Reunion Success Stories

Before the Reunion Website:

Because the reunion committee was so active in planning their 5 and 10 year reunions, fellow classmates had developed good connections and a strong network over the years and attendance to the previous two reunions were high. To help establish a more efficient method of communicating with their classmates, and to free up time, the reunion committee decided to start a reunion website. Laurie from the reunion committee explains "Prior to our website, the organizers of [..] would have meetings and used the snail-mail method and word of mouth to communicate with classmates ... and phone calls - LOTS of phone calls!" She continues, "We wanted to keep our classmates in better touch with one another and we knew if we got a website going now, it would only make future reunion endeavors that much more successful".

After the launch:

"We were able to reach out to more classmates in a very cost effective and time saving way", said Laurie. She continues "We were able to share more details of the event than we've ever been able to and the website is the best tool we've had for planning a reunion". The broadcast emails were very helpful to the committee. "We were able to share news of the reunion and also to ask for assistance on finding classmates", mentions Laurie. The committee found the poll especially useful, "We used the poll to determine the date and other details for our future 25th reunion, which is a great asset", said Laurie.

What was most surprising to the committee was that classmates are continuing to use the website to stay in touch even after the reunion. Laurie elaborates "Since the reunion, we were able to use the broadcast email to share the unfortunate news of a classmate's passing and classmates were appreciative to be kept informed. It has been comforting to share the In Memory Of page to honor our friends".

The committee is looking forward to holding additional reunions in the future, thanks to their website. But perhaps what is most significant about the website is that it has become a go-to place for fellow classmates to keep-up beyond the official reunions.

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Before the Reunion Website:

Prior to launching the website, the committee gathered names and email addresses from a simple web database hosted by the school. "We were at the mercy of the school and getting the information took time and the amount of interaction between the Committee organizers and the alumni was limited to almost zero" explains Don Dickson, who is on the reunion Committee.

The Committee decided it was time to develop their own website. After searching on the web, they found MyEvent.com. "There was absolutely no hesitation", said Don. He continues, "It was feature-rich and it was matched with an unbelievably low price."

The last reunion was the 75th All Class Reunion in 1985. Attendance, including spouses, totaled approximately 2,400 people. The reunion Committee's goal is to surpass this number of attendees and to cut down on the amount of work and planning that it took for their last reunion.

After the launch:

"There is so much information that we can now make available that the reunion is much more inviting to the alumni." said Don. "Our updates are immediate. Sending messages to alumni is beyond easy and people spend hours looking at the website." He continues, "It has revolutionized the way we've organized the reunion!"

Feedback from fellow classmates is nothing but positive. Comments emailed to the Committee include "Nice website... great graphic design!" "This website is great!" (said about 50 times in various ways) "Fantastic website... I've spent hours reading what everyone has to say!"

Don couldn't be happier with the website, especially how easy it has made the planning and organizing of the reunion. Best of all, registration has soared since they announced the website on November 1st, 2007. To date, the website has brought in over 1,450 registered alumni for the 100th anniversary reunion that is almost 2 years away. Don notes "We haven't even started our manual physical mail-out to all of the people who are not on the internet." He continues "That is what is so innovative about our website; it gives us the ability to contact and update hundreds of people over the internet in minutes, a job that would have taken dozens of volunteers weeks to complete. Plus the design is beautiful; it makes us look like we are absolute professionals."

The reunion Committee used the Poll feature to create an attendance poll to forecast how many alumni were interested in coming to the reunion. Don adds "We found that we have approximately 1,600 alumni, faculty, staff and spouses that have every intention of attending with another 300 still thinking about attending." It took very little effort to retrieve and calculate this information. The Committee has every hope that attendance will surpass the 75th Reunion by at least 25%-30%. "So far", says Don, "the website has done most of the talking. "

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Before the Reunion Website:

Stephanie, who is on the reunion committee, recalls the committee decided to manage all reunion communication with alumni via telephone, blanket letters and emails. However, the committee entertained a suggestion from a fellow classmate to create a reunion website to incite interest among classmates. Stephanie said "We put up the site at the suggestion of one of our classmates who had seen a similar one for one of her children's reunions." It was decided a reunion website would be the best way to have fellow classmates, who had not seen each other in a very long time, reconnect prior to the reunion and build anticipation and excitement for the actual reunion day.

After the launch:

"The reunion was extremely successful, as evidenced by some of the comments made by classmates after the reunion that we posted on the website," said Stephanie. She adds "in fact, once the reunion site was up and running, it was very popular with classmates leading up to the reunion and continues to be." There were about 80 people in the Class of '65 of T. A. Futrall and we have had 2,807 hits on the website, that should tell you something about how much the class likes it," said Stephanie.

The most useful pages to the committee were the Guest Book, the Quill Quiz, and the pages that listed motels and restaurants. Stephanie notes, "We were told that this last one was particularly helpful to classmates coming from far away." "People also said that they really enjoyed the Photo Album pages, both the pictures from long ago and the ones taken at the reunion," said Stephanie.

After the reunion, comments about the website overwhelmed the reunion committee, "It was the one big thing that classmates reported that they really liked and they encouraged us to keep it going," said Stephanie. Classmates continue to check the website for news about former classmates. She adds, "I have also received emails and phone calls from other classes at T. A. Futrall who are intrigued by our website and some of the things that we did at our reunion." Most importantly, original intention of the website was met, as communication links between former classmates have been restored and it's like 40 years never passed. Stephanie is happy, "Contact between classmates has definitely increased. Classmates went on and on about how happy they were with the reunion site and about being able to keep in touch with each other." In order to keep those communication channels alive, Stephanie and her committee recently re-subscribed their website for another two years. This was done by popular demand.

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Before the Reunion Website:

Planning a 40-year reunion is no small feat. With no previous reunions ever planned, the task was monumental. David assembled a reunion committee of 13 people to help with the organization and planning. The first step was creating a website. At first, the committee had decided upon building a website, but they soon realized that it was an expensive and time-consuming venture. After a referral from a colleague, The Conestoga high school reunion website was launched using the Myevent website builder. The reunion committee couldn't believe how easy it was compared with trying to create their own website from scratch. "It was not simply "painless", but a great pleasure instead," exclaimed David.

After the launch:

The committee monitored traffic with the tools in the Control Panel, and used this information to change their strategy (including activities) for attracting interest on the fly. "We felt we were in total control of the information we offered and received at all times, said David. He continued, "When we hoped there was a feature to answer a need, we found it was included in our package almost every time."

At the reunion itself, classmates mentioned over and over that the website and the photos from the past drove them to come home and take part in the reunion. "The ease of adding those memories online made it a cinch for class members to send in their scanned pictures from so long ago," said David. He continues, "Nothing, ... NOTHING, affected our attendance more than those photos from long ago. David felt that the success of the reunion was in large part because of the website. "Our reunion could not have been what it was, nor as easily achieved in so short a time, without your affordable and incredibly flexible website builder."

After the reunion, classmates posted their thanks and gratitude to David and the committee for organizing such a successful reunion with multiple events including a football game, an informal meet up at a local restaurant on the Friday, a tour of the high school on Saturday, as well as the main reunion dinner on Saturday night. David wrote to MyEvent shortly thereafter expressing his own thanks to MyEvent staff for making his job a little easier: "You made hundreds of people here near Philadelphia very happy over the weekend. The end value of the reunion website is still difficult for me to measure here. The smiles are still plastered on all our faces as we are just coming down from the fascination of being together after 40 years."

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