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2004 Reunion Support CommitteesDuring the Sons & Daughters Group (SDG) official start-up at the 6th Marine Division’s 2003 Reunion, we voted to use the 2004 Reunion as our "proving ground" to convince some of the more skeptical Marines that the SDG was a viable force! We pledged to provide volunteer expertise and grunt work to help plan and execute the reunion. In addition to proving our viability and helping with the workload, our goal was to make the reunion more fun, less stressful to Division attendees. The big event is scheduled for 26 Sep- 2 Oct 04 in Nashville TN. Susan Parham, Operations Officer of the SDG, is the reunion's co-chairman along with Division member Claud Wilkins--who also just happens to be the Division’s Chaplain. Team Tennessee has planned a splendid reunion, with something available for every taste. Susan, Claud, and Team TN would appreciate our help in planning and executing this reunion--and it will go a long way towards winning the hearts and minds of the Division, as well. Please review the various committees listed under this reunion committees tab. Let us know if you can support remotely or online prior to the reunion (i.e., helping compile and print programs for the Memorial Service and Banquet), and/or if you can attend the reunion and support in TN during Sep/Oct. Here are Susan and Claud’s email addresses: Susan’s: separham@earthlink.net; Claud’s: ao-tuit@webtv.net. Susan and Claud will coordinate committee membership and responsibilities and ensure that all volunteers are integrated into Team TN! 1. REGISTRATION COMMITTEE. Susan is personally handling many aspects of advance registration. However, I’m sure she has many areas in which she’d enjoy your assistance. Please contact her if you would like to help out. At the reunion, this committee’s focus is operating the registration tables. At the registration area, Marines, associate members, and guests are welcomed heartily and receive their first taste of how the reunion will be run. Here, they sign in, receive any updates to the published event schedule, pick up nametags, and are issued tickets for the banquet, ladies luncheon, and/or scheduled events. As they check in, attendees are reminded again of the discounts the hotel is offering to the Division, and each couple receives a welcoming bag of goodies. The Marines always want to know a few things right up front when they arrive. Usually, first and foremost, they want to know the location of the Division hospitality room and its hours of operation! Next, they want specifics on eating facilities within/nearby the hotel (important issues to this generation, trust me. Some are diabetics and need to have food readily available; others have limited mobility and can’t leave the hotel; and others want to find the best steak house in town). Finally, many of the Marines bring items for the Arts/Crafts Bazaar, and they want to know where they can drop them! In addition to these issues, there are loads of questions about available tours, shopping malls, scheduled events, meeting places, and modes of transportation. There are always a million questions on the banquet and seating; anxious Marines wanting extra tickets for the banquet (as well as other events); and people who want to start the banquet seating charts on the spot so they can be assured of a place with their best buddies. The registration table is not only a very important "first stop," it is also the first impression everyone takes away of the Division and the reunion team. We want to ensure that everyone has a clear understanding of the reunion and the hotel layout before they depart that desk. Importantly, we want them to know where to get the answers to any questions/needs that arise after they head off to their rooms. The registration table is open daily during the reunion, usually from about 0900-1700.
Support Needed: Team TN would love to have outgoing, cheerful, patient Sons and Daughters to help man the registration tables and ensure that every attendee’s first exposure to the 2004 reunion is favorable. The more S/Ds that volunteer, the fewer hours any one S/D or Team TN member has to work! This is a great example of teamwork; and if you can help out for even a few hours that would be wonderful. 2. INFORMATION BOOTH. In association with the registration desk, we want to have an information booth manned with representatives who can handle "issues" for the Marines. (e.g., where to get wheel chairs; how to get an extra room, more banquet or event tickets, additional Ladies’ Luncheon tickets; where to find the best shopping mall; how to catch a bus; etc...). Too often, the registration table personnel are deeply involved in registering guests and can't handle the myriad questions posed by the Marines. So, the information booth is designed to address some of the more non-standard issues/requests that arise after registration or as the reunion progresses! Support Needed. Outgoing, cheerful, patient Sons and Daughters to help man the information desk and ensure that Marines/their guests have situational awareness at all times and answers to their questions. The goal of this support is to reduce the stress level on any of the attending Marines. Hopefully, if attendees are able to funnel queries or worries to the information desk volunteers, then Team TN can quickly address them before anything becomes an issue. 3. HOSPITALITY ROOM COMMITTEE. The hospitality room (HR)is a gathering place before/after (even during!) scheduled events, or anytime you want to mingle. Some people hardly ever leave it for various reasons (health, mobility, bonding). Morning coffee & donuts are normally served in the hospitality room as well. A poorly planned/run HR can put a blithe on any reunion. If the room is too small, too hot; the drinks too expensive; the hours unrealistic; or God forbid, the HR has to relocate for some reason--then a reunion is doomed! So Team TN has worked very hard to ensure none of the above occur (smile). Support Needed. Susan and Team TN will want support with ensuring a smooth offering of the traditional AM Coffee and Donuts. This includes ensuring there is enough of everything, to include tea, decaf, condiments, etc. as well as LOTS of coffee. And of course, volunteers on this committee can help with set-up, stocking, running of the bar during its hours of operations. Sometimes the Marines serve as their own bartenders (if permitted by the hotel); sometime hotel bartenders must be used--so we’ll have to wait and see what Claud and Susan have worked out on that issue. Also, since we plan to run the Ladies Auxiliary’s Arts/Crafts Bazaar in the hospitality room, the HR committee will coordinate extensively with the Bazaar committee. 4. MEMORIAL SERVICE COMMITTEE. The memorial service will be held within the hotel. Speakers, pastors, and presentation of Colors are included in the service. The culmination is the reading of the Taps list, which includes all those Division members deceased since the last reunion. Team TN is planning the service, but will need support with several aspects. Support Needed. We would like volunteers to help with formatting/producing memorial service brochures. Anyone with computer skills, those of you who can work those exotic printshop programs, or those who could get the Marines a super inexpensive (or cost free) deal on printing several hundred brochures--please consider volunteering for this committee. In addition, on the day of the service, coordination and help are always needed to make all the pieces come together. 5. TOURS COMMITTEE. There are several scheduled events planned during the reunion to include a City Tour via bus and an evening at the Grand Old Opry. The Marines always need help during the tours to ensure that all participants are: assembled in the right place at the right time; understand why there is a delay and what is being done to fix it; helped on and off busses as needed. At the actual event site, it would be great to have a S/D support team to help the Marines easily locate designated seating; coordinate on any crises that arise; maintain accurate head counts; and bring them all back to the hotel in one piece. Rather than have the Marines worry about all this, we’d like to see a tour support team handle these aspects.
