6/7/2009 Update

This afternoon Jenni, Abi and I met with Lynn, the owner of Reunion Specialists (http://www.reunion-specialists.com/) at the Catamaran and signed an agreement with her to have RS organize our reunion. She was a lovely, helpful, and very knowledgeable lady. Thanks to Abi for arranging the meeting and getting us all there.

We discussed our various site options in detail, and came up with our four final frontrunners. Thanks again to Jenni for getting our initial list together. Key points we discussed during the meeting included:

1. The reality of the situation is that only between 20-33% of a class buys tickets to a reunion, and with a class size of 373 for 1990 (based on the yearbook, not graduation, more on that in a sec), we’re looking for a smaller room so our ticket prices don’t go through the roof.
2. We want this event to be affordable. Not just the ticket price for the site and event room, but the hotel rooms, parking, drinks were all considered as a price issue.
3. Quality and quantity of food for what you pay for was considered.
4. It was agreed that we didn’t want the biggest room in the place as our venue in order to encourage mingling. We don’t want to be crowded, but also we considered important picking a space that wasn’t so large that people break off into cliques and stay put.
5. Finally, we considered locale in terms of what was requested on the survey but also what was available in the surrounding areas.

Lynn will be looking into this list of sites this week and getting back to me details about availability, hotel rates, etc. The list we’re now investigating includes:

1. Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine (http://lajolla.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp): specifically, the Barcino Grill is able to be rented out for a group our size since all of their meeting rooms are too big. One of the requests from the survey was to consider a UC venue.
2. Karl Strauss in Sorrento Mesa (http://www.karlstrauss.com/PAGES/Eats/SorrentoMesa.html): Lynn and Abi have both had events there, say it’s very lovely at night. Hotel rooms nearby will be very affordable as they cater to a M-F business crowd.
3. Harborview Ballroom beneath Ruth’s Chris on Harbor Drive (http://www.holidayinn.com/h/d/hi/1/en/hotel/SANBY/event-facilities?start=1): a downtown venue that has free parking and affordable room rates.
4. The Catamaran (http://www.catamaranresort.com/): where we met today, a beach/bayside option for more of a family event feel.

Another agreement we made with Lynn per her “contract” was not to promote a Friday Night Icebreaker Event sponsored by the reunion committee; this has been mulled over at previous meetings. When we asked Lynn to explain the reasoning behind this it made sense to us: what you’re really paying for with that ticket Saturday night is the surprise/first sight of someone you haven’t seen in a long time. When we promote a free event prior to the reunion, it lowers the value of that initial meeting. The only argument I can see holding water is for those who really want to mingle with people who belong to other classes. We know people will be getting together on Friday night, but it will probably be in smaller groups for dinner and such. Coordinating a large meeting of people attending the reunion the night prior to the reunion deflates the value of Saturday night’s event and lowers attendance. We can discuss this at our next meeting in more detail.

Our next and most immediate task is getting Lynn as much information about our class to Reunion Specialists so they can start hunting classmates down. I’ve listed below the items we’ve got to get a jump on next:

1. Our class database. I believe Ed had started this. Eddy, what’s the status?
2. We need a commencement program from our graduation to get an exact list of UCHS ’90 alumni, anyone got one they can send to Lynn?
3. Does anyone know how Debbie organized our 10 year in terms of tracking down classmates?
4. Does anyone happen to have a 10 year reunion booklet? Was there one? It might have contact info, married names, etc...

Our next meeting will be on Sunday, June 28 to pick our site. I’m thinking we’ll either have this meeting at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine or Harborview Ballroom beneath Ruth’s Chris on Harbor Drive since Karl Strauss is closed on the weekends. I’ll be in touch.