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Computer Capers: Family Reunions
By C. Pryor Brown
For the past twenty years my two brothers and I have held
family reunions. Among the three of us we had a total of fifteen children. One
passed away when he was a young man. All but two of the remaining fourteen are
married. Those twelve have had thirty-three children of their own. So we were
self-sufficient in numbers just by ourselves - if everyone attended. However, we
expanded that to include cousins, aunts and uncles. Each annual reunion was
rotated among our three homes. Each person or family would bring their food. Gas
grills were available for cooking. Beverages were provided at a very nominal
cost. About forty relatives attended each year.
We decided this year to hold a special reunion at a
non-family site and to make it a special Millennium Reunion for the year 2000.
We planned to rent a facility, have the picnic catered, and hire a live band to
entertain.
Some relatives who attended had never met. Some we knew but
had not seen in almost fifty years. Our relatives were a disparate group of
various religious backgrounds, geographical regions, and a wide range of ages.
What I’d like to do is share with you some thoughts on
planning, implementing (Day of the Reunion), and follow up and to review some
pluses and some challenges.
Plan
Plan early . This is especially true if you expect to use a public
facility. We wanted to have our reunion in the Berkshires. To avoid the influx
of tourists and the need for hand-to-hand combat for motel rooms during the
Tanglewood season, when the Boston Symphony Orchestra is in residence, we
decided to have it the last weekend in June. This was almost two years before
the planned event - October, 1998. Despite this long horizon we couldn’t get the
last weekend. It was already booked! We settled on the June 24, 2000 date. We
reserved an outdoor site that had tennis, swimming, soccer and gym sets for the
youngsters. In addition, we were able to include a pavilion which would
accommodate seventy five people inside in the event of rain. A tent was also
reserved. All this, as well as sports gear, e.g., soccer balls, baseballs and
bats, etc. were provided by the facility owners.
Committee.
Set up a planning committee as soon as possible - for the good ideas they come
in with, sharing the work load, and keeping things on track. We had committees
on: Contacting Relatives; Registration; Catering; Entertainment; and Children’s
Events.
Theme.
It’s useful to have a theme so relatives and committee members can focus. Ours
was a Millennium Reunion for the Year 2000. The key purpose was to make new and
renew old acquaintances and to make it fun and enjoyable for everyone. This was
a challenge in view of the age range and the fact that some of our relatives
were strangers.
Miscellaneous.
In planning you must look at the obvious like facility, accommodations, etc. but
you must also be aware of potential problems. Even then you can’t anticipate
everything. But we were aware of possible medical emergencies since a number of
us were senior citizens. Key people knew where the local medical facilities
were. A number of us had cell phones. The weather was a factor to consider.
Dietary and beverage requests had to be considered. Some of us were teetotalers
and/or vegetarians or had diet restrictions.
One of the key items to look into early is the question of
liability insurance. Usually the facility will require a waiver that they are
not responsible for any liability due to any accident that might occur during
your event. I obtained this from my insurance company since I had a personal
liability insurance policy with them.
An up-to-date mailing list is essential. This was no major
problem for me since I keep in contact with some 120 families in our family
tree. This is obvious, but it is essential and can be difficult and
time-consuming if you’re starting from ground zero.
Day of the Reunion
As I mentioned previously you can’t anticipate everything. We
had proof of that when we (a few workers including the caterer) came to the site
to set up and found that there was no electrical power. Power was lost a week
earlier and the owners of the facility failed to notify us. Result: no
refrigeration; no use of the electric cooking facilities; no lights; no power
for the two bands. In short, a potential disaster. They offered to run extension
lines over two hundred feet with exposed extension cords. We were concerned with
safety - overheating the extensions and possible electric shock to children,
etc. Luckily, after losing a half-hour, we settled on a second site that was
available on the camp grounds. It had power and was close by. Signs were
re-hung, and the caterer was up and running before the reunion began.
Registration was handled by one committee member. Each attendee received an
event schedule and a name tag. The name tag was a photo pin with the first name
of the attendee on a removable label. Underneath the removable label was a photo
of our grandparents taken around 1912 with the children at the time. There were
two pins: one for the Brown side of the family showing my Dad as a young seven
year-old along with his siblings and parents; and the second pin showing my
Mother, as a baby, sitting on her father’s lap along with her sibs and Mother.
The back of the event schedule had the identification of the individuals for
each photo pin. Actual size of the pin was 3 ½ x 2 ½ inches.
Food was the standard picnic fare - chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, three salads and
excellent desserts. Beverages included juices, sodas, wine and beer.
