How to arrange an alumni reunion?

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

The Alumni Reunion Evening, no matter where it takes place and whom it gathers, requires serious preparation and tangible costs. As a rule, it is quite difficult for one person to master the organization of such a holiday and prepare for it.

Now they often use the services of agencies, but the result of the work of professionals does not always meet expectations and may differ from the version of the holiday that they wanted to arrange. Therefore, it is better to take up the matter on your own, preferably with a company of two, three or four people.

Where to start?

You need to start preparing the evening of the meeting of graduates by determining the number of participants. That is, you should decide who to collect - the entire issue, one class or group. Whether to invite the teaching staff and which of the teachers to call. All other aspects depend on the number of potential participants and guests of the event.

Next, you need to find all thosepeople to be gathered. Whether you plan to hold an alumni evening at a school or a student party in a restaurant, the search for participants is the most important, long and difficult stage of preparation.

After all possible coordinates are found, people should be contacted or phoned, and not just sent them invitations. This must be done, because someone will not go, and someone will want to come not alone. You need to call or write to the teachers. You should not exclude participants in advance, focusing on your own ideas. That is, if, for example, the alumni meeting will be held in Moscow, and one of the potential participants lives in Vladivostok, you should not decide on your own that the person will not come.

It is necessary to clarify the preferred time and date with each of those who attend the evening, including teachers. You should also carefully ask about financial opportunities, that is, ask how much a person is ready to allocate for organizing an event.

After these initial stages, the organizers will have a complete list of guests and participants of the event, containing information about their free time and financial capabilities.

What's next?

At the next stage, the place, time and approximate scenario of the evening of the alumni meeting should be determined. This is not difficult to do, based on the approximate budget and the number of participants. At this stage, the budget will need to be looked at twice, as well as the number of participants.

The first thing to start thinking aboutscenario - choice of location. If more than a hundred people are expected at the event, but the budget is small, you should rent a cafe or a small club with a minimum order on a “for visitors” basis. That is, to agree with the owners of the institution that people will order drinks and food on their own. This method of rent will significantly reduce the cost of paying for the establishment.

Another option is to spend an alumni meeting at a school or institute. But not always this way of organizing an event is more economical than renting an institution. For a full celebration, you will need to set buffet tables, that is, purchase alcohol, food or ready-made snacks. When purchasing food, you will need a person who will cook. You will need tablecloths, dishes and much more. You will also need to clean everything after the end of the holiday. In addition to the expense and hassle, holding an event in a school building has a number of significant disadvantages, such as time and date restrictions, the need to move and move furniture, because the atmosphere is not intended for celebration.

The best way to spend an evening of alumni meeting is to combine a visit to a school or institute with a party in a restaurant. A solemn part can take place in a school assembly hall or a student audience, and transfer the fun itself to a restaurant or cafe. With this choice, you must first find out the dates and hours at which the educational institution will be able to host the event, combine this withthe time frame preferred by the majority of the participants and, in fact, choose a date.

Do not immediately coordinate the chosen date and time with the administration, but agree only in advance. This is necessary in order to find a suitable cafe for a selected time near the educational institution, within walking distance. It is very inconvenient if the institute or school is at a great distance from the restaurant. In this situation, some will not go to the solemn part, while others will not go to the fun.

However, in a nearby cafeteria, the selected date or hours may be busy, but another date is free, which is also convenient. Therefore, it is necessary to negotiate with the educational institution in advance and only after the final choice of the restaurant.

Now you can start developing the scenario, again using the list of guests and data on their financial capabilities. This is necessary in order to determine the number of competitions with prizes, the menu of the evening, which will be ordered in advance, and other similar moments. The scenario of the evening of the alumni meeting, which will be attended by only ten people, even if in the “+1” version, will be very different from the program of the event for twenty classmates and will turn out to be completely different from the gathering of a hundred people.

However, they all have the same structure:

• ceremonial part;
• transition to a restaurant or just a break before the start of the buffet;
• regular time;
• official end;
• "after-walking".

At the stage of choosing a scenario in accordance with the budget andthe number of guests should not go into the details of filling each item, but distribute the funds. It is easiest to do this, starting from what the costs of which can be calculated with maximum accuracy, for example, from the ceremonial part. “Residing” should not be included in the budget at all, but if there is free money, then it’s quite possible to present everyone with a themed cocktail at parting. The most obscure in terms of budget is always the main part of the evening, the one that goes according to the script and involves various contests, lotteries and prizes. Therefore, it should be left in the end, and when choosing what to fill it with, proceed from how much money is left.

