Reunions are wonderful opportunities to reconnect with former classmates and teachers and planning a reunion can seem to be a daunting task, but with proper planning it can be a fun and rewarding experience – and well worth the effort!
Here are some ideas gathered from HVRHS classes who have held successful reunions in the past.
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First Steps:
1. Start Early:
   A year in advance is not too soon and needed to locate a venue and build a updated contact list of your class. The most important element is to publicize your reunion early, notifying all classmates of the date and place.

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2. Create a Planning Committee:
    Reach out to active members of your class. It can be advantageous if the committee members live in surrounding towns. However, electronic media and Zoom or Teams allow for long distance planning by anyone that is interested.

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3. Structure for the Committee:
    A. Chairperson (define responsibilities)
    B. Treasurer (someone to accept funds, maintain the list of attendees, the reunion checking account and pay bills)
    C. Communications Chairperson locate members, maintain email data base, create news articles and invitations, and prepare mailings)
    D. Event Chairperson: (select date(s), investigate venues and plan the program, and seek volunteers to help decorate, register attendees, as well as clean up at the end of the event)

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4. Date Determination:
    The Event Chairperson polls the Reunion Committee and as many classmates as possible, to determine the preferred season or month to hold the reunion to encourage the greatest number to attend.

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5. Decisions Prior to Notifications to Classmates
    It is up to the Committee to determine what is right for your class and make the following decisions. Venues used in the past have included: Canaan Country Club, White Hart Inn, Lakeville Town Grove, Wake Robin Inn, Litchfield Inn, Cornwall Ski Lodge, Torrington Country Club, Wyantenuck Country Club, and more.
    A. Venue Visits and Choosing the Venue - Meet with two or three facilities being considered to compare options, costs, space to mingle, etc.
          1. Arrange and Plan to meet with facility to see if available date exists.
               a. Venue’s available dates
               b. Have a ballpark figure, number expected to attend
              c. Type of meal – luncheon or dinner, with diet restrictions considered.
                  1. Buffet: variety and number of items considered, or 

                  2. Served meal: choice of three choices of entrées, variety of other items
              d. Price of buffet vs. served dinner, buffet is always less costly, and
facility usually can handle a few last-minute walk-ins. Total venue’s per person cost: meal, tip and taxes – so, no surprises!
              e. Amenities included in venue’s price – tablecloths, blue and gold napkins, flowers, or other table decoration, reception table at door with two chairs, etc.
              f. May class decorate with signs, streamers, posters / photos placed on easels? If yes, check on
                  1. Set-up time on day of reunion, and
                  2. Clean-up time, following reunion or next morning?
          2. Make Venue Decision
              May need to sign an agreement, confirming with a deposit to hold the date. 

Consider setting dates for:
               a. Cancellation with full refund of money if emergency occurs,
               b. Date when the preliminary count to venue is due,
               c. Date when the final count to the venue is due?

               d. May the count be adjusted the week of the reunion based on total final reservations received?
    B.  Weekend activities or Single event?
          Sometimes, reunions are held over a weekend with an introductory “meet and greet” event on Friday evening or holding a breakfast on the Saturday morning. Social events, possibly to be held on Saturday, include golf tournaments, a tour of HVRHS, meeting at a historical location for a tour, sampling wines and having lunch at the Land of Nod, usually then capping off the evening with an inexpensive buffet or more costly sit-down dinner. Sometimes a Sunday breakfast is included as the last event of the weekend. However, events can be quite simple: a BYOB picnic.
    C. Set a per person price with mark-up to cover venue’s cost and miscellaneous costs, such as mailings, etc. If different activities are offered and an advanced number is needed for reservations, list activity and cost. Be mindful of keeping total costs economical for the entire evening / weekend for people coming outside the immediate area to allow them financially to attend. Also, to attract the greatest number of attendees.

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6.  Find your classmates!
      A. This is probably the hardest part of planning a reunion. It is helpful to have both mailing addresses and email addresses.
     B. Suggestions for obtaining addresses:
          1. Some addresses that have been obtained by the Alumni Association are available by requesting your class information from Kerry Rooney, HVRHS executive secretary, at krooney@region1schools.org
          2. Social media can be helpful in locating classmates. If you cannot find a particular classmate for whom you are searching, it is sometimes helpful to search for a relative who may lead you to the correct person.
         3. Search services are available for a fee such as Intelius or even Ancestry.com,
         4. Place Reunion notice and missing classmates list on the Reunion section of the HVRHS Alumni website and the Blue and Gold Facebook page.
         5. E-mail a missing classmates listing asking for updates from those classmates for  whom you do have emails or USPS addresses, and
         6. Place free articles in local newspapers with a short lead-in paragraph announcing preliminary Reunion information, listing all “missing” classmates’ names for updates, and giving a contact name and phone number or e-mail address. Newspapers to include: The Lakeville Journal, The Register Citizen,
Republican- American, Berkshire Eagle, Harlem Valley News, Poughkeepsie Journal, etc.

