[Music]
hey this is Jay Han with jae-hyun
travelin services and I had stated a few
weeks ago I was going to be starting a
series on you know planning events or
planning a family reunion because I know
a lot of people may want to try to plan
a family reunion and make be kind of
stuck or two may just need some help
with trying to figure out where do I
start I want to start this family
reunion how do I start how do I get it
going what are some things that I might
have to think about if I am thinking
about hosting a family reunion and then
how can I kind of make this family
reunion to latus to be a every year
thing or every two year thing or every
four year thing but there's a lot of
important steps that can go into
planning a family reunion especially if
it's your first time or even if it's not
your first time but there's still a lot
of things that are not written in stone
so what I want to let you guys know
about first is that I think the biggest
part about planning a family reunion is
just the overall planning in general and
again it depends on if it's your first
year having it or if it's been a few
years in the works but again you still
have a lot of major decisions that you
have to decide a phone so one of the
things is you know it's always the dates
like you know what dates with a family
reunion be will it be one day will it be
two days will it be three days again
family members depending on how you're
starting out you know do you have a list
already of all of your family members or
do you have to go and trace out some of
your genealogy or contact some of the
elders in the family to kind of piece
together every one that you should be
getting invites to cost you know it is
depending on where you have your family
reunion the type of events and
activities you have cost can be a very
big thing
something that we really have to take
into consideration when planning a
family reunion location you know that
can play a big part you know is all your
family located in one city in one town
in one village whereas your family's
spread out across the state across the
country and if your family is more
spread out how will you actually get
everyone to come together or where will
the place be to where everyone will want
to travel to that location and is it
feasible for everyone to travel to get
there or maybe all of your family
already resides in one central location
but maybe your family wants to do
something where everybody goes away and
have their family reunion in another
city or another state or on a cruise
ship or someplace like that or at a
campsite so that's very important to
think about and then all the politics
that go around with planning a family
reunion things like making a committee
or having a board to plan things or
officers to be in charge to make sure
that the family reunion keeps going or
committees to where everybody can have a
job to help out to make sure that one
person just doesn't get burnt out with
all the things that go into planning a
family reunion and hosting a family
reunion especially if you're doing it
big for a lot of people I mean even if
you're doing it for 50 to 100 people it
can take a lot of work to plan out a
family reunion for even that size so in
2011 my family in Milwaukee we hosted
our 39th family reunion so our family
reunion on my mom's mom side has become
has been going on for a while so that
was back in 2011 and this year 2019 is
going to be our second time hosting the
family reunion here in Milwaukee
Wisconsin and this will be our 45th
family reunion and our family reunion
actually started out about 45 years ago
and I believe West Memphis on farmland
that some of the family members had and
from there
it just grew and now our family reunion
is at a place to where it rotates
between different cities each year
for the most part it rotates between
cities that someone lives in or one of
our relatives lives in so we've never
had it in a city that some that no one
lives in so we're always going to a city
where someone actually lives in that
city that is family so like I said
earlier just depends on what time frame
you're in and having your family reunion
our family reunion has been going on
we've had our 44th family reunion in
2018 coming up on our 45th family
reunion in 2019 and so one of the things
that our family does have to help us to
make sure that we have a reunion each
year to make sure that there's not any
big arguments or to cut down on you know
disagreements and things like that is we
do have family meetings each year at the
family reunions and we actually have
bylaws so we have a list of bylaws that
state things that may or may not need to
take place during our family reunion
like one of our important bylaws that we
have is that the Newsom family reunion
meets that every third weekend in July
so that helps out because even if you
don't go to a family reunion one year
you'll always know that our family
reunion is the third weekend in July or
even if you don't get any information in
a timely manner you'll know to kind of
block off that third weekend in July for
the Newsom family reunion and it can
just be one day but typically we always
celebrate at least three days Friday
Saturday and Sunday are the days that we
actually celebrate the Newsom family
reunion is that weekend and then we also
have officers we tend to have a
president secretary his family historian
a family photographer so if all those
