How To Plan A Military Reunion

How to Plan a Military Reunion: A Step-by-Step Guide for a Meaningful Event

Planning a military reunion is more than organizing a normal event—it’s about reconnecting with those who served alongside you, recounting shared experiences, honoring your fallen, and creating lasting memories. Whether you’re reuniting a battalion, ship crew, squadron, or basic class, here’s a practical guide to help you plan a successful and meaningful reunion that will kick-start your group for years to come.

1. Start Early—At Least 12–18 Months Out

Military reunions take time to coordinate, especially when attendees are coming from all over the country or abroad. The following are the most important areas of focus that this guide will dive into:

  • Research Locations & Venues: In many cities hotels will start to sell out of their event space two years in advance. If you are planning on having your reunion around a specific date like an anniversary or deployment date, it’s even more important to start early and secure your preferred dates. Have you already selected a location? Check out BookMyReunion.com for reunion-friendly city suggestions. Don’t lock yourself into a box too early on. Avoid publishing a location or set of dates to your group before doing your research to make sure it’s viable.

  • Pick a Date That Works for Most People: Are your attendees still working full time? Do most people have children in school? There are many factors that play into choosing the right timeframe to have your reunion. Unknowingly choosing a date that disqualifies people from attending will have a big impact on the success of your reunion. Younger groups with working parents might want to keep the reunion short over a weekend in the summer to avoid the hectic school-year activities.

  • Organize Outreach: Do you have a central online community like a Facebook page or email list? Getting the word out early is a huge factor in driving attendance. Everyone has busy lives and pre-planned commitments, you need to allow your people ample time to set aside your dates. Early and often communication is key to your success. Keep constant communications to update your group on the progress of your planning and to get them excited about pulling the trigger to sign up once the time comes.

  • Plan a Fundraising Strategy: For the most part reunions are funded and paid for by the attendees, but there are always miscellaneous costs that come with planning an event. What if the hotel requires a deposit? Will you have a hospitality room that you provide drinks and snacks in? Further than that, you may have special attendees you want to off-set costs for like Gold Star Family members and those that couldn’t otherwise attend.

The more lead time, the more people will be able to attend.

2. Assemble a Planning Committee

Like everything in the military, this is a team effort. You’ll need help handling the details, so form a reliable team early. Delegate specific responsibilities:

  • Reunion Coordinator/Chairman: This is your team lead. Oversees the planning timeline, gets quotes, books venues, and keeps the team on track.

  • Budget & Fundraising Manager: Manages costs, tracks expenses, sets ticket prices, and drives the fundraising effort.

  • Communications Lead: Creates a touch-point cadence to keep your group informed and excited, sends out invitations, handles RSVPs, and manages the reunion website or social media pages.

  • Logistics Manager: Manages hotel room blocks, meal numbers, vendor due dates, transportation, and accessibility needs.

  • Programming Director: Plans the event schedule, secures guest speakers, organizes memorial services or special tours.

Choose people who are committed and ideally have a mix of organizational skills, leadership, and availability. Availability can’t be stressed enough. Choose people that have the time and drive to dedicate to this. It is easy to underestimate the time and effort you need to pull off a successful reunion. Schedule regular calls with your committee to stay on track.

3. Create a Community

Your reunion attendance will only be as strong as your outreach and the community you create. Start building a contact list using:

  • Veteran Social Media Groups: Especially Facebook groups for your unit, ship, or branch. If your unit is still active and has a social presence, that can be a starting point for your own page.

  • Online Platforms like Together We Served: This can be helpful to identify veterans you’re not already connected with via other channels. A login is required and information may be limited.

  • Word of Mouth: This is by far your strongest method for creating a buzz around your reunion. Call every person you have in your phone that served with you. Tell them to do the same, like everything in the modern world, word spreads quickly.

Be sure to stay organized. In addition to building an online community, start and keep a contact list so you can begin to form a membership database that will drive your communication and fundraising efforts later on. Collect names, phone numbers, emails, place of residence, dates served in your unit, MOS/specialty. If you’re forming a group for a larger unit like a battalion, then ask what company and even what platoon they served in. If you’re forming a ship crew reunion, what departments and divisions were they assigned to? You will find for larger groups that smaller units within your group will naturally stick together during your reunion.

4. Choose a Location That Makes Sense

Location can make or break attendance. When selecting where to host your reunion, consider:

  • Proximity to Major Airports: After service everyone heads in their own directions. Your fellow veterans are probably scattered all over the country, most people will be flying to the reunion. There’s a temptation to go to a remote ranch or campsite, but how many people can really get there conveniently? To maximize your attendance you need to make it easy for people to attend.

