Alumni Association and the Office of Advancement & Alumni

CARDINAL SPELLMAN HIGH SCHOOL

Alumni Association and the Office of Advancement & Alumni

Reunion Guidelines 2017

Advancement & Alumni Office: (718) 547-4732 or

Alumni Association: Nick Mancini ‘10, President

The community of Cardinal Spellman High School (C.S.H.S.) welcomes you back to your alma mater! Congratulations on celebrating a class anniversary. We are very excited that you have offered to assist with your reunion and we want your reunion to be successful. With many years of experience in planning reunions, the Advancement & Alumni Office along with the Alumni Association created these guidelines to help you through the process . If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Advancement Alumni office (contact information is listed at the top of this page).

We are excited to continue the new Spellman reunion format. Now that Spellman is over 50 years old, it has become necessary to combine reunion celebrations. This is the standard practice of most high schools and colleges.

The 50th Anniversary and 25th Anniversary classes may have an individual event, either at Spellman or an outside venue. If outside venue, must abide by 50th/25th Reunion Guidelines. All other class reunions will be held at Spellman in a combined event. Classes are welcome to host their own event (many do, using social media to promote) but Spellman cannot legally provide any contact information or share class data.

There are many positives to this new approach.

•  No threat of cancellation

•  Increased Faculty attendance

•  Tours of the School

•  Group pictures in gym

•  Professional Photographer (with free access to download pictures on website)

•  Photo Booth & Step and Repeat backdrop

•  Less work for committees, we do all of the coordinating of vendors

•  Better price per person with larger groups

We still approach your reunion as an individual event:

•  Each class will have a separate area for cocktail hour

•  Each class will have their own check-in table

•  Each class has their own nametags

•  Committees may still design their Save-the Date and Invitation or Spellman can assist you with the layout. All mailing will be done by the Alumni Office.

•  Email blasts can be sent to your classmates by the Alumni office.

•  All payments will be collected by Alumni Office—credit card, debit, check

•  All classes receive their own web page on the Spellman website for online registration

Reunion Dates:

Friday, November 17, 2017

1997- 20th

2002-15th

2007-10th

2012-5th

Saturday, November 18, 2017

1972-45th

1977-40th

1982-35th

1987-30th

Reunion Agenda

•  Mass

•  Separate Cocktail Hour

•  Group Picture in gym

•  Group Tours

•  “Strolling Supper” and Dancing

The Advancement & Alumni Office will work closely with you in the planning and notification stages of your reunion. Here we have outlined the tasks, guidelines, and services necessary to make your reunion a success.

1.  Form a Committee

The Alumni Association will contact all classmates with a preliminary email to begin the committee formation process. Anyone interested in assisting with the planning should notify the alumni office.

Reunion Committee members are volunteers for their class' event and will receive no monetary compensation for their time and efforts.

General Reunion Information:

•  Volunteers from the Alumni Association will be present at the reunion to help coordinate the check-in/registration process.

•  The Alumni Office will collect all registration fees from attendees as well as pay vendor bills.

•  Committee members will be reimbursed for all approved expenses (i.e. decorations, invitations) through the Alumni Advancement Office. Reimbursements will be issued either prior to or following your reunion. All reimbursement requests must include original receipts and purpose for which the items were purchased.

•  Raffles or auctions held at reunions must be for the benefit of the school (your class gift). You may choose where this class gift benefits ie certain programs, scholarships, or for a specific item—computers, smart boards, musical instruments.

•  Attendees should register and pay for the reunion in advance. Payments at the door, while not encouraged, will be accepted.

•  Cash, check and credit card payments are accepted at the door.

Reunions held at Spellman:

•  Since Spellman is a tax exempt organization, you will not be charged tax by vendors.

•  Cardinal Spellman students provide nostalgic guided tours through the building to reunion attendees.

•  Parking is available in the school lot; all entry is made through the Bronze Doors.

•  Since there is no fee to use Spellman as the venue, events held at the school are the most cost efficient reunions. Therefore, ticket prices are generally lower and many more of your classmates are able to attend.

•  A sales table of Spellman merchandise will be available in the hallway during the reunion. i.e.-sweatshirts, t-shirts, caps, etc.

•  Committees are welcome to borrow our A/V equipment (Flat-screen TV with DVD player, projectors and screens) to play a slide show of photos from your years at Spellman during the cocktail hour. We require your request at least two weeks prior to the reunion.

Support Services provided by the Advancement Alumni Office and Alumni Association:

•  Postal mailings (Save-the-Date Invitation) and email blasts will be sent through the school. Postage will be deducted from the collected fees.

o  Save-the-Date and Invitations can be designed by the committee members and submitted to the Advancement Alumni office for approval and mailing. The Advancement Alumni Office can provide template/sample invitations that were used by past reunions. Design submissions should be in Microsoft Word Document format.

o  The Advancement & Alumni Office will also send out email blasts to your class. You may submit wording and images for the email or we can provide a template.

•  Class lists can be provided to committee members for purposes of encouraging enthusiasm and attendance through phone calls and emails. Full addresses are not released to the committee. Any new classmate information should be relayed to the Advancement & Alumni Office to update the database for future mailings. You can also direct classmates to update their information via the alumni website online directory. www.cardinalspellman.org/alumni

•  Response lists and reunion fees will be tracked and collected by the Advancement Alumni Office. Updates on the attendance list can be obtained by calling or emailing the Advancement & Alumni Office.

•  An online registration form will be set up on the reunion page at

www .cardinalspellman.org/alumni , providing alumni with a convenient registration process as well as a visible attendee list.

•  All reunion information will be available on the Spellman website as well as published in the Spellman News.

•  Current and former faculty may be invited at no cost to them. Please let us know and we will forward the invitation to any faculty member you request.

•  Mass will be said in the school Chapel prior to the Saturday reunion.

Photos of the amazing transformation of Spellman into lounge/bar areas