This is one of the busiest times every year for AFR on the hotel contracting side. We’ve made it past the holidays and the hangover of January, and now is the time most reunion chairs buckle down and get serious about this year’s reunion. Larger groups are already thinking about 2023 and beyond, and beginning to secure hotel contracts for a few years out.

If you haven’t narrowed down the cities you’re considering yet, that is your first step. Before you start to research hotels you want to narrow it down to no more than 3 cities. Otherwise, it may take months to find the right hotel for you. Even if you selected a certain city, there is still the long road ahead of researching, calling, and trying to negotiate with a bunch of hotels to see which ones will meet your “reunion-friendly” needs: free meeting space for the hospitality room along with the ability to provide your own snacks/beverages/alcohol, reasonable room rates and banquet prices, and many other concessions and discounts. If you’ve planned your reunion before, you know this is not an easy task. There aren’t more than 2 or 3 hotels in ANY city that will allow all of this, and quite a few cities have NO hotels that allow this.

Groups call us all the time after they’ve spent weeks, even months, trying to identify the right hotel for them. It can be a frustrating process going it alone, and even if you have local members to scout hotels, you still have no buying power with the hotels. After reaching out to AFR, you will likely have signed a hotel contract within a week or two with the best rates available and more concessions than you thought possible.

What if there was an “Easy Button” for identifying the most reunion-friendly cities and hotels? What if you could be connected directly with the hotels in any city nationwide that meet all the reunion-friendly requirements mentioned above? How much time would that save you? How many headaches?

AFR has booked thousands of reunion groups in over 150 cities for over 35 years. Over that time, we’ve developed amazing relationships and partnerships with hotels nationwide. We have trained them to appreciate veterans and the special needs of the reunion market, and they go out of their way to accommodate our groups’ needs. Hotels in our network accept AFR’s Military Reunion Hotel Contract that is Risk-Free and gains your group a long list of additional discounts and concessions.

Having Zero Risk in your hotel contract is more important in 2022 than it ever has been before. For many groups, it will be their first reunion since 2019 or maybe even 2018. If you met in 2021, there was probably a lot less attendees than in a normal year. So how many people do you expect in 2022?? Your guess is as good as ours. So to protect your association from costly penalties after the reunion, you really need to have no Room Attrition Clauses and no Food & Beverage Minimums in your hotel contract. It is very rare that a hotel will agree to this for groups that book on their own. Our hotel partners accept AFR’s contract terms knowing we’ll book multiple groups with them year after year.

Hit the “Easy Button” this year and head to http://www.bookmyreunion.com/top-destinations , click on the city you’re interested in, fill out the ‘Get A Proposal’ form and your information will be sent directly to AFR’s hotels partners in that city that offer Risk-Free contracts.

Navigating the challenges presented to reunion associations the last 2 years have been trying for many groups. The frustration of planning the same event twice to only have it cancel drove a lot of groups to simply not plan anything at all in 2021. It’s also disturbed the standard timing of annual or bi-annual reunions. Groups that meet in even years had to decide whether to plan a 2021 reunion to make up for 2020, or to just put it off until 2022. Others that meet in the fall have had to switch to meeting in the spring, and so on. This raises many challenges and questions that chairman and coordinators have not had to face in the past.

AFR has guided our groups through this trying time and ensured their interests are always put first. Almost all our groups held reunions this year, and with limited attendance due to Covid, our expertise in hotel contracting ensured they were protected against all risk. Our decades-long relationships with hotels across the nation got our groups out of tens of thousands of dollars in penalties and cancellation fees. Planning an event of any kind is a risky proposition in the current state of the market, and for a reunion association that relies on member contributions for the balance sheet simply cannot afford to pay penalties to hotels for not meeting the contract requirements.

Now more than ever, reunion groups need a professional on their side.

In 2022, all groups should expect great attendance. After all, most reunions have not met since 2018 or 2019! That’s a long time when your members are used to seeing each other every year or every other year. This will make next year’s reunions that much more special. However, planning for a reunion when you’re not sure what the attendance will be like is a challenging and risky task – but one that can be completed with confidence when you have an expert on your side like AFR.

The two biggest risk categories in a hotel contract are the room block attrition and the food & beverage minimum spend amount. It is extremely important to have no risk or as little risk as possible in the hotel contract when planning for your 2022 reunion. How do you achieve this? Hotels are not very motivated to give discounts and flexible performance clauses when you are a one-off piece of business to them, as reunion groups are. When AFR calls our hotel partners, they know exactly what our groups need, and we have negotiated discounts and flexible performance clauses that all AFR groups get to take advantage of. Buying Power is what will get you a risk-free hotel contract, and there is no other planner or company that even comes close to the Buying Power AFR represents in the military reunion market.

Call us today to talk about ideas for your 2022 reunion. Groups get the most out of AFR when we are involved from the very beginning question of: “Where should we go?” – we will guide you to a city where hotels are military and reunion-friendly and will give you a hospitality room that equals a successful reunion.

