Reunion 2024 (General Information)

Below is general information for the 2024 Sommerer Family Reunion. If you are looking for the rest of the information on the reunion, head back to the start page. There are pages for general information, reservations, schedules, and meals. If you have questions after reading these posts, please feel free to ask your question below in the comments.

When is the 2024 Sommerer Family Reunion?

We hope that you will be able to join us for all or part of the weekend: Thursday, July 4 through Sunday, July 7 at Heit’s Point on the beautiful Lake of the Ozark’s.

What’s new this year?

1. It’s a 4 day weekend this year, and we have tentatively set Breakfast and Lunch on Friday to “on your own”. If there will be enough people who are there, we can organize something. So get your reservations in soon.
2. We are wearing our regular family shirt colors for the picture, which will be before supper on Saturday this year, so we have plenty of time for softball. (see bottom of this page for colors)
3. There will be a sign up sheet for jobs at the pavilion. Everyone should sign up, except for those with babies. If you have a baby, sign up your husband!
4. We are asking each family to bring TWO disposable tablecloths to use on the tables we eat on. We are hoping this will keep food from falling to the floor and make clean up easier.
5. Reservations start NOW!
6. Christina will be posting the 2023 Reunion book on the website May 15th. If you have a picture you would like to see in the book, please email it to cmrowland22772@yahoo.com before May 13th. Please let her know if you would like her to order a book for you. She will try to keep the price around $30 if possible.
7. Derek Sommerer talked about putting some family pictures together. He was, as I recall, thinking about older pictures. Each of us has some of those, but it would be nice to get them all together to share in someway. Derek, why don’t you chime in with how you see this working, and how we can help.
8. Jim is now on the Board of Directors for Heit’s Point, so if you have any problem with absolutely anything during the reunion, please let Jim know.

Will I get a letter about this in the mail?

No! Now that Uncle Lloyd is retired from the Postal Service, we no longer feel like we have to send letters to everyone.  If you have someone in your part of the family who needs this information and does not have access to email or the Sommerer Family website, please contact them and assist them with reservations, questions and so forth. Feel free to just print these pages out and send them to them if you want. I think it’s been over a decade since we sent out letters. I should really just take this question off the list.

What should I wear for the family picture?

We will be going back to the colored shirts this year, so dust off your shirts! You can change your family’s color if you want, but make sure it’s not too close to another color. However, we will not be standing in family groups… Our photographer likes it better if we mix it up, so be prepared to move if there are too many people of the same color around you.

• Aunt Elizabeth’s Family – Tie Dye
• Aunt Lillian (Sis)’s Family –  Green
• Uncle Bud’s Family – White
• Uncle Felix’s Family – Black
• Aunt Margie’s Family – Orange
• Uncle Vernon’s Family – Red, White and Blue
• Aunt Beatrice’s Family – Lavender
• Uncle Mahlon’s Family – Teal
• Aunt Cleo’s Family – Periwinkle Blue
• Aunt Theresa (Lolly)’s Family – A soothing, traffic light, sort of yellow
• Aunt Naomi’s Family – Medium Dark Grey 
• Uncle Lloyd’s Family – Red Hawaiian Shirts
• “Nebraska” Sommerers – Nebraska Red, or whatever you guys want, and we don’t really care what color people wear anyway.

Do I need to make a reservation if I don’t plan on staying at Heit’s Point overnight?

Yes. This worked out much better than how we’ve done it in the past. In the past it has been hard to get an accurate count of how many people would be present for meals because we were using the list of people who were staying at Heit’s Point. We are now asking for “reservations” from everyone whether or not you will be staying the night at Heit’s Point.

How do I make reservations for the reunion?

All reservations should be made through Christina unless you want to stay in a camp facility that is not part of our reserved Sommerer lodging (one that is not listed on the reservations page). On the reservation page is a registration form to assist you in this process.  You will need to have: arrival date, desired lodging location, number of nights staying, number of people staying, and number of people to include for group meals. You can make your reservation in the comments on that page or by contacting Christina.

When can I make reservations?

Reservations will begin NOW.

Please make sure your reservation is as complete as possible before you submit it (i.e. check with your kids to see if they are dating someone who they might bring with them). All reservations should be made as early as possible and no later than May 30th.  If you need to add additional people to the meals after May 30th but before June 14th, please e-mail or text Christina.  If you are adding additional people for meals after June 14th, please contact Jim Sommerer, Courtney Knipp and Whitni Upton as they will all be purchasing food for this event. (that means contact each of them, not just one of them)

What’s this crazy business with older family members and the Spitz Center?

We want our older family members to be able to enjoy a room in the Spitz Center if that is their desire. We will reserve the same room for them that they had last year.  If any of you (you know who you are) would like different accommodations, please let Christina know right away.

Can I get the same lodging that I had last year?

