The twenty-year reunion
The development office is running a twenty-year reunion lunch. Invitations go to leavers from that year and the year either side. Bookings come in by email, some with partners, some asking to sit with particular friends, some paying by transfer with no reference. One former pupil books three times by accident. Dietary needs are in email threads. The day before, the table plan is built by hand, and name badges are printed from the spreadsheet with two names spelled wrong.
Afterwards, nobody records who attended on the alumni records, so next year's invitation list does not know who came.
Events are run outside the alumni records
Events are organised with generic tools: an email campaign, a spreadsheet, a bank account and perhaps a ticketing site. None of them are linked to the alumni records, so each event starts from scratch and leaves nothing behind.
- Invitation lists are built by hand from leaving years.
- Bookings arrive by email and ticketing sites.
- Payments are matched by hand.
- Dietary needs and seating requests are in email threads.
- Attendance is not recorded on alumni records.
What disconnected events cost
Development office time on logistics rather than conversations. Payment mismatches and duplicate bookings. Guests who arrive to find their dietary needs were missed. And, most importantly, no record of who engaged with the school, which is exactly the information a development office needs.
The calendar makes it worse. A busy development office might run a London drinks evening, two or three year-group reunions, a sports day for old boys and girls, a careers evening where alumni talk to the sixth form and a carol service with an invitation list of its own. Each is a separate spreadsheet built from scratch, each needs the same details from the same people, and each is forgotten once the event is over.
There are also the small courtesies that matter at a reunion: seating a former pupil with the friends they asked for, knowing that a retired member of staff is coming so their old tutees can be told, remembering the guest who uses a wheelchair and needs the ground floor room. Held in an email thread, they are easily missed.
Alumni event booking we build
- Invitation lists are drawn from the alumni records by leaving year, house or interest, respecting each person's contact preferences.
- Invitees book online with their guests, dietary needs, access requirements and seating requests, and pay by card.
- Duplicate bookings are detected, and bank transfers are matched against bookings.
- The development office sees one guest list with payments, dietary needs and requests.
- A table plan is produced from seating requests for staff to adjust, and name badges and catering lists are printed from the same data.
- Attendance is recorded on the day by check-in, and written back to each alumni record.
| Task | Before | With event booking |
|---|---|---|
| Invitation list | Built by hand | Drawn from alumni records |
| Bookings and payment | Email and bank transfers | Online with card payment |
| Dietary needs | In email threads | On each booking |
| Table plan | Built by hand | Proposed from requests |
| Attendance | Not recorded | Written to alumni records |
Events that build your records
Booking takes a few minutes for guests, and the development office sees a clean guest list with everything needed. Name badges are correct. Catering has accurate numbers and dietary needs. After the event, each alumni record shows who came, which shapes future invitations and conversations.
Over time, the pattern of attendance across events shows which alumni are most engaged, which is exactly what a development office needs to know when planning its next appeal.
On a normal week before a reunion, the development officer opens the guest list on Monday and sees sixty-two bookings, four unpaid transfers already matched, and one duplicate booking flagged and merged. Nine guests have dietary notes, which go to catering with final numbers on Wednesday. The table plan is proposed from seating requests, and she moves two people to sit with their old housemaster. Badges print on Thursday, spelled as the guests typed their own names.
Is this how your reunions run?
- Reunion bookings are managed in a spreadsheet.
- Payments are matched by hand.
- Dietary needs are in email threads.
- Table plans and badges are made from scratch each time.
- Attendance is not recorded on alumni records.