The 16th National Family Reunion Conference will be held in Philadelphia, PA from March 15-18, 2007 at the Marriott Philadelphia Airport Hotel.

2007  Workshops.  Workshops with three stars are eligible for one and a half contnuing education units each.There is no additional charge. 

THURSDAY PRECONFERENCE WORKSHOPS  (3 hours each)

Our pre-conference workshops focus on Preserving Memories

Preserving Memories: Scrapbooking  Thursday < March 15, 2-5 PM.

This is the workshop that Sue Serio of Fox 29, Good Day  Philadelphia will teach

 If you only want to come to her workshop, come to the Airport Marriott by 1:30 pm  to register.  The fee is $35.00

How many times have you wished you had images of unique events and celebrations that have occurred at your family reunions?  Family Reunion scrap books are delightful projects for family reunion members to capture and create memorabilia of your reunions.  In this workshop we will demonstrate many creative ways to preserve your special memories.  Be sure to bring photos and other small memorabilia that you can use to learn innovative scrap booking techniques. 

Quiltmaking: Stitching together your family’s heritage. Thursday, March 15, 6-9 pm.

If you only want to come to this workshop come by 5:30 and register .  The fee is $35.00

, Have your family reunions produced story quilts that are collections of symbols, images, and events that record the history and heritage of the family? This workshop will explore how to turn memorabilia into scraps of fabric and scraps of fabric into family heirlooms.  An internationally famous quilt museum will provide the instruction.

FRIDAY WORKSHOPS   (90 minutes each)

Finding the Rest of Me

There has been an explosion in the resources available for studying your family’s roots.  Your family history provides a legacy and tradition to be shared for generations.  In this workshop genealogists present basic ideas for families to start researching their history. They are joined by the National Archives, an acclaimed institution located in all parts of the country. Find out how to best utilize these organizations and the wealth of records and resources they will distribute.

***Does it run in The Family? Promoting Health at the Reunion

Have you ever wondered why diseases appear in some families and not in others? What was that health problem that one of your grandparents had that no one would talk about or name? In this day and age, understanding your family medical history is a major step towards living a healthy life. Use a tool kit which empowers families to share health information through several different but interesting ways. Then learn the details of how to plan a health seminar for your next reunion.

Preserving Documents 

We’ve made our quilts and scrapbooks, taken photos and collected family historical documents.  We even have artifacts we’ve inherited.  If we want these items to last a long time, we should use certain materials and preserve them in certain ways

***From and Back to China:  How Grandmothers Stories Keep us Connected. An immigrant experience

As brother and sister travel from Hong Kong to Guangzhou province, an informal family reunion happens through the grandmother’s stories. Questions that needed to be asked and answers to be discovered about family legacy and struggles unfold and keep the family close even though separated by two continents.

***Raising “Ism” Proof

Are you prepared to deal with the negative messages, teasing, bullying and put -downs your children encounter? This workshop will demonstrate how you can use pictures, poems and music to create a sense of safety and protection from threats.   The workshop will demonstrate how to use an “isms” workbook to build young people’s coping skills that neutralize the “isms”.   Methods for developing “isms” workshops at your family reunion will be discussed.

DNA and Your Roots

DNA is one of the fastest-growing ways to research and link an individual's history to the past.  Get an introduction to this fascinating genetic structure and learn how to use this scientific breakthrough to trace your family roots. Discover how you can use the new DNA technology to pinpoint your ancestry.  Hear what one family reunion will do after determining through DNA where they came from.

Measuring Return on Event (ROE):  What is the Value of Your Family Event? 

 In this session, family members will discover how to quantify the value of the family reunion by measuring the economic, social, cultural, political and ecological impact. Participants will discover how to measure direct spending and use the multiplier effect to qualify the economic value of the reunion. Furthermore, they will learn to use the triple bottom line strategy to further advance their negotiating power

Telling the Story (Beyond Trees and Charts)

This workshop describes fun and interesting ways that families use to tell their history at the reunion.  This year we will demonstrate how families have created their own family crests and logos. Apart from making quilts which we do earlier at the conference, we also want to further demonstrate and explain how these also document family history.

***Guess Who’s Coming to the Reunion   

A look at the many kinds of family diversity. What issues arise for us at the reunion?  How do we behave toward adopted children or those who have different lifestyles?  Does it matter?  Are we supportive?

Family Empowerment

All of our workshops have an underlying message of strengthening the extended family. This workshop takes a step further into the family’s growth and development   If you think it’s hard to invest collectively as a family, come hear how one family has done it. And how does a family go about making a business a collective venture?   Should the family become a non-profit?

Philadelphia  Cultural and Heritage Sites

Spirituality and the Family Reunion

The Family Reunion Institute often describes the family reunion as very spiritual well beyond the worship service.  It is so much a part of the reunion that many families don’t recognize it. What are the elements of its spirituality?

Saving Stories:  How to make your Family Reunion Last a Lifetime

In this informative, interactive, hands-on workshop, you will learn how to preserve family heritage and save life stories in a family reunion setting. How to tell stories using photographs, heirlooms, music, tastes and smells and effective interviewing techniques. Please bring a special family photo to the workshop. 

SATURDAY WORKSHOPS ( 90 minutes each)

Family Online.com    

Technology is forever evolving and changing the way we view, communicate, and interact with the world. Use the internet to increase connections within your family.  Computers allow you to research your family history, create a family website, circulate information, and send greetings and reminders of family events. Learn how at this workshop.

Saving Stories:  How to make your Family Reunion Last a Lifetime

In this informative, interactive, hands-on workshop, you will learn how to preserve family heritage and save life stories in a family reunion setting. How to tell stories using photographs, heirlooms, music, tastes and smells and effective interviewing techniques. Please bring a special family photo to the workshop. 

***Latino Family Reunions:  A Way to Keep Families Healthy and Strong

This workshop will provide an understanding of the trauma associated with immigration; the biological, psychological and social effects on the individual. Latino families value personalismo, respecto, and familismo. Therefore, Latino families tend to prefer to receive support in problem solving through the family and allies of the family.  How can family reunions help preserve this critical family resource? 

Organizing the Family Reunion 

This workshop will explain everything you need to know to move your reunion from a thought to an actual event.  Included is information on making Convention and Visitors Bureaus part of your planning and how to negotiate with hotels.

Electronic Scrapbooking

Methods and tools for using personal computers to create and maintain a family scrapbook online, a cost-effective way to produce permanent family records and to distribute to family members via CD’s and the Internet.

***Engaging Youth at the Family Reunion

A panel of teens tells how they are involved in their reunion, what kinds of things to do with teens and young people and an adult tells the secret of how her reunion keeps young people coming

Does It Run in the Family?  (See Friday Description)

DNA and Your Roots   (See Friday Description)

Measuring ROE:  What is the Value of Your Family Event?   (see Friday Description)  

SUNDAY MORNING   9:00 am to 11:00 am

Breakfast with Birmingham

The conference isn’t over. We’re in for a very special treat hosted by the Greater Birmingham (Alabama) Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. You probably won’t have had a breakfast like this in recent years where the activity includes sharing memories of your extended family. The morning includes live music with a great trio and a real chef!

Click Here to Return to the 2007 Conference Page