Regional Events
Written by Karen Mineo ‘79
40th Birthday Party Events Partnered with Alumni House to provide assistance with the process of planning regional 40th birthday parties. Alumni House ran the numbers on where ’79 classmates geographically were living. We identified the top 8 major cities: New York City Ithaca Boston Philadelphia Steps: Alumni House provided me with a flatlist of all of ’79 classmates in these 8 major cities. I checked out Europe, but there wasn’t enough concentration there or in any of the cities in the south. Designed a survey asking these classmates what would they like to attend to celebrate their 40th birthday party. I asked them to prioritize types of events and to specify when during the year/month/week would be best. I also asked them to make suggestions as to what type nostalgia they would want at the party. Alumni House sent the survey out to all classmates in all of these major cities. I also asked for volunteers and I got a couple of names of people for a couple of the cities - different people who weren’t the usual people to help out. Called key classmates to ask them if they could coordinate and event in their city and identified exactly what they would have to do to coordinate an event. Compiled the survey data and gave the survey information to key volunteers in each city. They identified what type of event they wanted to run and identified when the event should take place during the year we all turn 40. At the same time the survey was being sent out and compiled, I had two creative classmates who are twin sisters who own their design company to come up with a logo for the party that we used on all of the communication (letterhead and stationary), name tags, and nostalgia sheet. At the same time that the survey and logo were being worked on, I had another classmate pull some very interesting information together about what happened in 1957 (the year we were born) and he got a copy of the Cornell Daily Sun from that year. He gathered some Washington D.C. Los Angeles San Francisco Chicago
information about what was happening during the years that we were at Cornell in the categories of: Popular Music, Movies, Books, Events & Personalities. He worked with Alumni House who put our 5th reunion picture on the front and in bold print reminded everyone about our 20th reunion. We gave this piece out at each of the events and have extras that we used in one of our later mailings. The Chairperson of each of the events sent me the vital information about the event in their city and I formatted it and sent it to Alumni House who added a creative design to it and added the logo to the invitation. Our logo was also on the envelopes. Alumni House had the invitation printed and sent to all classmates in that city. A local classmate was responsible for receiving all the RSVPs, receiving checks for the event and paying up front for any expenses. Our Treasurer worked with each of the event coordinators to pay the chairperson for any expenses he or she laid out and the chairperson sent all the checks for the event to our Treasurer. I provided another classmate, our Webmaster, with the information on each of the events to put up on our Class ’79 website. Our communications person put the details of the events in the major cities in our Class Newsletters. The numbers weren’t great, but I still think it was a success because we got invitations out to over 1,000 classmates in 4 of the 8 cities. So we showed that we had a presence and that we were working on events besides just reunion.
Out of the 8 cities, we ended up with the following: NYC - a brunch for over 40 people in a nice restaurant on a Sunday in September Boston - a barbecue at a classmates home with kids - 30 people Philly - cocktails and dinner at a restaurant on the Delaware River Ithaca - desserts at a classmates home with only 2 families Syracuse - didn’t do a 40th birthday party, but did a concert in a park the following year with a few families. It was an event a classmate would have decided to go to anyway, so we sent postcards out to classmates in the area. In Chicago and LA, I had a commitment from classmates who volunteered to coordinate the event and then couldn’t do it too late in the process to find anyone else. Washington D.C. - I couldn’t find anyone who would take the responsibility of coordinating and event. SF - I had a classmate who was willing to be a speaker because he is the Deputy Governor of CA, but I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to actually coordinate the event. I networked the Presidents of each of the clubs in SF and LA, but I couldn’t get anyone to take on the coordination. Other Regional Event Ideas: Tap onto scheduled Football games: Since these birthday parties have taken place, we have taken the dancing bear logo and combined it with our reunion date information and I have coordinated getting information out to classmates regarding the latest 1998 football games - Princeton, Homecoming, Harvard. Columbia & Yale. I used simple postcards with our logo on it and printed in red to announce these football events. Coordinate with another class: I coordinated with the President of the Class of ’72 to send a mailing to classmates in both ’79 & ’72 classes, who lived in the metro NY area. We invited them to join us for the Cornell vs. Princeton game, because it was the opening game in the new Princeton
stadium. We had 10 families show up to that event from my class, along with families for the class of ’72 and from the Cornell Alumni Association of Princeton. Coordinate and event during CACO weekend: For the past 2 years during this CACO weekend, I have organized either a Friday night or Saturday night cocktails and/or dinner event. We met on Friday night of last year and this year we are meeting tonight, here at the Hyatt, since the Cornell Club is booked. I sent out postcard inviting ’79 classmates to their event. Partner with local club Presidents and VPs of Programming: I am still trying to coordinate with the President of the LA club who is willing to partner with our class in marketing a particular event that the club is running anyway. I would send a postcard inviting ’79 classmates to their event. Coordinating Regional Events Tips: The key coordinating regional events is to concentrate on geographic areas that have the greatest number of classmates and if you 20-40 classmates, consider it a success. Smaller gatherings will work, but it may not be worth the effort. Finding a classmate to coordinate is the hardest part. When there is a volunteer - go for it. Consider identifying a theme and/or special logo for the event so that it is catchy and printed on everything around that event. Divide and conquer. Delegate responsibilities to those who volunteer or who you convince to help out. Don’t take it all on yourself. Partner with Alumni House. They are terrific and will help with the creative layout, printing and mailings. I couldn’t do it (and wouldn’t do it) without them.
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