As a result, you will get a fairly detailed financial estimate. It must be clearly written, so that when participants ask questions about what money is being collected from them, do not try to tell the content of the evening, but simply send a list of dry numbers in a messenger or by mail. This will save your own nerves, and will discourage suspicious classmates from bargaining with the collector.

After the funds are collected, you should begin to implement the plan. With a large number of event guests, many different elements and attributes of the holiday are usually required. You should not do everything according to the principle “how it goes”, time and purchases or orders need to be planned, it is much more convenient and with a clear schedule nothing will be forgotten.

How to hold the official part?

The content of the solemn part depends on how many teachers there will be, and who exactly plansbe present. For example, the rector of the institute or the head of the department, the school director at the evening of the meeting of graduates always make a speech that opens the event. This is a tradition to be followed. If there are no “high ranks”, and only a class teacher or several subject teachers are present, then the right to open the evening and conduct the entire solemn part passes to its organizer. It does not matter which of the teachers will come to the event, everyone who attended the evening of the reunion of the graduates of the teachers is presented with flowers and commemorative letters of thanks.

The ceremonial part shouldn't be long, but it shouldn't be too short either. The optimal time is 30-40 minutes. The content might be:

• opening speech or director's speech;
• delivery of commemorative diplomas or certificates, but only with a small number of participants, if there are more than twenty people, then certificates are issued after the completion of the official part when leaving the hall;
• the words of the teachers, and after the teachers finish, you should give flowers and a beautifully designed "thank you paper", the same applies to the director or representative of the administration;
• completion and invitation to proceed to the restaurant (you need to remind the address and say that it is in the invitation).

If one of the graduates wants to say something, then this is done after the speeches of the teachers and before the final speech of the organizer of the holiday.

If there is an opportunity to rehearse the solemn part, then this should be done without fail. There can always be some nuances that distinguish reality from the script written on paper. The duration of speeches, a non-working microphone or the lack of a stand for it, and other trifles that cannot be taken into account when planning. They will become apparent in rehearsal and can be corrected or eliminated.

You can complete the solemn part, not limited to speech. A good option would be to sing a song. On the evening of the meeting of graduates, in the absence of an anthem at the educational institution, you can prepare any suitable theme and not too long song. Its text and an explanation to it should be sent to each of the participants along with the invitation. However, if desired, you can duplicate it by issuing a printout with words at the entrance to the hall. If you plan to use badges, then they are also given to everyone before the official part at the entrance.

What will be required for the official part?

There are obligatory attributes of the official stage of the event, which do not depend on the number of participants or the size of the budget. These include:

• flowers for all teachers;
• commemorative diplomas or "graduate certificates";
• letters of thanks to teachers.

This is the foundation you can't do without. You can order diplomas and diplomas in any of the advertising agencies or directly in printing houses. However, a direct order from printers, although cheaper, will require independent preparation of the layout. This is not just a drawing made in any program, there are a number of requirements for such layouts. With no understanding of howit is a layout for printing that is being done, you should not do this, since the result will require alteration and not through the fault of printing presses. That is, you will have to pay twice.

In addition to the mandatory attributes, such elements of the event as:

• badges with name, class or other information;
• decoration of the assembly hall, foyer and other places through which graduates will pass in the educational institution;
• print out lyrics if required.

In the event that it is cold and slippery outside, and the restaurant is located far from the place where the evening of the alumni meeting began (February or March, for example, are not conducive to long walks), you can rent a transport. It is imperative to warn about bus rental in invitations, as people may refuse to use their own car after learning about the availability of transport "door to door".

Transition to the restaurant: is it possible to fill it with something

Filling the time of transition from the educational institution to the place of celebration with content or not is an individual question. It depends on many nuances, such as:

• duration and workload of the official part;
• weather and season;
• availability of transport or walking;
• time it takes to get to the restaurant;
• number of participants.

It is possible, in good weather and in the summer, to use clowns, life-size puppets, mimes with balloons and the like on the wayaccompaniment. This sets the guests up for a festive evening. However, if the path is too short, for example, you just need to go to the opposite side of the street, then you do not need to fill it with anything.

For a bus ride lasting at least 20 minutes, you can use a clown or any other artist who tells jokes "in the subject" or, even better, performs in the stand-up genre. The same genre is optimal for the main part of the event.

