As the leader of the Mercer Oaks reunion held
on November 30th, I was fortunate to work with a
terrific, flexible, and cooperative team and I'd like to
thank them. Because of Bob Lewis, I was motivated to
organize an affair before the year 2007 ended with the hope
that he would be able to attend. But pulling together a
reunion in 90 days was a challenge. I was ably assisted by
many of your wonderful classmates. Everyone was so
cooperative and gave what they could, when they
could.
Some classmates put down deposit money to
secure Mercer Oaks and the DJ’s services (Kathi, Debbie,
Jessie, and Denise). Kim was a miracle worker decorating the
room for less than $200 without sacrificing the WOW factor.
Kathi is the best banker that any committee could hope for.
Len, Colleen, and Tesa searched records to obtain addresses
for many lost classmates and served as our check-in crew.
Sharon made dozens of phone calls as part of our outreach
campaign. Debbie hosted the invitation stuffing party at her
office and brought in a delicious dinner to feed us too.
Dave asked to join the committee and offered to do whatever
was necessary to help and was part of the decorating team
that included Kim, Jessie, Denise, Kathi and Tinker. Jessie
and Sharon drove up to Hamilton from quite a distance to
help us at critical times. And remarkably, we only had two
actual sit-down meetings. The bulk of the planning and
decision making was done over email.
We were able to price the tickets $25 less
than the cost of the 25th reunion by deciding to
eliminate favors, door prizes, and extraneous entertainment.
But even with the reduced price, nothing was sacrificed as
our DJ set the retro mood by playing many classic tunes from
30 years ago; the food was good and plentiful; and the
drinks flowed freely for 4 hours.
We kept the
welcome speech and acknowledgements to less than five
minutes in order to stay true to the purpose of holding a
reunion—which is to maximize interaction and have fun. From
all indications, we achieved our goal. Thanks again to
everyone on the committee who helped make Friday night one
of the best reunions to date!
Laurie