  • Significance to Your Unit: Was your unit station stateside near a major city and airport? Or at least within striking distance of one? When in doubt, Washington DC is always a good choice. Even for reunion groups that meet every year in different cities, they typically have better attendance when going to DC.

  • Affordability: Every destination is different. They all have different peak seasons and major events to avoid. This is where consulting a professional is helpful. You don’t want to meet in DC in late September or October, or summertime in Charleston, etc. If hotel rates are too high, you’re excluding some people from being able to attend.

  • Activities: Obviously the main purpose of your reunion is to reconnect with each other. But what else will you do during the reunion? Is there a base nearby to visit, interesting military museums, or family-friendly attractions? Selecting a reunion location is a balance between minimizing costs while not leaving yourself in a desert with nothing to do.

The location is perhaps the single most important decision you will make when planning your reunion.

5. Budget Wisely

Both for the individual cost per person and for your group’s budget. Especially if this is your unit’s first reunion – Keep It Simple!

  • Hotel Costs: This includes the individual sleeping rooms, a hospitality suite, and event rooms for your banquet and things like memorial services. Hotels can give off a “take it or leave it” feeling but make no mistake – everything is negotiable! Get multiple quotes to compare and create competition between hotels for your business. Beware of performance clauses in hotel contracts that create a financial risk for you, the last thing you want is to end up with a penalty owed to the hotel. You should strongly consider getting professional help for your hotel contract.

  • Catering: You will want to negotiate catering pricing for your banquet before you sign a hotel contract. Hotels have standard menus that in many cases are too expensive, but they are almost always willing to create custom menus for you. You don’t want to have a $70-100/person banquet! Also, will you have any off-site catered events like a barbeque on base or somewhere else? Be mindful of rental fees and materials you may need for this, and include that in your budgeting from the start.

  • Transportation: Having a hotel close to the airport with a shuttle to/from is helpful for attendees. Will you be planning any group trips to a nearby base, museum, or attraction? You’ll want to strongly consider providing motorcoach bus transportation. It can be chaotic to leave the transportation for a large group of people up to carpooling. You’ll either need to build this cost into your fundraising effort or the ticket price you charge attendees.

  • Registration Materials: Name badges, programs/schedules, welcome packets, T-shirts, or challenge coins. These add legitimacy to your event and make the attendees feel that much more special when they arrive. At the very least you’ll want name badges. A good tip is to ask for things like company, platoon, division, or years of service when people sign up so you can include that on the name badges. If you’re having a plated meal at the hotel with different entrees, you’ll need meal tickets as well.

  • Audio/Visual Needs: Think about your events in the hotel – memorial service, banquet, etc. You’ll need a microphone at the very least, maybe a projector screen for slideshows and videos. AV is a huge cost item in hotels, make sure you plan and budget for it.

  • Contingency Fund: “No plan survives the first contact with the enemy.”

Take the necessary time and steps to plan out your registration costs so you’re not stuck with a loss someone has to cover at the end. If you can, build in a few dollars to your registration fee above what you think the costs will be. It’s good to have a cushion for contingencies in case, and if you don’t need it then you have a jump start on your next reunion fund.

6. Planning Your Agenda

A meaningful reunion goes beyond a dinner—it celebrates the people and the experiences that bonded you. You don’t want to overcrowd the agenda, but consider the following activities:

  • Hospitality Room: This should be the center of your reunion. It’s ideal to have a meeting room in the hotel for the duration of your reunion. Have the hotel set it up with round tables for seating and some tables on the perimeter of the room for memorabilia, drinks, snacks, t-shirts, etc. Whenever there is no group activity or meal happening, gather everyone in the hospitality room, this is where the real bonds are renewed and formed.

  • Welcome Reception: A casual meet-and-greet on the arrival day, with light snacks and drinks to kick off the event. This is best held at the host hotel so people don’t have to go anywhere after they just arrived.

  • Memorial Ceremony: A solemn tribute to fallen comrades, possibly with a candle-lighting, roll call, or flag-folding ceremony. If you’re having your reunion by a base and you are granted access, that is a great place to have your memorial service. If not, having it at the hotel is a close second.

  • Banquet dinner: The main event—typically semi-formal with a keynote speaker, toasts, and awards or recognitions.