Support Needed. We want to designate S/D volunteers to be quasi-concierges on each tour to help the activity go smoothly and allow the Marines to relax and enjoy these events. This should be a popular committee, since many S/Ds traveling to the reunion will be on the tours with parents. So please contact Team TN if you’d like to help with this one.
6. BANQUET COMMITTEE. The banquet on Saturday is the reunion’s grand finale. We want this culminating event of a week of fun to be the final success story for Reunion 2004. Team TN has already planned closely with the hotel on issues such as the room and menu. Susan is working on a band for entertainment. We have a guest speaker, MajGen Jerry Humble, USMC (Ret.), Director, State of Tennessee, Office of Homeland Security. However, there is much that the SDG can still assist with. Some subcommittees that come to mind are listed below: - Program Development. Team TN needs help with formatting and publishing banquet program brochures. - Banquet Room Set-up and Place Settings. The afternoon of the banquet we need volunteers to do the final check-off with the banquet director to ensure key set up details: flags are posted appropriately, podium is where we want it and microphones are fully tested/operational ahead of time; banquet tables are numbered and placed in the same position in which they appear on the posted seating chart (!); USMC table decorations (selected in advance) adorn each banquet table; place cards on each table correspond exactly to those listed on the seating chart; small table is positioned near the podium to hold raffle items that will be presented during the ticket drawing; head server briefed that no food (to include salads, bread or anything) will be placed on any table until after the Guest of Honor has delivered his speech; etc. All the little details that make or break a banquet…. - Guest of honor. Although the guest speaker has already accepted, we’ll continue to need support for his arrival, stay, departure,etc. We’ll need to determine any special requirements to support delivery of his keynote banquet speech (projector?), get his picture and bio for the program, etc. - Entertainment. A band is traditional at these banquets and Susan is working on its procurement. The afternoon of the banquet, we will need SD volunteers to link up with the band when it arrives, and direct them to the right area for set-up; ensure the band tests the hotel sound system/tunes up prior to the start of the banquet; and arrange meals (coordinated in advance by Team TN) for band members. - Marine Color Guard. Team TN will procure a Marine Color guard for the ceremony. S/D volunteers can help Team TN on support requirements such as advance rehearsals and determining which color guard members are attending the banquet, what they are ordering, and where they are going to sit. Note, it is important to determine, in advance, if the Marine guards plan to join the banquet and if they plan to bring a spouse! (last minute RSVP will upset the seating arrangement, to say nothing of dinner orders with the hotel). - Seating Chart. The seating arrangement is one of the most critical elements of the banquet. I know members who refuse to attend the banquets ever again because of bad experiences they have had regarding seating plans! Detail-oriented volunteers on this committee are critical. Depending on what Susan and Claud have planned, the seating chart for the Banquet is usually maintained at the registration tables or perhaps, more conveniently, it could be maintained at the information booth or in the hospitality room. Volunteers for this committee will work closely with the banquet manager, hotel set-up staff, and the Division’s registration team to determine exact numbers of attendees and seating preferences. I have an entire Standard Operating Procedure on the seating chart development and arrangement, so rather than post it here, I’ll pass it to Susan and Claud for their chop-- whomever is on the committee can implement it. 7. 6thMarDiv Ladies Auxiliary Arts, Crafts, and White Elephant Bazaar. This annual bazaar draws an array of eclectic items for sale. The Ladies Auxiliary donates a major portion of the profits back into the Division’s General Fund. Many unique items, such as the famous handmade canes one Marine brought last year, go in minutes! We’d like to continue expanding the scope of the bazaar and contribute substantially in helping the ladies run it. You can bring anything to sell--just be aware that all profits go to the Division or Auxiliary. During the week, we sell raffle tickets on high-end items; the raffle drawings occur at the Saturday banquet (one need not be there to win). Support needed. a. Take a look around you and see what you can bring to support the bazaar. If you work for a retail company, perhaps that company would like to donate a gift certificate or item for the bazaar (all proceeds to the 6th Marine Division); if you are good at creating arts, crafts, woodwork items, please consider making/donating some for the bazaar; and if you have some neat "white elephant" items, consider bringing them, as well. b. Importantly, we really need help manning the bazaar tables during the reunion. This includes pricing the items as they come in and serving as sales representatives for a few hours. It’s really exciting, because you get to meet everyone as they either drop off their sale items, look for purchases, buy raffle tickets on the high-end items, or just stop to chat! Currently, we plan to stage the bazaar in the hospitality room so we can tap into a ready customer base as well as able staff! This would allow S/Ds who bring parents that have special care needs to "settle" them in the hospitality room with their buddies, yet still allow S/Ds to help man tables, meet the Marines, and bond with other S/Ds. If you are interested, please contact me for the details.
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