masterplan
Family reunion issues for discussion
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lease consider the two following discussions as a plea for YOUR input! If either or both of these issues is in any way related to your family reunion, we urge you to share your thoughts and suggestions to expand these ideas. Send to editor@reunionsmag.com.
THE FIRST DILEMMA FOR DISCUSSION
Finding the spark to maintain reunions after an older generation of planners has passed on … This question came from Tyrone P. Dumas of the McNair Brazil Scott Family Reunion whose query is a common one. “What happens with the future of your reunion when your key family members pass on? We are finding it difficult to spark interest in younger family members and especially the issues associated with raising money to get started. Now that I have had health challenges, it has been hard to gather momentum. I believe when we start again, interest will be rekindled but $$$ is the barrier so far.” It should be noted that in the past, Tyrone had been very successful at raising seed money for his reunion from sponsors, corporations and foundations. So much so that after we featured his successes in the magazine, many other reunions tried to raise money for sponsorship as well. While that might have worked 25 years ago, the possibility now is so remote that getting your hopes up and spending the time and energy is rarely worth it. I have not heard of any reunion receiving any contributions from outside their family in a long time. Tyrone’s success many years ago was the envy of many reunions but rarely, if ever, did others succeed in raising money this way. Others have more recently tried crowdfunding but last I looked, even that was not very fruitful. I think you just need to rely on your own members. Consider a graduated payment schedule where members donate small amounts over a period of time until you have what you need. Perhaps cutting down on costly events should be considered as well. If you’ve not met for a while, make meeting/gathering the highlight without a lot of frills. Then, build it back up over time. Tyrone’s query is a common one. He is by no means the only one wondering the same thing. In fact, we’ve gotten information recently from reunions where no kids are present and the planners say it’s because kids are not interested. I say: what did you do to interest them? The common question used to be why don’t the young people come to the reunion? I’d suggest asking young people what would make them want to come to the reunion. Including things young people like to do would yield greater attendance, but planners (usually older folks) seemed surprised by these suggestions. Like what elder ever thought that scheduling an outing to a roller-skating rink would attract kids or a trip to an amusement park or the
zoo. Not surprisingly, when they tried it, it worked! By holding consistent reunions where kids grow up coming to reunions, eventually those kids will realize they need to take some responsibility OR their parents/grandparents can “volunteer” them to start taking that responsibility at an early age. Including teenagers and young adults on planning committees engenders interest and ultimately responsibility for making the reunion happen. Listen to WeBuildLegacy’s FREE Virtual Family Reunion Planning and Legacy Building Workshop with live questions and answers from reunion planners. My experience is that there’ve always been young reunion members who are trying to learn about taking over reunion planning! Register in advance to get call-in info www.webuildlegacy@gmail.com.
2021 REUNION CELEBRATIONS! v REUNIONS 17
