REUNIONS UNLIMITED
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I have seen a trend develop ever since the Class of 1985 used Reunions Unlimited (RU) to plan their 10th in 1995: Many people come away disappointed with the way RU handled the event and email me to complain about it. While no one has ever complained to me about an event planned by actual alumni, I get criticisms about RU events over and over again. The emails usually include one or more of the following comments: too few people were there, it ended too early, the food was crappy, they served no drinks, played the wrong music, it was held in a cheesy place, it was generic, it was held too far from WFHS, or it cost too much. So far I have never heard anyone write or say RU did a great job.
So here is my advice: If you are on a reunion committee and think using the services of RU is a good idea, start talking to people who have attended RU events in the past and ask them if they would do it again. If you want to use their services because you don't have the time or inclination to plan an event for your year, do yourself and the rest of your class a favor by being forthright about it and finding classmates who are really interested in personally planning an event they actually want. Believe me, those classmates are out there, I hear from them all the time. If you are not on a reunion committee, but your reunion committee is planning to use RU, contact the committee members and see if you can get them to either change the plans or to at least start asking around about past RU events.
Judging from the emails I receive here is what generally happens with a reunion run by RU: At the event, attendees will be thrilled to see their old friends and spend the night laughing, catching up and taking pictures. But they will be a little bothered by one or more of the things listed before. At the end of the event, they will realize that they won't see these people again for years and that this was actually an important night for them so they will be a little more sensitive about the flaws. Some will notice that there were a lot of absentees they would have really liked to see and wonder why they were absent. A few of those people will realize that RU did not do the same diligent job of finding people that motivated classmates would do, causing turnout to be much lower than expected. After the event more people will realize that all of these problems were entirely avoidable and they will either be mad or disappointed at the poor execution. The net result is many people won't go, and many who do go will realize it wasn't what it could have been.
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