The first meeting of the Reunion Planning Committee was held October 15.   In attendance were Gail Swearingin Price, Steve Minnerly, Dianne Web Holliday, Sande Spreng, Karen Johnson Cameron, Jo Carr Hesker, Donna Newsom Taylor, and Gary DuBose.   Also conscripted into service, but not in attendence were Steve Knagg and Patty White Tally.   (It's not too late for YOU to help, see below.)

        The first thing discussed was the date.   Taken into consideration were several school calendars, projected conventional vacation time, holidays, and expected weather.   The selection was the weekend of June-21, 22-2002.   An alternate date selected was the weekend of June-14, 15-2002.   It was determined that feedback from the alumni regarding these dates could be gathered using this website.   (See below.)

        The events were then discussed.   It was decided that there would be a dinner/dance on Saturday evening, and an informal gathering on Friday night.   At this time there are no plans for afternoon picnics or anything on Sunday.   Discussion of the Saturday event included finding a local band that could play "oldies" and a general mix, combined with music on CD in between sets.   It was anticipated that the band would play about 45 minute sets and then the CDs would be played for 45 minute sets.   An entertainment committee was formed to evaluate prospective bands and DJ services.

        One of the most important items discussed was whether or not to use a reunion service to help plan the events and contact the alumni.   One of the hardest and most expensive parts of a reunion is producing mailouts and contacting all the alumni.   This website was produced partially to communicate news of the reunion to the alumni.   Response to this website has been very good, but overall, only about 10% of our class have used the message forum or sent in contact information.   It is likely there are a great number of our friends who do not have access to a computer, or can't get their kids off of it long enough to use it.   Normally, there will be several people who view a website but do not interact with it (webheads call these people "lurkers").   We can estimate there are an additional 10% who are lurkers.   This is still only an estimated 20% of our class that we can reach.   Although news can be distributed by word-of-mouth, we cannot gauge this success.   It was therefore decided to use a reunion planning service to contact everyone.   The service will also put up the deposits for the hall and book the caterers.   A committee was formed to evaluate prospective reunion planning services and a decision is expected at the next meeting.

        There is still much to be discussed and much to be done.   If you are interested, be sure to contact the planning committee.   Send your suggestions and attend the planning meetings.