people working together it kind of helps
the family unit and the family reunion
to keep flowing each year and so we have
annual family reunions so we have a
family reunion each year which I kind of
think is a good thing because if you go
to years sometimes you know the family
can drift away or it may be harder to
bring people back together I know some
families that do every other year and
you know they tend to work out as well
but our family is very spread out so I
like to do the one year family reunion
where everybody comes back together and
we have our nice celebrations doing the
weekend that we meet we do have a time
set aside for a family meeting and like
I said doing that family meeting it's
times where we both may be four officers
have elections we talk about pricing
location of the family reunion for the
next year we do elections to elect the
officers we do elections and boats to
pick which city with the family reunion
will be located in most of the time
whoever wants the family reunion and
typically end up getting it because a
lot of people know it's a lot of hard
work and it's something you really have
to be prepared for the last few years we
haven't had to have many votes on where
family reunion will actually be because
not too many people have wanted to take
on that responsibility so like last year
I kind of just went ahead and raised my
hand and do nawaki out there so we took
on the burden to make sure that we have
a good time here in the City of
Milwaukee for the family so that's
important to think about when you'll
have your family meetings so we do have
like I said the annual family meeting
during the actual family reunion and
then whatever city picks the reunion a
lot of times they will set up their own
committee and branch off
responsibilities and duties to different
people in that city to help to make sure
things flow smoothly so cost is a very
important thing that you have to think
about and it should be kind of discussed
with the family as a whole or again if
you're able to have a meeting amongst
everyone to kind of discuss the pros and
the cons and to kind of get an idea of
what type of reunion you want to have or
your family wants to have so for our
family we do have a family fee it's $50
for single people and it's a hundred and
fifty dollars for families and then we
say up to five people and if you have
more than five people in the family we
say please send more money if you can
and so we do have some people in the
family even if they are single they
we'll send extra money or if they have a
family some people will send extra money
but just having that money be sent in to
the person that's hosting a family
reunion it can be a lot of help because
again you're trying to buy food you may
be trying to purchase decorations you
may have to mail out letters and get
envelopes and stamps and all those types
of things you know making phone calls
using gas to go places printing off
papers you know that stuff does add up
and especially the food and then also
paying for the venue you know and
sometimes unless you're just balling out
of control you know then it might not be
a problem for you but most people the
money and contributions really are what
help out to help the family reunion to
move forward and to be successful so
hopefully I didn't talk too fast but
this is going to be the first video of a
series of videos that I'll be uploading
on talking about planning a family
reunion as well as I'll kind of be
taking you behind the scenes and showing
you the steps that we're going through
to plan our family reunion as well as
guess what when july 2019 comes i'm
gonna bring you guys to my actual family
reunion so you can see how our three
days of the Newsom family reunion
actually turn out but just as a review
I'm gonna go over some of the notes it's
going to be important to find a date and
try to pick up you know a date that will
probably work for everyone
again our family we have probably over
200 something people so good thing we
have a date set in soon because if we
just try to throw dates out there we
would probably never come up with a date
that's going to be best for everyone but
luckily the elders and the family had
already picked that date and now it's
stuck there in stone so we don't have to
go through that but again if you knew
just starting out you know you got to
pick the date you know figure out who
your family members are who you want to
invite you want to figure out how much
the cost will be will it be a free event
that just a family member who's ever
hosting is going to take on a whole all
of the cost will it be a potluck style
or whether actually be it or will there
actually be a family fee that people
will have to pay to come to the family
reunion again you want to think about
politics you want to think about any
mitties maybe if your family does need
some bylaws to help everyone stay on
track to stay respectful to reduce
arguments and then set up a voting
system that way you know it does get
everyone involved whether people might
not like the outcome of votes but at
least you can say everyone or a majority
of the family had opportunity to give
their input into what's happening what's
taking place and then you're going to
want to think about how often will the
family reunions actually occur so again
be on the lookout of part two of this
series as well as the other videos that
I'll have coming up talking about the
planning of a family reunion
you