We hope we can help you have a more successful reunion; and we hope you can help us help everyone else!

Having worked on some reunions ourselves and having watch others work on reunions, we’ve had the opportunity to see some things go well and see some things not go so well.  So, you can take all that follows with a grain of salt if you wish, or you can use any of it as you wish! We also welcome all suggestions for improving any of the suggestions contained on this page.  Please submit suggestions via the Contact Us Page.

Reunion Suggestions

Activities at your Reunion

  • School tours of the new facilities at CHNS have proven to be very popular!
  • Consider a golf outing at one of the local courses
  • Enjoy a tour of some of the local architecture with an Architectural Tour or a Miller House Tour

Advertising your Reunion

  • Decide how you want to use the media to contact people
  • Local radio stations and newspaper have been very good about helping with public service news such as this
  • Utilize the resources of the Bull Dog Alumni Association as soon as you set your date

Communication

  • Using your contact information effectively is the second key to success
  • Use multiple communication methods (Facebook, email, USPS, etc.)
  • Do not rely on a single means of communication! This has yielded disappointing results for more than one class
  • Set up a Facebook group as soon as possible:
    • Include Columbus, Indiana; CNHS; Columbus North; etc. in the name to make it easier to find when someone searches for it
    • Let the Bull Dog Alumni Association know about it so we can notify our subscribers
    • Add as many classmates as possible as soon as possible
    • Set-up credentials so those you’ve added can add others

Contact Information

  • Start early compiling your contact information
  • Begin your contact database early in the process
    • Use your yearbook and/or your graduation program to begin your master list
    • Contact the Bull Dog Alumni Association to see if we have some email addresses you may be missing
    • Be sure to denote confirmed and unconfirmed info in your database
    • Join your Class Facebook group (if you haven’t already done so) and reach out to classmates
  • Those graduation programs can be very helpful since they contain middle names and initials (for the times when you locate six Robert Johnsons or four Susan Clarks!)
  • You may have known people by their middle names or a nicknames and now they are listed with their first names or entire names
  • Be inclusive and do your best to find everyone
  • Once you locate a person, ask them if they are in contact with any classmates to see if they can help you with missing contact information
  • Draw on known family members of classmates you can’t find (parents, children, siblings, etc.)
  • Share the responsibility for tracking down classmates
  • Use your local GIS system (look under county government site) to look for property owners
  • Help us keep our Reunion Class Contact page current and complete!

General Planning

  • Start early
  • Venue selection can enhance the experience, but maximizing attendance will make the experience
  • Don’t commit (or over-commit) to anything too early
  • Budget well
  • Get input from others, but someone has to make the final decisions
  • Remember that you can’t make everyone happy
  • Being happy is up to each person, so just do the best you can with the planning
  • Reunions are about relishing old memories and making new ones! Try to enable both these to the fullest!
  • Did we mention “start early”?

Timing of your Reunion

  • When selecting your date, check local calendars to see if there are events that you might want to avoid (such as Mill Race Marathon’s congestion and hotel bookings) or events with which you might want to coincide (such as homecoming)
  • Some dates might give you opportunities to get a better value on your venue or lodging

Venues for your Reunion

  • Venue selection can enhance the experience, but maximizing attendance will make the experience!
  • Talk to local hotels to see about group rates for rooms for people traveling to your reunion
  • Consider the possibility of using a hotel for a gathering venue as well as lodging in an effort to get a better rate
  • Help us keep our Reunion Venue Page current and complete!