Decide the scope before you build the guest list. "A reunion" means three different things to three different relatives, and each will plan their year around a different assumption.
1Scope, before anything
- Pick one: a single day with no accommodation / a weekend where people book their own stay / a shared house for several days
- Announce which it is in the first message
- Pick a rough headcount ceiling (15–30 is where one meal still works)
- Set the notice period: 9–12 months for travel, 3–4 for a local day
2The date
- Ask the least flexible people first: oldest relatives, anyone with health constraints, anyone travelling internationally
- Anchor to school holidays if children are coming
- Poll 3–5 dates built around those answers
- Say up front that above twenty people someone will miss it — so a miss is arithmetic, not a snub
3Money, where the family is not equal
- Keep the core event cheap or free; make the expensive parts optional
- Charge per adult, children free or reduced
- Let people contribute in kind: cooking, driving, lending, hosting
- Arrange any quiet subsidy privately
4Share the load — five names
- Contact wrangler (holds the list, chases replies)
- Venue and logistics
- Food (catering or a coordinated potluck — a real job, not "general organising")
- Activities, especially something for children
- Photos and the record
5Plan for a fifty-year age range
- Somewhere to sit, in the shade, near the food
- Somewhere children can be loud
- Access checked before booking: steps, distance from parking, lift, toilets
- One fixed point everyone attends (a meal, or the photo, at a stated time)
- A light schedule — people came to talk
- Seating that does not put the two who do not get along together
6Keep the record
- Group photo early, while everyone is present
- Shared album created and shared before the day
- Someone assigned to record the older relatives talking
- Write down who came
Worth knowing
- Above twenty people, a date that suits everyone does not exist. Aim for most, and say so.
- The group photo at the end captures the two thirds who have not left yet. Take it first.
- Ten minutes of an eighty-year-old describing the house they grew up in is the most valuable thing anyone captures that day.
- Five names is not much harder to coordinate than one, and it is the difference between a reunion that recurs and one that happened once.
Common questions.
How far in advance should you plan a family reunion?
Nine to twelve months for anything with travel or accommodation; three to four for a single-day local gathering. Extended families have fixed commitments booked far ahead, and school holidays limit the usable windows to a handful a year.
Who should pay?
Keep the core event cheap enough that everyone can attend and make the expensive parts optional. Charge per adult with children free or reduced, and let people contribute in kind so participation does not depend on cash. If a relative covers another family's costs, arrange it privately.
What do you actually do at a reunion?
Less than you think: one shared meal, one group photo taken early, one optional activity, something for children, and somewhere shaded to sit near the food. People came to talk to each other; a packed schedule competes with that.
Can I copy this checklist?
Yes — the Copy button puts it on your clipboard as markdown with tick boxes. Free, no account.
The other checklists.
A checklist that fills itself in.
Kinora keeps this list live for the whole group — every job shows who owns it, the date poll closes the date, the budget tracks who has paid. Free while the beta runs.