Introduction
A number of you are coming with a group of old friends and have specific requirements to try to be seated together for the dinner and, for those staying overnight, in an apartment with people you know. To try to organise this a bit we are introducing something called 'Friend Groups' to try and clarify what can be done in advance to make it more likely to happen. In simple terms the Friend Group can be any size but the tables will be limited to 10 people and the apartments to eight rooms (each functioning as a single or double room), so any groups that are bigger than this will get split up and YOU need to consider how the split may happen for the table seating and the rooms. Only those with tickets can be part of a group.
Each group will need to nominate a group leader to be the point of contact between the group and those doing the organising. We will publish the names of the group leaders on the website so if someone wants to be within a group they can make a request to the groups point of contact (and not the organisers). The points of contact should be happy to respond to any messages they get through the website from others who may wish to join the group and update their group list accordingly.
The groups will then be arranged across the tables (more details below) and any spare places on the table available for grabbing on the night. With the apartments then each apartment will get most of the rooms allocated in advance with gaps in each apartment filled with either smaller groups or individuals.
Most of this is going to get sorted by mid-August (because of other commitments after this date) so act quickly if you want to avoid the rush.
Table seating for the evening meal
There will be about 28 tables and most (if not all) will have 10 place settings / seats. By default we'll arrange for tables to be suggested for particular starting year groups / individuals so you should end up on a table with others from around the same era. Within this we will incorporate the Friend Groups based on the make-up of the group.
- If you are a group of 10 (all with tickets) and are quick enough with your booking then you'll get a table allocated to the group.
- For groups > 10, we'll allocate the 'leftovers' to an adjacent table
- For groups of >5 then you'll get a table with another small group or spare seats
- For groups < 5 then you will be on a table with other small groups or spare seats
- 'Spare seats' will be available for those who have not got a pre-allocated table to reserve a place when they collect their badge pack at the reunion.
At the reunion each table will have a sheet on it with the details of those allocated to the table and the number of spare places on it. Each Badge Pack will have a 'seating badge / 'Boog voucher' in it that can be used to self nominate yourself to one of the spare places on a table (most likely with those from a similar era).
Overnight Accommodation
This gets more complicated as each apartment can hold anywhere between 8 and 16 people depending on who has booked rooms for single and double accommodation. Within you friend group you need to take this into account when suggesting who to include. When more than eight rooms are needed for a group then we'll try to put the excess in an adjacent apartment but it is down to the group leader to say who is in the main group and who is in the overflow. Again you need the agreement of each person in a group to include them in your plans. The intention is to include the keys for each room in the badge packs for the reunion so room allocations will be done on a first come, first served basis and most of the allocating will be done during August - so if you have a preference get your booking done quickly.
Where there are 'spare rooms' in an apartment at the end of August we will allocate those who have not expressed a preference to those and will again try to put people with a specific year group.
What you need to do
Once you have your ticket / room booking start letting us know who is in your group - but YOU need to sort that out amongst yourselves. Some of you have already done this and there are already a number of groups we know about. But just to be sure please make sure to advise us of the groups and who is nominated to be the group leader. Send an email to:
You should copy the email to all the people on your list as confirmation that they know they've been included.
Ideally come up with a witty name for the group then summarises its 'pedigree / heritage / origin'. For those that don't have a name I'll make one up (but you may not like it!!)
At some point I'll try to figure out a way to include the group details on the website so that those not yet part of a group can get in touch with the team leader if they know some of the others in a group and would like to be included in it.
The plan will probably not work perfectly but it will have a greater chance of success that implementing chaos theory on the night!!