However, if there are less than ten people, then such entertainment along the way is completely useless.

How to spend the bulk of the evening?

The structure of how the graduation party takes place in the institution, a year later they gather or ten years after graduation, is the same. But the number of participants in the event affects the structure of the celebration. If there are more than 10-15 people, a leader will be required. If there are 5-7 participants, then the services of a toastmaster are not needed.

All contests, lotteries or other entertainment must necessarily correspond to the theme of the evening, as well as drinking speeches. Achieving this is simple, just use a few thematic elements in the script.

The structure of the event could be:

• the organizer needs to give a short dinner speech, in other words, re-open the holiday;
• the following toasts should be addressed to specific people and report on what they have achieved in the past, of coursewell, the graduates themselves can speak, impromptu;
• between raising glasses, contests are held, performances by artists or participants in the evening are held;
• before closing, a lottery should be held with playful prizes, for example, with a certificate for the right to host and organize the next meeting.

The organizer says the last toast. In it, you need to thank those who came, express confidence in an early meeting and explain that the restaurant is at the complete disposal of all those who want to continue to have fun, indicating the time, of course. That is, the official part should be completed at least 2 hours before the rental period expires.

What to say in "address" toasts?

Congratulations on the evening of the reunion are not much different from toasts on other holidays. That is, it is a short speech containing pleasant words about someone, talking about the achievements of this person and calling for him to drink.

You can talk about anything, but, of course, you should be prepared. Everyone has achievements. For example, if an excellent student and activist became a housewife, then you should remember family values and emphasize that a house is the most important thing a person has. If a classmate works as a mechanic at a factory, you need to talk about the value of simple professions, without which all the conveniences of modern life are inconceivable. That is, targeted toasts should increase a person’s self-esteem and please him.

After such speeches, a diploma "For Achievement" should be awarded. But this should be done only if the toastswill be ready for each of the guests. If there are a hundred people at the party, diplomas do not need to be prepared. But the toasts themselves should be pronounced. They need to be thought out for about half of the participants. After each pair of such speeches, guests should be provoked into the same speeches regarding their classmates.

Thus, the eternal question of what to drink for is completely removed, and each of the invitees feels necessary, and not superfluous at the holiday.

What to include in the program?

The most optimal variant of the program of such events is the performances of the participants themselves. But most people tend to turn down an offer to perform, so organizers should cover this up with contests or lotteries.

That is, as prizes for winning a competition, the winner must, for example, read poetry. For the evening of the meeting of graduates, which is held according to a program organized according to this principle, texts printed in advance should be prepared. Not all people memorize any poems.

You can do without contests at all, and play performances in the form of a lottery or forfeits. You can arrange an auction. That is, the participant gets the opportunity to sell someone his right to speak, and the money for this lot will be the beginning of the budget for the next evening of the reunion, the date of which, of course, should be announced, for example, next year.

How to prepare a speech?

This question often baffles even the most pedantic and talented organizers. In fact, everything is simple. Words for the evening of the reunionshould not be pretentious, sincere and kind. That's enough.

Speech should not be delayed. The opening of the solemn part is quite within 5-7 minutes, of course, if the director or one of the “important” teachers does not deliver the speech. They should not be limited in time - it is impolite. The final official part of the speech lasts 4-5 minutes, it can be started with the words: “Homecoming evening begins”, “Now we are going to the restaurant and we will have fun” and other information, for example, about buses or the address of the institution.

The first toast is completely symbolic and should sound simply: “Guys! Here we have seen each other! Let's celebrate it! Address toasts consist of several sentences and take 2-4 minutes.

Difficulties with table speeches can be avoided by hiring a host or by using the rest of the participants as much as possible.

What should not be forgotten?

When planning an evening, you need to remember three nuances, such as:

• organize photo or video shooting;
• search for host;
• sending invitations.

Be sure to hire a photographer and/or videographer. This is a very important part of the meeting. Moreover, you should order services for the whole evening - from the solemn official part to the “after-walking”. The results of his work then need to be sent electronically to all guests of the event.

Hire a host for parties with more than 10 people. After all, the organizer himself is also a graduate and he should have fun, and not follow the program andthe mood of the guests.

The invitation should be issued, including all the necessary information in them: the time and place of the meeting, the name and address of the restaurant, the availability of the bus, if it is planned to rent it, the lyrics of the song, of course, if this element is included in the script, and so on.

You don't need to print invitations, it's much easier to issue them in electronic form and send them out via messenger or email.