Kind of an unusual request........Planning our 50th class reunion in August. Our classmates are procrastinating. We need to post a clever, catchy
notice to get people moving! We need their money and reservations.

I am wondering if anyone out there has had this problem. If so, what did you do.

Thanks
Lynn Walters
Thornridge Class of 1964

We had the same problem with our 40th. We finally had to send out a notice that the price was going up for those not registered by a certain date. You'll need to increase the amount quite a bit to make it effective. And, we promised a free 'koozie' (only cost us .89 each with HS and reunion date printed on them) for those who signed up by the deadline. Good luck!

Rhonda McClellan wrote:

We had the same problem with our 40th. We finally had to send out a notice that the price was going up for those not registered by a certain date. You'll need to increase the amount quite a bit to make it effective. And, we promised a free 'koozie' (only cost us .89 each with HS and reunion date printed on them) for those who signed up by the deadline. Good luck!

Same here for our 50th in July. We've been publicizing it for a log time before we opened registration. Right now we have about 87 people (including guests) signed up to attend, which I suppose isn't bad but we'd like more.

What was your event cost Rhonda and how much did you increase it by?

I just visited your site. The home page does not strike me as an enthusiastic presentation of a call for members to sign up for the reunion. Your first line of real text below the reunion logo says something to the effect of "We Know you are out there" and tells the reader to click on the top menu item, but when you go to that item it focuses on the "Bowen Elementary School" portion of your overall high school class. Shouldn't your lead text have the words 50 Year Reunion in it, not an accusation that people are hiding? Just as important, your menu list on the left margin is all over the place. The "home page" is not at the top of the list, and "contact us" is not at the bottom (those are standard arrangements on websites. Take a look at your bank web page, for instance.) Four of your left margin twelve tabs have something to do with your 50 year reunion, but the information is scattered; I would recommend gathering all four as sub-tabs under a single main menu item "50 Year Reunion". I apologize for sounding harsh. I may be all wrong, but I am showing you a "first impression" that may be experienced by others, and may be getting in the way of your member enthusiasm.

Thanks Randy, all very valid points. I appreciate your taking the time.

Great idea!!!!! Thanks so much, I am taking this to our committee. I would also appreciate knowing what your price was and how much you increased it by.

Barbara - You'll probably be shocked to hear the cost of our main event on a Saturday night was only $30.00 per person - buffet dinner and band at the Double Tree Hotel. One of our classmates owns the Double Tree and we also were given an excellent rate per night stay ($29/per person). The band - a classmate was the lead member!

To answer your question . . . we started advertising the buffet/band cost at $30 per person but then upped the price to $40 per person. Our Fri./Sat. reunion was August 4-5. We sent out an Email the Class and changed our information around July 1st to read $40 per person ($30 if registered before July 14). We had a great turnout (thanks to the CC web site) and also used the CC online reunion registration with online credit card payment (yes, we changed the price to $40 on the 14th as promised). When the price changed with the online reservation, a few even mailed checks for $30 right away - but that's okay, we at least got their reservation count! It worked wonderfully and we had many, many classmates come from CA, OR, TX, FL, and AZ!

A lot of people just won't commit until the very last minute or the deadline that is given . . . so patience everyone! Enjoy your 50th Lynn and Barbara!!!

Hi, I did the same thing. I posted an announcement AND sent an "e-mail the class" stating that the registration price will go up as of... It worked. Since you're having yours in August, I wouldn't give them any more time than 4 weeks the max to get their tickets or pay their registration.Our registration fee was $45 and the higher amount was $55. You'll be surprised; they'll start sending in their requests.
Barbara
P.S. One more thing-- you might put in the e-mail or the announcement some of the plans for the reunion (i.e. dinner, breakfast, a trip to.., golf). That way they can see what they'll getting. If you have to change it later because of funds, that's ok, too.

I agree with you Barbara . . . for $90 per person, I'd want to know what I'm getting - detailed menu, etc.

This is email I just sent out. I included an aviatar of myself which is pretty funny. (Bitstrips-email it to yourself, copy, upload to CC and you can send a cartoon with sny email. I got a crown at the last reunion and a trip to Florida. As Sally Field would say, they like me, they really really like me.

MADISON CONSOLIDATED HIGH SCHOOL
Class Of 1969

A message from your...let's just say Royal Highness. In my mind I can be anyone I want to be and I have the crown to prove it!!!

Just a few more things... If you don't remember your password, send me a message through the website www.mchscubs69.net or email me at karen.modusett@hotmail.com. I can fix that for you. It's all part of a queen's job.

There now is only 1 reserved room left at Clifty Inn. I have 3 rooms reserved at a local B&B, but you need to reserve rooms through me soon. Oct 11 is a busy week-end and hotel space will be limited. Two hotels just changed ownership so who knows about them. The Super 8 is now on the hill where the old something else was. I've seen the dumpster so they must be remodeling. You could stay at my house but there's no place to sit let alone sleep.

The "early bird" special goes away on May 15th.

Why wait to register? Plus don't forget you can bring guests...friends, neighbors, relatives. If they are your friends then we'll like them. They won't even have to wear name tags. In fact our motto is the more the merrier.

Our goal is to have a great time with friends. Sounds like there should be an "app" for that. Or is that a nap for that. Anyway we need more of you to register so we can figure out how many neat things we can do with your money.

While I'm at it... Take a moment to remember Jean Ann who made me do this in the first place. The crown is really hers. And remember our other classmates who no longer can share the good times with us. Come share a few hours telling stories, shaking hands or giving someone a hug while listening and dancing to some great.music. Let go Rockin' and Rollin' again...even if you didn't do it then you can do it now. We're not asking you to jump off a cliff or take a test. Just sign up and have some fun with friends old and new in October.

The Q.

http://www.mchscubs69.net/

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Procrastination is ongoing for our site regarding any kind of participation. Any fresh, new suggestions in that regard are always welcomed and appreciated. You only feel like asking or attempting to motivate and entice follow classmates to be or get involved so much.

We used the discount from the beginning but made it only $5/person. We know now to make it more. We wanted to get $35 so that was our discounted rate and we made it good through 4 months before the reunion as we were a new organization and a first ever All School reunion needing start up funds before our committee was bankrupt banking the incidental expenses involved with start-up and promotional expenses. While our numbers were successful in accomplishing that, we doubled our numbers in the last few days of the final deadline @ $40/person, as people scrambled to get their ticket. This was 30 days before the reunion. We had to cut it off so we could get the numbers to the caterer, order deco & supplies and still have time to prepare. We had relatively few sob stories wanting to buy late and did not allow it so we didn't set a precedent for future events.
We found that the more technically challenged seemed to procrastinate the longest. We added a very specific instruction piece to our last reminders of the deadline and had a prepared more detailed instruction of exactly how to sign on to the website for those who hadn't yet done that. It still took 4 of us much of the last 36 hours of registration to keep up with support of the late registrants.
Hopefully the next event won't be quite so time consuming, but we expect new challenges to emerge, such as those using the wrong e-mail address as they are using a new address and they didn't update the website of their info. But we feel more prepared.
Our event had 600 paid registrants and could easily double next time as many didn't think it would be as well-done and fun as it turned out!

Good luck!