Yet Another High School Reunion Update

Below is the most recent email that the Facebook group members received from the other organizer of the "official" reunion committee:


This is to serve as an announcement and an explanation!

In order to make things clear: any events listed on the invitation, have been canceled. All events with the name “Reunion”, “Class of 89”, “Banquet”, “Pre-Part”, “Cady’s”, “Post-Party”. “Put-Put Family Outing” and “20 Year Reunion” have been canceled due to liability issues.

Here is why…

Upon forming the committee, the committee learned that we would need a bank account to safely hold all money collected during the planning and execution of the weekend’s events. Upon opening the bank account for these events, we were required to provide Articles of Organization (The Articles of organization clearly states the names of the all individuals that are members in the committee). The Article of Organization was filed with the federal government for tax purposes as required by law, by the bank.

Next, the committee agreed on a weekend of events that would be planned by different people based on alumni input (this was an attempt to make everyone happy). The committee then created invitations outlining all of the events, and sent them to as many alumni as we could track down.

However upon not selling enough tickets, we are unable to host some (not all) of the events as advertised. Furthermore, we are unable to purchase the required liability insurance that is necessary to protect the named individuals on the Articles of Organization (and the reason for the cancellation).

You may ask yourself “why is there a need for insurance?” (I know I did).

Well the fact of the matter is; if anyone leaving one of the advertised events gets into an accident, the victim of this accident could sue the Class of 89 Reunion Committee (everyone named in the Articles of Organization) for liability as the host of the party. Simply, the law does not allow us to say “I do not want to be responsible”. Frankly, we must cover our liability.

This was not going to be an issue as we had planned to have insurance to cover this entire weekend. However as it stands we did not get the participation necessary to allow us the coverage. I have personally spoke to almost everyone listed on the articles of organization, and it is clear that none of us want to work the rest on our lives just to have to turn all of our pay over to an injured person.

Again be it known; all events advertised on the invitation sent out by the class of 89 reunion planning committee have been canceled.

This does not mean you/me/we cannot party, or go to a party. However it should be made clear to everyone that the committee is no longer planning or hosting any events.

Purely for liability reasons we simply cannot host a party with any of the names listed on the invitation (“Reunion”, “Class of 89”, “Banquet”, “Pre-Part”, “Cady’s”, “Post-Party”, “Put-Put Family Outing” and “20 Year Reunion”) without having insurance to protect us.

You may not like it, (I know I don't) but we live in a “sue happy” world and there is no way around the liability...NONE. If someone gets hurt leaving a party the host is always liable...ALWAYS.

Todd

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OK...I didn't have a formal wedding reception in a hotel banquet room but I've been to many that have had alcohol served so maybe there is something in the contract when you rent it but I've never heard of needing insurance just in case someone gets in an accident when leaving (although I'm assuming it might be similar to having a house party where one gets into an accident and the homeowner is liable).

This is still very amusing...but I am getting a slight headache from it now.