Don’t let the threat of Covid or travel restrictions deter you from planning your next reunion for your members; call AFR and get THE reunion experts in your corner to ensure you are protected against all risk and your “Back to Normal” 2022 reunion is the best one yet.

757-625-6401

charley@afri.com

Battleship Wisconsin and The Hampton Roads Naval Museum: 10,00 Day War at Sea

Berthed at Nauticus on Norfolk’s waterfront, the Battleship Wisconsin, one of the largest and last battleships ever built by the U.S. Navy, has long been open to the public as one of the nation’s finest naval museums. For years reunions groups of all branches have walked her decks. A tour onboard will take you back in time to experience this majestic ship that earned five battle stars during WWII.  Go below deck to explore previously sealed off areas of the Battleship, including the Captain’s cabin, Admiral’s cabin, Combat Engagement Center, Flag Bridge, navigation Bridge and Quartermaster’s space.  This fascinating tour takes visitors seven decks down in the depths of the Battleship Wisconsin, where they’ll learn exactly what was required to power this massive City at Sea.

The Wisconsin is also open for military ceremonies, such as your group’s memorial ceremony. There is no cost to hold ceremonies on the ship, which is open for them Wednesday through Friday between 10am and 1pm.

Inside Nauticus, you’ll find many maritime exhibits and the main attraction for reunions, The Hampton Roads Naval Museum.  The Naval Museum is located on level two and is owned and operated by the United States Navy. The museum houses a rich collection of authentic uniforms, weaponry, underwater artifacts, detailed ship models and artwork. If your group has been to Norfolk, chances are you’ve done this tour one or more times. So what’s new? This year, the museum opens a brand-new exhibit that will be a huge draw for all naval reunion groups, especially those that served in Vietnam. If your group has been to Norfolk a few times before and been on all the tours, this is something new your members would love to see. The Ten Thousand-Day War at Sea – The US Navy in Vietnam, 1950-1975 exhibit is now open to honor the sailors of Vietnam and the Navy’s contributions at sea, on land, and in the skies. Never before has there been such a dedicated effort to recognize and promote the legacy of the sailors in Vietnam.

AFR got our start bringing Navy ship reunions to our homeport of Norfolk, and for over 30 years we’ve guided groups to successful reunions here and /in over 150 cities nationwide. Get started on your next reunion in Norfolk by submitting your group’s information on BookMyReunion.com/visit-norfolk and our hotel partners that accept AFR’s Risk Free Military Reunion Hotel Contract for groups under 100 attendees will reach out directly to you in a couple of days. Is your group over 100 attendees? Give us a call today to learn about our full array of services!

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

Historically military reunion’s attendees have been of similar age, having served together during the same conflicts. Typically, the members that attend reunions are past retirement age and many groups see their attendance dwindle as their members age – no one is getting any younger! There’s been a large gap of time between conflicts that produced reunion-goers, Vietnam veterans have long been some of the most tight-knit groups. But between Vietnam and the Gulf Wars was a long time and even the Desert Storm veterans didn’t start holding reunions until recent years.

The young generation of veterans that served in Iraq and Afghanistan together are a totally different breed and are wanting to have reunions already even though most are in their 30s – early 40s and have full time careers. For the ones that deployed in the early 2000s, it’s been 20 years already! What’s the difference? They grew up with the internet and social media! These younger veterans are used to always being connected with those they care about and many already have Facebook groups for their units where they keep in touch with each other.

AFR gets calls from Iraq and Afghanistan veterans asking how to organize their own reunion group all the time. But guess what? Many of these veterans served in the same units that your reunions groups did in Vietnam or other conflicts.

There are indeed some reunion associations of units that are no longer active and wouldn’t have this group of younger veterans to tap into, but there are SO many reunion associations that have been around for decades and whose units have been active for 75 years or more, these have an enormous pool of young veterans that are potential new members and reunion goers.

Now is the time for reunion associations to decide: ‘should we dedicate ourselves to recruiting the next generation of veterans and ensure our association lives on forever?’ OR ‘should we keep meeting with just our guys as long as we still can then close up shop?’ – there is no wrong answer, but it is a decision that all groups are faced with.

So how can you get young veterans of the Middle East involved in your associations? Facebook would be the first place to start. Most active units and ships have Facebook pages that are run by the military and share the recent happenings with that unit or ship. The young generation that is not apart of a reunion association will follow these pages to keep involved and ‘in the know’ about their current or old unit. If your unit is still active, search for their Facebook page and get involved with it. Reach out to the administrators and ask to promote your reunion association on their page. Next would be getting the current command of your unit involved. Once you get a couple young veterans engaged it will become much easier.

When you do get a new veteran that is excited and engaged about your association, get them on your board or committee as soon as you can. They will bring a new energy and outlook to your leadership and will be able to led the charge in getting more young veterans involved.

This generation of Middle East veterans will be attending reunions in the very near future, whether that is by starting their own association or joining one of yours is up to you.