I have, due to some congenital brain damage that was evidently overlooked at birth, allowed myself to be volunteered onto my high school class' 50th reunion planning committee. None of you know much about me as a teen, so picture the strange introvert who did not attend sporting events or pep rallies except under duress, who did not participate in any organized activities except the literary club, and who preferred anonymity whenever possible now serving as event planner to the popular and successful. God help us all.
My idea of a school reunion was casual dress, a bunch of tables, a radio on in the background, and no pressure/no hype. Leave all egos and politics at the front door; our hostess will provide you with a coat-check ticket so you can pick those items up on the way out. At least the dress code is optional (I'm very close to opting for jeans and a t-shirt), but somehow we've ended up with a DJ, a pay bar for the entire duration (5 hours), a raffle for 12 or more gift baskets and a 50/50 (proceeds to be donated to the high school for a student lounge area), and decor out the wazoo.
In an inspired stroke, I volunteered to cover the sign in/name tag table by myself for the day of the event. It was clever (I thought). Time for very quick chit-chat only, a chance to see every face and force them to give me their name so there wouldn't be any guess-work on who is who, and a seat away from the press of people inside the gala hall. Fellow committee members are becoming upset about this and are now trying to make it mandatory for everybody to take turns at it. I can't even make a clever idea that was supposed to be a win-win for everybody work. Looks like I'm going to be forced into the whole out-of-control gala in spite of myself. And make no mistake, this has turned out to be one hum-dinger of a gala.
I graduated with just under 800 people fifty years ago. We are now about 6 weeks out from the event, and have nearly 180 people coming (including grads and some spouses). This was NOT the event for a novice to help plan. My approach so far has been to lay low, say little, and volunteer for stuff nobody else wanted to do. It worked well until last week, when one of the other committee members asked me, on the QT to try to get a quote for event insurance. We have a doctor/lawyer on our committee (because what committee doesn't need a doctor/lawyer?) who informed us we don't need event insurance, but a few were uncomfortable with this, and so I was drafted to get a quote so we could bring it up at the next (and hopefully last) meeting before the event. It's my own fault - I tried to get out of something by saying I had an appointment with my insurance broker that conflicted, but ended up being asked to inquire about event insurance since I was going to be at the broker's anyhow.
I used to be smarter than this.