion, vacation, convention, sports outing, destination wedding or other event.

Another great source we have found for easily comparing different hotel Internet rates is HotelPlanner.com. The best thing about their system is that it is free and very easy to use. All you need to do is put in your family reunion location options and dates and HotelPlanner.com will do the rest.

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