And the “Post-CPF” reunion party is finally over on Thurs evening. It is a completed project for now until the next one, which may be in 4 years when we all hit our 60th – another big figure change event…
The whole planning process started in early Jun as my previous co-organizer and I had the same view that it could be time to do a reunion again as we move into the Covid endemic stage for good. The last one was held in 2016 when we turned 50. We had promised to do the next one when we turn 55 in 2021 and can collect CPF, but that was not meant to be. That is why we named this reunion a “Post-CPF” party.
We polled our schoolmates to get a sense if there is any interest as the virus had already locked us up for more than 2 years already. It was a gamble we had to take to decide if we wanted to press the button to proceed. Another group of classmates from a school police uniformed group (NPCC) tried to do it last year but had to cancel it. They eventually resorted to selling the T-shirts they had already printed to recoup their sunk costs.
Once we felt that the interest was high enough, we kickstarted the search for a suitable location to hold the event. This took a few weeks while we fixed a date in Aug. It should be sufficient time with a 2 months heads-up for everyone to diarize into their busy schedules.
We found a venue after asking for a few quotations and physically visiting the top 2 candidates to check them out before finally deciding on the one we wanted. We then had to put down a 50% deposit to secure the date we wanted. The quote was for 100 pax with a dinner buffet and with taxes, it was $66 per person. Coupled with door gifts and other costs, we decided to charge $80 per head. At the last reunion we had in 2016, we charged $60. So with raging inflation now, I guess this was a workable number. The buffer was for door gifts and other expenses, plus the invitation of teachers to join us at no expense to them. As we are doing this on a pro bono basis, all surpluses (if any) will be donated to the school fund.
Then there was the anxiety of Omicron transmission in enclosed indoor environments for large crowds. The only option for us after paying the deposit was to postpone the event to a later date. So to assure everyone, we told them that we will be providing weekly updates as part of a marketing campaign to keep everyone abreast of the latest situation. If the venue and authorities implemented new curbs, we would have to follow accordingly.
My generation of 56 years old uncles and aunties are not too tech savvy nor appreciative of social media. Most have a distrust of placing too much faith in sharing private information with the world. Our main medium of information dissemination was via the 2 Facebook groups created for our secondary and junior college years. Then we set up a FB event page to track interest (“Going’, “Interested” and “Share” options) so that we can plan the logistics nearer to the date to commit a minimum number for the dinner buffet.
The other way was to send good old traditional emails to a growing DL: distribution list. Then someone complained that they don’t want their email address to be seen by others and so we had to BCC the entire list. We now have 200+ email addresses to send to.
Then the spamming started. 2 months before the 18 Aug actual date. I created a marketing campaign to provide weekly Sunday updates. The aim was 2 fold: to provide information if the event would proceed/postpone and to hype up the excitement into the actual day. Because I had to ensure that we had a wide audience network, each message had to be sent 4 times. 2 via the FB groups (class of RI 1982 and RJC 1984), once via the FB event page and finally 1 more to the email DL list. If one belongs to all 4 channels, then the person will be spammed with the same message 4 times LOL…
Into the final days of the event, I did daily spamming (Mon to Thur) on the expected agenda and location details etc. That evening, someone told me that he had to come because of my spamming 😉 Well, I guess they can delete or block my spam messages if they had wanted to…
Finally, the day came. I went a few hours earlier to help prepare for the event. We needed to decorate the room and set up the registration desk. Fortunately, we had a group of volunteers who kindly agreed to come early too. At 6 pm we welcomed the first guests. The school also sent some students to interview some of our attendees and the head of the Alumni club came to check us out too.
The 4 hours passed by pretty quickly and we were done by 10 pm. Everyone had a lot of fun reconnecting with old childhood friends again. I see so many happy faces and hugs amongst classmates who have not seen each other for more than 30+ years. This is our reward for organizing the reunion. It warms my heart.
Spamming – that’s why some came LOL
The last-minute surge in attendees based on previous reunion trends was not reliable and did not happen this time. It was the opposite. We expected 110 to show up but only 96 eventually came as there were a lot of last min cancellations. Thanks to Covid, some were still uncomfortable with big crowds. All the teachers who are now in the high-risk group sent their apologies, even though we had invited them to attend for free. Others were more cautious as they had a cough or flu this week. It was totally understandable.
We had a lot of leftover door gifts which we sought to sell away at the end of the evening in order to break even. We had guaranteed the venue a minimum of 100 persons for the dinner buffet. There were also other additional costs associated with the event, like door gifts and decorations. Luckily, we managed to just barely break even. Some had also kindly offered to top up more to help and we thank them for their offers which were eventually not needed.
Well, this reunion is a wrap now. We will update our database from the attendance forms filled to use for the next reunion. Hopefully, barring any unforeseen circumstances, we should be able to have another one in 4 years’ time as we celebrate our big figure change to our 60th in 2026.
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