Set Up Furniture

The first part of setting up for a family reunion is to define the space or spaces in which it will occur. You usually do it by choosing rooms or other locations--indoors or outdoors--where you'll hold the reunion. You clean them and put up signs to show what and where they are. Then you set up furniture to show what will happen there.

The types of furniture used and the way it is set up tells people what will happen in a space. If you fill a space with a bed, people expect to sleep or make love. If you fill it with desks and dividers they expect to do paperwork. If you fill it with a table and chairs, they expect to eat food or hold a meeting. Your job is to make sure that the proper furniture is set up to accomplish your goals for your family reunion.

You don't have to set up the furniture yourself, of course. If you're holding the reunion at a hotel or resort, its staff will do it for you if you notify them what you want. You can talk other family members into setting up furnishings. You can hire people to do it. Or you can do it yourself, perhaps with your spouse or children.

Nonetheless, your first step is to define the spaces where your family will meet, probably using tables or chairs. So decide what the family will do when it arrives--perhaps register or take off coats and boots or whatever. Then pick a room or space where it will take place. Make sure it's clean. Get furniture from where it's stored. Set it up to signal to people what they're supposed to do. Repeat the procedure for each area.

If your family reunion lasts longer than an afternoon, you'll probably have to change the furniture set up one or more times.