Entertainment
was provided by two small bands. They were excellent! One of our
relatives’ sons was a member of a great high school group called Joy Ride
Charlie. They played for an hour. The second group to play was the
Housatonic Philharmonic. A trio (they claimed to have left the other 83
members of the philharmonic at home) of outstanding musicians, they entertained
us with American and Celtic folk songs playing the guitar, hammered dulcimer,
penny whistle, fiddle, banjo and spoons for about ninety minutes.
In addition, volley ball and horse shoes were the sports of
the ‘more mature’ (read ‘less athletic’) relatives. And we had swimming, frisbee
throwing, soccer and gym sets for the younger (read ‘more athletic’) relatives.
Miscellaneous . We handed out
disposable cameras to six of our relatives. It worked well, providing more than
140 photos which will be put on a CD (see below). I also had two family tree
charts hanging up so members could see where they fit with their relatives. One
was for the Brown side and had about 300 relatives displayed and one was for the
Pryor side (my Mother’s family) which had 400 relatives. In addition, the same
information was presented in book format and spiral bound for the relatives’
perusal. One showed the Descendants of Lawrence Pryor going back to ca. 1800 and
the other was Descendants of Reason Brown going back to 1833.
Lastly, I published a hard bound book entitled, Ten
Questions on Life Experiences. About two years ago I queried my relatives
with ten questions developed by using a book, selecting one hundred questions
from that book and then asking three relatives to pick their ten favorites. “As
a child what did you do on weekends. . .?”, “What was you favorite/funny story
about your mother/father?”, “What was your first job?” are examples of the
questions asked. Twenty two relatives responded. I published their responses
along with a photo of each, as a child, and an abbreviated descendant chart
showing where each respondent fit into the family tree. This book was very well
received.
We also video recorded the reunion. This too was successful
but so much was going on that we could have recorded more.
Follow-Up
At the suggestion of members of the family the spiral books
are being made available at a cost-of-materials price. As well, the hard cover
book, Ten Questions on Life Experiences, is provided at a
cost-of-materials price. Photo pins were also offered, at cost, to family
members.
Two years ago I put over 450 photos from the last 12 family
reunions on a CD which can be viewed on a PC monitor or printed out on a color
printer. This Millennium Reunion will be added to the CD, increasing the photo
count to 700, and will be made available to family members at cost.
How the PC Saved My Life
Sounds like a Readers’ Digest title. Granted it didn’t
save my life but made it a lot easier. From keeping an updated mailing list to
the creation of the photo CD it made the difficult or impossible possible. Some
of the uses included: an updated mailing list; mailing labels; spreadsheet of
who was coming, who paid, special requests, etc.; scanning and preparing photos
for photo pins; publishing (word processing, artwork) spiral bound books on
family trees and the hard cover Ten Questions book (which included word
processing, scanning photos, generating cover artwork). Finally, I used Family
Tree Maker software for the Descendants’ Books and the two large family trees
that were mounted on foam board.
The Internet in combination with the PC was invaluable. All
committee members were on the Net. The photos for the photo pins were scanned
and e-mailed to the vendor, located in Houston, Minnesota. Artwork for the die
to be used to stamp the cover of the Ten Questions book was sent over the
Net to the bindery, located in Agawam, Massachusetts.
The Internet has a number of useful sites for planning Family
Reunions. Three are listed below. If you’re interested in the names of the
caterer, the vendors for the photo pins and binding you can contact me at the
address below.
Challenges
Looking back, the items that could have received more
attention were:
Providing a better environment to encourage more interaction
Hiring a videographer who is not a member of the family with specific
instructions as to what to record.
Looking forward I would recommend:
An indoor facility like a hotel/motel with a pool
More family info - photos, stories, etc. from all family members;
Better video recording.
Kudos
The positives, including comments and results, were:
The photo pins
The facility and food
The entertainment
Use of the disposable cameras and video
Just getting together.
Useful Web Sites
http://ancestry.com/library/view/columns/george/848.asp
http://www.cyndislist.com/reunions.htm
Cost Details
Caterer - $12 per adult; $6 per child (4 through 14)
Bands - $120 and $250
Facility - $200 per day
Photos pins - $80/hundred
Summary
Our Millennium Reunion for the year 2000 was a great success.
Ninety five relatives attended. They came from nine states - from Florida in the
south to Vermont in the north and Tennessee in between. We have relatives
located in fifteen states from Hawaii to Florida to Vermont. They ranged in age
from one year to eighty years. Everyone walked away with some new memories and a
memento.
The total cost per adult was twenty five dollars, twelve
dollars for children ages four through fourteen and free for children under
four. This included the facility rental, catering, beverages, entertainment and
the photo pins. All in all a great and gratifying experience.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please
E-mail me:
pryorbrown@aol.com or write me at 8 Club
Circle, Pittsfield, MA 01201.
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