While things are still fresh in our heads, lets share things that we could maybe think about doing differently at the reunion next year. Here are some things to remember when you’re offering suggestions:
- The 4th is a Friday
- It will be a 3 day weekend
- Many people will arrive Thursday (July 3rd) evening and most of the rest sometime Friday
We decided after church to do this for meals (generally):
- Thursday evening: No meal, on your own
- Friday morning: Potluck breakfast sort of thing. (maybe we could define this?)
- Friday noon: At the dock & at the Spitz center as per aunt Naomi
- Friday evening: Bring a potluck side dish (meat provided)
- Saturday morning: Provided next generation breakfast as they decide
- Saturday noon: At the dock & at the Spitz center as per aunt Naomi (right?)
- Saturday evening: Bring a potluck side dish (meat provided maybe a different one, who knows)
- Sunday morning: Provided next generation breakfast as they decide
I’m going to go first, just to get things started. I’ll number my thoughts so that you can agree or disagree in the comments below. Actually, some of these are mine and some are things I heard people saying…
- Lines on both sides of the table for meals is a very good idea, especially now that we have so much more room.
- We need to get a more accurate count of people sooner in the process and share it with people who are buying things. We had enough Chicken for the number of people we had last year.
- Having a schedule hanging up was nice. We should try to make it a little more accurate time wise next year (but it was good to have anyway).
- I wonder if it would be useful to have a schedule done ahead of time to put on the website with the rest of the reunion information?
- Speaking of schedules, we should buy one of those Map Rails and put it up in the pavilion so we have somewhere to hang things.
- Anyone else like the idea of church at 10:30 instead of 10:00? I never get to eat breakfast on Sunday morning.
- We need to do a better job (probably here on the website, but maybe in emails too) telling people how much and what type of food to bring.
- Somewhere on the housing page of the reunion information we should add descriptions of the various housing facilities and what you should bring/expect at each one.
- Someone should bring some wood to make shelves for that one refrigerator at the pavilion.
- Another refrigerator in the pavilion would still be nice (we will need more space to store things during a 3 day weekend).
- Someone should remind Steve to ask someone to practice the hymns for church (not you guys didn’t sound lovely).
- We should wait until the Brothers & Sisters are all settled in before having everyone else come over for pictures (I messed that up this year).
- Musical chairs should take place before an evening meal rather than after the ball game (someone suggested this).
- We could pass out the song books and in-between acts of the talent show we could sing songs.
- Christina should buy a Gator and trailer for uncle Lloyd for Christmas so that he can bring it to Heit’s Point. Maybe he wouldn’t need a trailer? Would a gator fit in the back of the pickup? Would 2 fit on Danny’s trailer? I just think it would be useful to have another one down there.
- It might be nice to get Debbie & Becky’s Dock Lunch Assignments(tm) posted on the website for people who lose theirs (not that that has ever happened to me).
- Someone should remind Lloyd to print up a list of everyone in the family in such a way that people can fill in birthdays, anniversaries and such. He’s been meaning to do that for several years.
- All of the books that Lloyd brought to the reunion were gone pretty quickly. Does that mean he should have more printed for next time? It’s so hard to know. Did anyone not get one who wanted one? I should have asked that after church. What was I thinking?
- The paper copies of the website had address books printed in the back. Should I print so additional copies of just the addresses for people?
- Printing names on the bottom of cups was a really good idea. We should encourage people to do that on their own, so that someone doesn’t have to spend 20 minutes doing it.
- How did musical chairs go this year? Someone said something at one time about asking people to bring “gently used” children’s books that their kids have out grown to put books back in circulation.
- We didn’t have people bring “interesting” things to scan to put on the website this year. Should we do that again next year?
Okay, that’s all I can think of. Feel free to chime in about any of these. You can be in favor of them, against them or just say something about them.
And please add your own suggestions in the comments as well.
julie baker says
I agree with everything you said. My suggestion is each elder be seated one at a time with their kin . I think it would make it easier to get families together.
julie baker says
My suggestion was for when we take the family picture
Christina says
I am going to post my comments seperately so people can add comments that are related together…..but they are in no particular order.
I agree with seating the Brothers and Sisters first, but next year we will not be dividing into color sections. The picture looks better with the colors all mixed up.
