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So, with trepidation, ten months before the reunion, we held our first meeting.  At your first meeting decide who will be the chairman, the treasurer and the secretary.  Take notes each month, they will be very important throughout the course of the planning. 

Choose a theme and start brainstorming ideas for:

Props (Check out garage sales, thrift stores, dollar stores, clearance sales.  Hobby Lobby, Constructive Playthings and Dollar Tree were fantastic resources for us to carry out our theme.  We bought 23 cowboy hats at Dollar Tree to use as gift baskets at $1 each. 

Food (we were able to provide our own food by choosing a great hotel that did not have their own restaurant so were able to let us bring in our own food).  All food was homemade by the local relatives and by one sister and nephew who work at a barbecue restaurant (Rolandsbbq.com in Hot Springs, AR)

Communications/mailings/emails/website (free websites available)

Budget (our budget was $600 and we pretty much stuck to it for decorations, mailings and food.  The budget was provided in our case by the local family who felt since they did not have to spend money on traveling, they wanted to provide all of the food)

Date

Place (consider a hotel and ask for a group rate.  We were able to have free meeting rooms if we booked ten guest rooms.  Holiday Inn Express Addison also gave us a wonderful group rate far below their published rate).  Have a contract signed with the hotel. 

Decide how far the reunion should extend within the family (we chose siblings and their children/grandchildren and for this first reunion in many years did not open it to aunts and uncles, etc.  We wanted to connect with our immediate family)

T-shirts/order forms (we began designing the t-shirt right away and had them ordered two months in advance and delivered well before the event).  Creative Advertising USA was terrific.  Great quality shirts at good prices and available thru 6X.

Rooming List for hotel (due two weeks in advance per our contract)

Water bottles with reunion label (we peeled the labels off of water bottles and made our own)

Laminated reunion placemats (we designed a western trivia placemat and printed on cardstock and laminated very cheaply)

Pictures of all family members

Guest baskets (we used a cowboy hat with a bandana draped in it to which we added homemade rhubarb jelly, trail mix in snack size ziplocks placed inside homemade burlap bags stamped with a cowboy boot on the outside and tied with twine, reunion water bottles, we found bandana cello bags and filled with homemade haystack candy, nametags, popcorn and hot chocolate to enjoy in hotel room, reunion poem decorated with twine, reunion schedule/program and the t-shirts each guest ordered prior to the reunion)

Reunion schedule/program

How frequent to hold committee meetings (we met monthly as a committee and monthly with the local cousins included)

Decide how to delegate.  The committee delegated quite a bit and had very willing participation  One sister really took care of making sure she found the best prices for all the food and paper goods.  She coordinated the food preparation and the day of the reunion, she took the lead at each meal.  We were able to take advantage of sales by knowing well in advance what we needed.  

Once we knew the paper goods quantities, the food quantities, the menu, etc.  we planned a detailed budget with projected prices so that we would know if we could add to our plans or if we needed to revise our plans.