REUNION LESSONS LEARNED

I have never been a program manager in my professional life, but I have participated in many and have  witnessed my fair share of good and mostly bad programs and program managers.  So even though taking on our 50th reunion project was a daunting task,  I would like to think it was both well run and enjoyed by the vast majority who participated.  I was blessed to have a team of talented, hard working, and creative volunteers who made my job easy and enjoyable.

Judging from some early survey results and my personal observations and classmate interactions, I think we can declare it a success.  Overall, most everybody had a good time, and we did it almost within our budget (slightly less than 2% over budget - coming from a Federal Government background, that's a huge success).

After a program has completed, all good program managers of well run programs should review the program as a lessons learned activity to help them manage future programs.  With our 50th reunion planning, I believe we have created an infrastructure that can be used in all future class planning activities.  Namely, we have a checking account and more importantly a class website.  I believe the website was fundamental for our huge turnout - 143 (102 classmates and 41 guests) attendees for Saturday night.  The website allows classmates to communicate with one another and is the clearing house for all class activities and announcements.  Whoever may choose to organize future reunions will have the benefit of this infrastuctue.

From what I have been able to glean from the early surveys and my own personal observations and conversations, any reunion should have its primary emphasis on the following activities:

  1. Eating

  2. Mingling with classmates

 3. Music from back in the day

 4. Dancing

 5. Eating

On a  personal note, I can't hear very well and never was a particulary good dancer, so 1 and 5 are very important to me - you can call me anything, just not late to dinner.  On a more serious vein, anything that detracts from the above requirements should be eliminated or at least minimized.  People are hungry - they want to eat immediately.  Then they want to mingle, listen to the music, dance, and eat again.  To that end, I respectfully make the following two recommendations to improve our reunion experience:

1. Eliminate all speeches and special presentations.  As great as some of those may have been, they all could have been presented via the website.  Why take up valuble time with your friends for something that can be done off-line?

2. Have one class picture at an agreed upon time (after the meal) that is well advertised ahead of time via the website.  As for other junior high, elementary school, clubs, sports team, etc. pictures, that can be done on an impromptu basis between you and the photographer.

So that's my two cents from where I sit.  I look forward to attending future reunions (and the bi-monthly lunches) and to having fun with all my classmates.

Joel Nathan