School bells are chiming, the leaves are falling and summer vacations are now warm, fuzzy memories. Soon, Halloween, Thanksgiving and the December holidays will be upon us before you can say, Happy New Year!

Begin planning that reunion you have been thinking about all summer. Be it class, family or another group wanting to reunite, let's make the most of your early planning opportunities. Our book and software The Reunion Planner, How to Make Your Reunion a Social and Financial Success will help you through the planning process. To get you started, we have outlined some basic steps and listed the page number that has all the details as described in the book.

1. Establish your committee. Page 19 Write up committee member's to-do lists. Collect seed money from committee members.
2. Choose the date, Page 29, commonly held June through September. Pick a location, Page 31, go to venues and prepare a list of questions to ask the Catering Managers.
3. Search for alumni, Page 46. Check Internet sites, local telephone directories, past reunion lists, personal contacts and former high school reunion committees.
4. Create and send interesting announcements, Page 77. Include the date, place, time and all planned reunion activities. Use your high school logo and colors on the invitation.
5. Refer to the checklist on Page 49 for all the tasks needed to organize a reunion. Classmates.com has featured a condensed version of our checklist on their website.
6. Check out the many planning tools right here on this website. The book: The Reunion Planner. The Step-by-Step Guide Designed to Make Your Reunion a Social and Financial Success! The accompanying (or sold alone) software program makes organizing all of your data very easy.
7. Consider ordering custom-designed alumni pictured souvenir buttons. While there are many websites that offer these services, be sure to compare them with our button prices. We also have pens and banner (to welcome everyone to the reunion). This sturdy vinyl banner can be kept for all future reunions.

This will get you started. Check back soon for the next phase in your reunion plan that will help make your reunion a success.