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Plan a Family Reunion
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Step 7:
Delegate, delegate, delegate
The plan is in motion now, but your job is far from over. If your reunion is going to be small (say, fewer than 20 people), you can probably handle it yourself. If it's bigger, don't even try. You must recruit helpers. Assign general areas of responsibility and make sure the work is being done, but let others do it.
Assign committees. Break down tasks into categories that can be handled by committees. Assign committee chairs as appropriate, and let the chairs recruit helpers as they need them. You can also handle one or more of these tasks yourself. Some good committee divisions (which can be combined or divided further, depending on reunion size) are:
Activities: Someone has to plan Talent Night and the sack races. This involves choosing activities, notifying the masses of what's up, and coordinating equipment and prizes.
History, photography, and mementos: This committee collects family trees, old pictures and letters, and other memorabilia for the gathered family to peruse. They also coordinate the making of reunion mementos, such as group photos, T-shirts, a scrapbook, or an official reunion video.
Finances: These people manage the financial aspects of the reunion--anything from keeping track of payments to fundraising.
Food and lodging: This committee makes sure everyone has a place to stay and is fed. Jobs include everything from scouting out lodgings or allocating enough sleeping bags to hiring caterers or organizing meal preparation.
Decoration/setup: Someone has to make the place look sharp (or at least make sure there are enough chairs, tables, karaoke machines, and the like).
Welcome: A welcome crew is a must for huge reunions where family members need to register, get name tags, and/or find their rooms.
Cleanup: There's always going to be some of this, even if your chosen venue has its own cleaning staff.
Play matchmaker. Your family probably has people in it who were just born to handle certain committee tasks. Try to match the right person to the right task. Your nephew who is a demon with a video camera can be your videographer. Your uncle with the tattoo of the family tree on his forearm? Your history chair.
Communicate. Keep in touch with your committee heads as the planning progresses. Whether you're having regular meetings, communicating through a phone tree, listserve, or website, or talking more informally, make sure each committee is meeting its goals and obligations. Your role is to arbitrate conflicts, pinch-hit, and reassign resources.
Keep the rest of the family members in on the planning progress, too. This will help keep the anticipation level high. You can send out periodic fliers or postcards, register on one of several commercial reunion websites, or even start your own reunion website. The web is ideal for keeping information about your reunion current and even for reaching family members you may have overlooked (or never heard of--wow!).
Have fun! When the big day comes, stop for just a minute to remember why you decided to do this in the first place. You've done a ton of work, it's all come together beautifully, and now it's time to reap your reward. Keep asking for help as things come up, and make sure you're enjoying yourself at least as much as anybody else. This is, after all, your family and your party.
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