Posted: 5:38 PM - Jun 12, 2004
I wanted to inform people about my efforts to increase attendance at our annual McKay family reunion held in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
First of all, I've seen the attendance over the past 3 years drop some, mainly due to the recent deaths we've had in the family overall and others in the older generation being unable to travel as much as the once did.
Personally I'd love to see our attendance soar over 100 but that's generally a long shot.
I've maintained the desire to make things as simple as possible at our reunions in order to allow more time for visiting amongst relatives and have taken steps to do just that by shortening the amount of time needed for business meetings.
I believe that the only real business needed to be discussed is where to have it next year and who is going to be in charge of doing it. Every now and then a project may come up that requires our opinions or action on how to handle it but other than that I don't see much else that needs discussing. We do not need a long program with a formal speaker, nor do we need to wear a suit and tie to a reunion as some other family organizations require. T-shirts and shorts are acceptable but most people generally wear slacks and a collared shirt of some kind.
Basically, all we need is a place to meet, a luncheon to feed us and some time to visit and gaze at all of the items out for display on the tables. Occasionally, we might want to have a few extra activites or group visits to different locations whenever possible.
In addition to this I have also expanded the names covered on our reunion to reflect the fact that this reunion has included relatives in the Sowers and Kerfoot families of Old Bethel and Rockland churches. With that being the case I've subtitled it (McKay-Sowers-Kerfoot) so as to make it known that I welcome descendants of those families as well to our annual gatherings. We appear to be making progress in that area so I hope to see it continue and expand.
Maybe one day we'll cross that 100 people mark with our attendance.
First of all, I've seen the attendance over the past 3 years drop some, mainly due to the recent deaths we've had in the family overall and others in the older generation being unable to travel as much as the once did.
Personally I'd love to see our attendance soar over 100 but that's generally a long shot.
I've maintained the desire to make things as simple as possible at our reunions in order to allow more time for visiting amongst relatives and have taken steps to do just that by shortening the amount of time needed for business meetings.
I believe that the only real business needed to be discussed is where to have it next year and who is going to be in charge of doing it. Every now and then a project may come up that requires our opinions or action on how to handle it but other than that I don't see much else that needs discussing. We do not need a long program with a formal speaker, nor do we need to wear a suit and tie to a reunion as some other family organizations require. T-shirts and shorts are acceptable but most people generally wear slacks and a collared shirt of some kind.
Basically, all we need is a place to meet, a luncheon to feed us and some time to visit and gaze at all of the items out for display on the tables. Occasionally, we might want to have a few extra activites or group visits to different locations whenever possible.
In addition to this I have also expanded the names covered on our reunion to reflect the fact that this reunion has included relatives in the Sowers and Kerfoot families of Old Bethel and Rockland churches. With that being the case I've subtitled it (McKay-Sowers-Kerfoot) so as to make it known that I welcome descendants of those families as well to our annual gatherings. We appear to be making progress in that area so I hope to see it continue and expand.
Maybe one day we'll cross that 100 people mark with our attendance.