Thank you for taking the time to fill out the survey. There were 42 of you who filled out the survey representing 120 people in our family.
This is how you decided: “Should we have the reunion?”
- If we count one survey one vote: Yes: 15 No: 27
- If we count each person in your households: Yes: 48 No: 72
I think that is a clear majority, but I indicated that if it was close we would weigh the votes by the number of times people attended the reunion in the past 5 years. After all, you could argue that it should be the people who go who decide.
- Weighted by attendance: Yes: 53 No: 60
You also answered the question, “Should we have the reunion if only this many people can attend?” The maximum number of people who indicated that they would attend was 39 (but some of them qualified their attendance). Most people thought that was not enough people to have the reunion. Even allowing for likely attendees who didn’t respond to the survey, this would still have been, at best, a tie.
Personally, I believe you have made a good decision. Not necessarily because of the danger, but because I think you’ve made a more unifying decision. Frankly, we have a hard time agreeing on just how ugly Sam is. As much as I will miss seeing you this summer, I would not have enjoyed the inevitable disagreements on what safety measures we should take.
Three of you indicated that you would be upset if we didn’t have the reunion (though one of you voted not to have it). I am very sorry.
There were also questions about what we should do if we don’t have the reunion over the 4th at Heit’s Point. This is what you said about that:
- 12: Look at rescheduling the reunion for the Fall if Heit’s Point has dates available.
- 7: Look at rescheduling the reunion for the Fall somewhere else if Heit’s Point doesn’t have dates available..
- 7: Look at having a “virtual reunion” using Zoom over the weekend of the 4th.
- 33: Just cancel. It’s okay to skip a year.
So it looks like people think that canceling is a reasonable thing to do. It is certainly the easiest thing to do, but if someone wants to organize something later in the year, I think that would be fine as well.
A number of you had suggestions that centered around having a less elaborate family reunion where we might all bring our own food for a picnic together on a Sunday, hear a (someone said short) sermon by Steve and play a ballgame before heading back home. Someone else suggested a float trip. If you organize one of those, please keep our family’s safety in mind.
The vast majority of you said that we should still donate to Heit’s Point even if we don’t have the reunion this year. They are not in danger of closing, but we do want to do our part. I can’t imagine where else we could go and enjoy ourselves as much. Send me your ideas about how we should go about that, and I’ll send something out to the whole family once I hear from you.
A couple of you expressed concerns that if we do not have the reunion this year, many people will not come in the future. I did not get that impression from the answers people gave on the survey. From what you all said, I think you are very much looking forward to seeing everyone next year and will be making it a priority to attend.
Speaking of next year, when the 4th is on the weekend, we always go with that weekend. So I would like to propose we go with July 2nd (Friday) to July 4th (Sunday) next year. And I guess we can add no pandemic to our prayers for no heat and no rain.
There were many other questions on the survey, but they dealt with what things might look like if we were having the reunion, so I didn’t do the same amount of tallying of results. Lots of you had good ideas on things we could have done to make the reunion safer. But, of the 31 to 39 family members who indicated they would attend a reunion this year, there was no consensus at all on what we would be willing to do to keep each other safe. In fact, the only thing we came close to agreeing on was that we should wash our hands before we eat. I guess we can thank our moms for that.
As always, please post your comments below.