Christina says
Is Christina buying a Gator for Uncle Lloyd or Crazy Uncle Lloyd?
cleopha Howard says
What is a gator ????
Christina says
2. If you are not staying at Heits Point, but are planning to be there for meals, you still need to contact Christina to be added to the head count. We had at least 15 people at the Saturday meal who did not tell me they would be there.
Along the same lines, if your child is dating someone, and you are bringing the date, let me know.
I would encourage everyone to post a final head count for their family on the website (we probably need a “food” page for this and the dock lunch) the Friday before so I can get a better count.
Christina says
7. I don’t want to tell anyone what to bring for the pot luck, we get a better mix if everyone brings what they like, however, you should bring enough food to feed the people you bring with you.
That means if you are bringing four people and you are bringing mashed potatoes, make sure you bring enough potatoes so if potatoes were all your people had to eat they would be full.
Christina says
4. We should post a tentative schedule on the website when we post the initial details in April, that will give everyone a chance to add input to what we are doing. And remind me of anything that was left off.
Christina says
6. I would love to move church back to 10:30, but we have a couple of issues that would have to be addressed …..
1- check out is 11am, so everyone would have to check out before church.
2- we are supposed to have the pavilliaon clean and ready for camp by 12pm……it might be easier to get more people to help clean up if it were later, maybe even 11am and let everyone know they have to help before they go change/ check out
Christina says
16. I think having the dock lunch assignments on the website is an excellent idea.
Christina says
23. I am in favor of having people sign up for kp duty when they make their reservations.
It seems like the same groups of people take care of clean up at every meal.
I heard a number of people say, I would help, but I don’t know what to do….
We should be able to come up with a list of the chores that need to be completed after each meal so people who want to help, but don’t know what to do have a guide.
Maybe do this by family group (Mahlon’s family could be divided into two groups, there are a lot of you!)
That would be 11 groups, a few are pretty small, so with four meals at the pavilliaon and two on the docks, if each group took two shifts everything would be covered.
That doesn’t mean you can’t help whenever else you wanted, but it would be fair.
I also heard, “let me get out of your way.” as I was cleaning….. It would have been nicer to hear, ” let me help you.” Just so you know.
Christina says
21. I’m out of books….. I would love it of Julie could bring the loot for musical chairs next year.
Aunt Lolly says
This is just a thought! We could serve doughnuts, milk and coffee for breakfast on Sunday morning at 8am. Then everyone could help clean up the pavilliaon before church at 10 or 10;30am. People could start packing up their things already on Saturday evening after the meal. There would be plenty of people there to help them pack up all the large stuff that is bought down for fixing the meat, and all that. On Sunday morning all the cups and plates could be thrown away, not much to clean up but the tables and floor. I have three large fold up tables, I could bring to set food on if Danny could get them in his trailer, I like all your ideas.
Christina says
I think we would need to add breakfast on Friday if we scrap it on Sunday, to keep the people who like to cook that meal happy.
But a simpler breakfast on Sunday is a good idea.
You will run into the issue of a certain group of people not coming up to the pavilliaon if there is no hot breakfast, though.
Sarah Jones says
I like the idea of simplifying chores/cleanup by each mini family. Maybe some of the smaller ones could team up. We only have 5 helpful people generally. Plus we will have three young children, so maybe only 4. But that makes it simple and everyone is participating. Or the list of chores be put up ahead of time on the website for people to sign up for. Both are great ideas.
I would love a book with every bodies addresses. That is a great idea!
Naomi Vetter says
I hope we hear from ALL the people who do all the work. I’m sure they would have good suggestions. I like the donut/coffee/juice idea for Sunday breakfast. I even like it for Saturday breakfast. I hate to work, so I hate to see all those “grands” and “greats” do all that work. Simplify is my suggestion.
Jane says
I liked all the suggestions. I especially think it would help to know how many you think might come. It would be easy to double a recipe or add another can to something people liked. Of course, you might end up with to much food. I have to admit I really didn’t help at all this year though. Does that mean I am getting older?
1 suggestion, we should all keep an eye out for goodies for the musical chairs. You never know what you will run across.
Debbie said we need to watch for more utensils??? I think.
Christina Rowland says
That’s right…..I forgot about needing more utensils.