Yes, if you are quick enough. We are reverting back to the original game plan for reservations for anyone other than our oldest family members.  FIRST COME FIRST SERVED.

Did you get my reservation information?

Check the reservations page first.  Your name should be after the room you want if it was reserved for you.  If you do not see your name on a room within 24 hours, Christina probably did not get it and you should contact her again at either 636.485.1369 or cmrowland22772@yahoo.com or leave a comment on the reservations page.

Can I check in on Thursday, July 4th?

Yes? Heit’s Point is hosting camps through July 2nd (before our reunion), some rooms may be able to check in after 3:00 pm on Thursday.  Please let Christina know if you would like to check in on the Thursday, the 29th when you make your reservation, and she will see if your room will be available.

What time can I check in on Friday?

Rooms should be available for check-in  around 3:00 pm. 

What time do I need to check out on Sunday?

Check out on Sunday is at  9:45 am.  Church starts at 10:00. Be sure to get your bill from Christina on Saturday.  Note that we will need everyone’s help to make sure the pavilion is clean and ready before we all take off (see schedule page).   Thanks for your cooperation and understanding.

Can I stay an extra day, checking out on Monday?

Maybe. Heit’s Point is hosting camps and other reunions during the week after July 4, but some rooms may be available through Tuesday.  Please let Christina know if you would like to check out on Monday the 8th or Tuesday the 9th when you make your reservation, and she will see if your room will be available.

Who/How do I pay for my reservation?

Payment is not necessary until the reunion weekend, at which time you will receive a “bill” from Christina.  Please wait until you have received this “bill” before paying Heit’s Point.  They will not have the necessary information to take your payment without this “bill”. “Bills” will be handed out after dinner on Saturday. If you need to leave earlier, please see Christina. You can pay your bill at the Spitz Center office. Checkout time is 9:45 Sunday.

Note:  Per Mark, Heit’s Point is waiving the 6% “replacement fee” added to the cost of each reservation.

How do we pay for everything else? 

There will be a free-will offering to cover the costs of anything that we purchase as a group for meals, any of the incidentals that we all use, and the Pavilion & Spitz Center use fees.

How big an offering should I give?

Enough that you feel a little bit smug about how much you gave is probably about right. We have $5.00, $10.00, $20.00 and $100.00 bills in the donation bucket. We have poor college students in our family and people who are reasonably well off in our family. We have families of 1 and families of 12. If you’re in a position to pay more, you should do so. If you can’t afford to pay anything at all, that’s okay too; just take something out of Aunt Jane’s purse and give that.

What is happening with Lunch?

We’ll do it like we did last reunion with everyone bringing something from the list. Let Lloyd know what you want to bring, and he will add your name after the item. The signup sheet is at the bottom of the meal page.

How much food should I bring to the reunion?

Basically, for every potluck meal you should bring enough to feed your family. It’s okay to just bring your world-famous pasta salad, but you should bring enough so that everyone in your family would be full if that’s all they eat. You can, of course, bring more than one thing. In that case you would not have to bring as much of each. For more information, see the meal information post.

Will there be lines on both sides of the tables for meals?

Yes! That is such a good idea. If you see someone setting food tables up against a wall, explain to them that we’re not doing that anymore. There’s no reason it should take 30 minutes to go through a line.

What should I do with all the pictures I took at the family reunion?

Email them to Lloyd and he may post them on the family website: Lloyd@LloydAndLauren.com or you can e-mail them to Christina and she may include them in her 2023 scrap book: cmrowland22772@yahoo.com

Are we going to sing, play softball, play cards, play volleyball, swim, eat, drink, be merry?

Yes. See the Schedule page.

Will the Schedule be accurate? 

No. Sommerers are really not much for schedules. It’s like when you “schedule” a visit with a doctor.

Will there be a signup sheet for the talent show?

Will there be a talent show? If there is, the signup sheet will be at the pavilion. It might be there now.  We really left this up in the air.

Will there be babies?

No one requested additional babies at the meeting last year, so I’m not sure if we’ll have any or not.

Is there going to be Karaoke? 

First of all, I had no idea that you all were so into Karaoke. You were surprisingly unanimous in your desire to do a little karaoke at the reunion. It was equally surprising to me just how many of you had karaoke machines, so I was a little disappointed last year when no one brought any.

Is Lloyd going to bring a 17 foot long family tree?

Probably not. He’s made some updates, but probably won’t have time to get it printed again before the reunion.

Will we be showing old family movies again?

I don’t think we will. Let Lloyd know if you missed doing that. I’m thinking that can be an every other year type thing as well. Note to Lloyd: next time we do the movie thing, copy the text from the 2021 reunion for this question.

Can we do this other thing that I think would be neat?

Absolutely. Just figure out how you want to do it, and where you want to do it, and when you want to do it. Let Lloyd know, and he’ll put it on the schedule.

What’s next?

Feel free to post any question or comments below.