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7.   Invitations
      A. Plan to keep overhead costs at a minimum
          1.  Limit as many USPS mailings as possible,
          2. Determine the dates and numbers of mailing / emails,
          3. Email first announcement to all for whom you have e-mail addresses and mailing to all remaining classmates,
          4. Include as much information in each USPS mailing as possible,
          5. Do not include returned-addressed envelopes
          6. Do you want to send out a “save the date” to classmates or the first announcement of the reunion at least a year in advance, with just the final invitation / registration form and enclosures being sent six (6) months in advance along with informational attachments?
     B. When mailing envelopes, it can be helpful to put the phrase “Address Service Requested” on the outside of the envelope. If the envelope is returned, you may retrieve it at the post office for a small fee to receive the current forwarding address of the recipient.
     C. The first invitation should share the essential information – date, time, itinerary, code of dress, approximate cost per person, and who to contact with questions and list the committee members with their contact information. This can be e-mailed to classmates for whom you have email addresses; for others,
mail to home addresses. List the classmates for whom you do not have addresses, asking for help in locating.
     D. The second reminder and, perhaps, final invitation should include a registration form with spaces provided for classmates to fill in: name, address, home and cell phone numbers, number of people attending, name of guest and emphasize the deadline date for reservations and receipt of payment. Also, include the name to whom the check is to be made payable as well as the person’s name and
address to whom to send.

1. Include space on the form for classmates to fill in answers to other questions such as how long married, distance traveled to the reunion, fondest memory of HVRHS, favorite teacher, etc. This information could be used for trivia questions at the reunion or for compiling a booklet to be distributed to all
classmates with contact information for each.
            2. Ask for volunteers to man the registration table, decorate, and clean-up.
            3. upon request by e-mailing: krooney@region1schools.org . Listing will need to be updated.

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8.  Reunion Day Activities
       A. Decorate if allowed by the venue. Things such as streamers, blue & gold napkins, posters to display class favorites, class prophecy, photos of other class events including former reunion photos. Also, table decorations and/or flowers if not provided by venue.

       B. Set up Registration Table: Arrange for two volunteers to serve at half-hour intervals to welcome attendees, have them sign into an attendance booklet with current email and home address, phone numbers. Name tags can either be prepared using the registration list or hand-written when they arrive. Provide pens and extra name tags for walk-ins. Make sure that everyone has a name tag. It is often entertaining to use their yearbook picture as the name tag!
      C. Other thoughts to consider: Reunion favor (engraved vase, wine glass, magnet).
            Perhaps, have HVRHS items for sale such as ball caps, t-shirts, or leftover yearbooks. Some classes have added decanters to the registration table for donations to the reunion costs or to the Alumni Association.

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 9.  Reunion Program
       A. Do we want music? Can be fun to dance but sometimes interferes with conversation.
      B. Do we want a master of ceremonies?
      C. Do we want to invite and pay for guests, e.g., faculty members?
      D. Acknowledge guests in attendance.

E. Do we want to remember deceased classmates by announcing their names and followed by a minute of silence?
      F.  Do we want trivia questions or to give awards for furthest traveled, most years
            married, least changed, etc., skits performed, tributes given – any number of things that are relative to your class.
      G. Do we have memorabilia to share? Pictures, yearbooks, class rings, letter sweaters/jackets, newspapers of the time, etc.
      H. Do you want a photographer? It is great to look back on the day and share these with classmates who could not attend.
       I.  Do you want to compile a booklet of classmates for distribution to those who could or could not attend?

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10.  Set up and clean-up
        Make sure volunteers know the responsible classmate and what time to start.

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11.    Evaluation
        After the event, it is helpful to gather the committee once again to review the
good and the bad of the reunion and keep notes for future reunions to be kept
somewhere safe, possibly, in two different places.

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12.   Share the reunion
        Committee members are encouraged to:
       A. Forward a photo with identifications and write-up to the Alumni Association’s editor of the

“Blue ‘n’ Gold,” Ruth Epstein, at ruthepstein45@gmail.com
      B.  Send an updated list of classmates’ addresses to Kerry Rooney at krooney@region1schools.org for future reunions as well as photos and short article for uploading to the Alumni Website Reunions section