Focusing our Reunion for Success

[Ben Slivka]

Dear Classmates,

Your reunion committee did a lot of work starting with a March 1st kick-off meeting and came up with a very ambitious reunion schedule for July 25-27: a Friday casual party, a Saturday dinner, and a Sunday picnic. But for all our enthusiasm, we found it difficult to make progress on a number of fronts, and by mid-May we realized that we were not on track to hold a successful, well-attended reunion. The two biggest factors in that decision:
a) Committee members all have busy lives, and several of us didn't make as much progress on action items as we had (optimistically) hoped we would;
b) The number of new classmates joining our Ning web site dropped to a trickle in March (5), April (3), and May (3).

Two weeks ago we called Kirsten Richardson, the President of Reunions With Class (RWC). Kirsten founded RWC 15 years ago and her company has organized over 3,000 reunions. Her advice, based upon all that experience, was very clear:
a) A 30th reunion should be a single event -- people are very busy, and we'll get higher attendance;
b) Friday night is the best night for a dinner -- we'll get higher attendance than a Saturday night;
c) With only two months until the original July date, it's not enough time to find enough classmates;
d) The Celebrate Garfield weekend (9/25-9/28) -- the official reopening of the Garfield HS renovation, including Quincy Jones '50 -- provides an additional attraction for out-of-town classmates;

So after a flurry of emails and phone calls a week ago, your Reunion Committee decided to reschedule and focus our reunion on a Friday 9/26/2008 dinner.

Details:
1) We've paid a $500 deposit to Reunions With Class;
2) RWC will do all the work of contacting our classmates, arranging the dinner venue, collecting classmate information, selling tickets to the dinner, etc.
3) The Committee will still be responsible for setting the menu and the ambiance of our Reunion Dinner;
4) Holding our reunion on Fri 9/26 means that our classmates can also attend all the Garfield HS festivities on Saturday and Sunday;
5) The DoubleTree Hotel Seattle Airport reduced our minimum fees to help make our event more affordable.

As soon as RWC has posted our reunion on their website and is able to take ticket orders, we'll send out email to let you know.

Thank you!

Your Class of 1978 30th Reunion Committee:

I. David Daniels
Karen Lanier Shelton
Cynthia Palmer Coleman
Mary-Jo Pietromonaco
Ben Slivka
Carmel Smith
Audrey Thomas
Glen Warner
Chester West
Marlene Williams

[I. David Daniels]

This is a great plan. Ben, thanks for your dilligence and hard work on the suggestion. I support it 100% and look forward with anticipation to the reunion.