  • Group Tours/Excursions: Trips to military museums, local attractions, memorials, battlefields, or current military bases if you’re granted access. You’ll want to keep excursions simple when you’re starting out. A simple trip from point A to B is just fine, as your reunion grows and matures then so will your tours into more detailed itineraries.

  • Free Time & Family Activities: Give attendees free time to explore the area or relax, especially if families are attending. Each evening attendees should be encouraged to gather in the hospitality room to have a place to tell stories and share experiences without distractions.

Build in flexibility so people don’t feel overwhelmed. Provide printed and digital schedules in advance and on-site. Keep it simple, and don’t over-plan. It’s easy to get carried away when planning an event like this, and end up with a jam-packed agenda. But remember the main purpose of your reunion – to reconnect with the people you served next to. It’s about renewing old bonds and forming new ones. And you don’t need an expensive weekend full of activities to do that.

7. Handle the Logistics

Smooth logistics make a reunion enjoyable for not only the attendees, but you as the chairman and planning committee. The biggest complaint from reunion coordinators is they never had time to enjoy the reunion themselves! Stay on top of:

  • Registration Process: Offer both online and mail-in options. Collect payment, meal choices, emergency contact info, and accessibility needs. Set cancellation policies in advance and communicate that with your attendees upfront.

  • Name Badges: Have a plan for how you will produce name badges and have them ready when people arrive. Include name, rank, years of service, unit, and possibly a photo. Purchasing lanyards is one of the miscellaneous costs to consider in your budget.

  • Hospitality Room: If you’ll be providing your own snacks and refreshments in the hospitality room, you’ll need to assign someone or get volunteers to manage the purchasing and stocking of the room. Memorabilia is other key component of the hospitality room, think about who has items like this and organize this well in advance.

  • Transportation Coordination: Make sure you have accessible points of contact with bus companies you’re using for group transportation. Confirm the details with them often and make sure they provide the bus driver the correct timing and itinerary.

  • Hotel Events Manager: When you arrive to the hotel, make sure you have the direct contact information for the person that will be onsite during your event so you can address any issues with them quickly. The person you work with leading up to the event often is not the same person you deal with onsite.

Create a reunion binder with vendor contracts, contact lists, permits, and schedules to keep everything organized during the event. Make sure you have your registration materials (name badges, tickets, programs) organized in advance so when attendees arrive their check-in process is smooth and sets the tone for a great weekend.

8. Keep the Momentum Going

Use the momentum from your first reunion to strengthen ties and build excitement for your next reunion. You can plant the seeds of your next reunion while at your first by:

  • Creating a Group Photo Album: Create a shared album online and encourage all the attendees to upload their photos to it during or after the reunion. Take group photos whenever you can and capture some special moments from the hospitality room.

  • Record Oral Histories: You can set up a quiet room where veterans can record short videos about their service. There are a few organizations that record veterans’ stories for historical purposes, and they can be shared with families.

  • Start and Build Your Contact List: Use the registration information from your first reunion to start a membership database as a primary contact list for all things reunions.

  • Send a Yearly Newsletter: Share life updates, reunion recaps, and upcoming veteran events in local areas where you have members. Encourage smaller local gatherings of veterans in between your main reunions.

  • Start Planning the Next Reunion: Don’t wait to start planning your next reunion, capitalize on the excitement while at your first one. Talk about possible locations for the next and get more volunteers for the next committee.

  • Form a Nonprofit or Association: Especially if you plan to continue reunions regularly or want to preserve your group’s legacy through scholarships, donations, or memorial work. You can fairly easily set up a 501 non-profit association with the IRS to make your group more “official”.

Final Thoughts

A military reunion is a celebration of service, brotherhood, honoring of the fallen, and the unique experiences that forged lifelong bonds. While the planning may seem overwhelming at first, the reward of bringing people back together, sometimes after decades, makes every bit of effort worth it. And you don’t have to take on the task alone. Form your committee, delegate tasks, and don’t be afraid to seek professional help. At Armed Forces Reunions, we have nearly 40 years of experience planning and executing successful reunions. We were the first company started with the sole purpose of reconnecting veterans via reunions and we have been the leaders ever since. Generations of veterans have counted on our team to deliver and make the planning process and reunion onsite an enjoyable experience for the committee members and chairman. We look forward to serving the current generation of veterans and future generations to come.

Honor the past. Celebrate the present. Keep the connections alive.

Give us a call today to talk about your ideas, learn more about planning a successful reunion, and to find out how AFR can help get you to mission success.

 

Charley Dey | 757-625-6401 | charley@afri.com