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Free Template

Family Reunion Run-of-Show Template

Your master document. The difference between a smooth event and a chaotic one.

A family reunion run-of-show is the internal coordinator's bible - different from the guest-facing schedule. It includes every setup task, vendor arrival time, coordinator assignment, and "what happens if" note. Every person running something at the event should have a copy. This template is structured minute-by-minute with owner columns, so nothing falls through the cracks and everyone knows exactly when to do exactly what without asking the organizer.

Run-of-Show Template

This is the coordinator-only version. Fields in [BRACKETS] are placeholders. Print one per coordinator, laminate if it might rain.

[FAMILY NAME] FAMILY REUNION - RUN OF SHOW Date: [DATE] | Venue: [VENUE NAME], [ADDRESS] Lead Coordinator: [NAME] - [CELL PHONE] Version: FINAL - printed [DATE] EMERGENCY CONTACTS Venue contact: [NAME] - [PHONE] Caterer: [NAME] - [PHONE] [OTHER VENDOR]: [NAME] - [PHONE] Medical (if any known issues): [NAME] - [PHONE] Nearest urgent care: [ADDRESS] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PRE-EVENT SETUP ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [TIME -2:00] Venue access begins Owner: [NAME] + setup crew ✓ Confirm tables and chairs are in place ✓ Set up check-in table near entrance ✓ Hang signs and banners ✓ Set up kids' activity area [TIME -1:30] Caterer arrives Owner: [FOOD LEAD NAME] ✓ Greet caterer, show them setup area ✓ Confirm serving layout and timing [TIME -1:00] Activity stations set up Owner: [ACTIVITIES LEAD NAME] ✓ Games area ready ✓ Photo booth props out ✓ Icebreaker materials at tables [TIME -0:30] Final walkthrough Owner: Lead Coordinator ✓ Check signage and parking ✓ Brief all volunteers on their roles ✓ Confirm caterer setup complete ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ GUEST ARRIVAL ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [TIME] Doors open - guests begin arriving Check-in table: [NAME(S)] ✓ Name badges ready ✓ Programs available ✓ Welcome music playing [TIME +0:15] Appetizers / snacks available Owner: [FOOD LEAD] [TIME +0:30] Welcome & opening remarks Speaker: [NAME] Duration: [X] minutes ⚠️ Cue: [ACTIVITIES LEAD] starts music when remarks end ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ACTIVITIES BLOCK ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [TIME] [ACTIVITY 1 - e.g., Icebreakers / lawn games open] Owner: [NAME] Location: [AREA OF VENUE] [TIME] [ACTIVITY 2 - e.g., Kids' craft station opens] Owner: [NAME] [TIME] [ACTIVITY 3 - e.g., Family trivia - gather at main area] Owner: [NAME] ⚠️ Announce 10 min early: [NAME] announces at [TIME -0:10] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ MEAL SERVICE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [TIME] [MEAL - e.g., Lunch service begins] Owner: [FOOD LEAD] + [CATERER] Format: [BUFFET / PLATED / STATIONS] ⚠️ Blessing/prayer: [NAME] at [TIME] ⚠️ Dietary options labeled and served separately Expected duration: [X] minutes [TIME] Food stations cleared Owner: Caterer + [FOOD LEAD] assists ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ KEY MOMENTS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [TIME] ⭐ GROUP PHOTO - most important moment Owner: [ACTIVITIES LEAD] gathers guests Photographer: [NAME / VENDOR] Location: [SPECIFIC SPOT IN VENUE] ⚠️ Announce 15 min early ⚠️ Have a chair for elderly guests [TIME] [SPECIAL MOMENT - e.g., Memorial tribute / family history video] Owner: [NAME] Duration: [X] minutes Equipment: [PROJECTOR / SCREEN / MICROPHONE] [TIME] Awards / recognition Presenter: [NAME] Items needed: [CERTIFICATES / PLAQUES / GIFTS] Duration: [X] minutes ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CLOSING & BREAKDOWN ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [TIME] Closing remarks / sign-off Speaker: [NAME] Duration: [X] minutes [TIME] Event officially concludes - guests begin departing ⚠️ Thank vendors, begin caterer breakdown [TIME] Caterer breakdown complete / departure Owner: [FOOD LEAD] confirms with caterer [TIME] Venue cleanup complete Owner: [CLEANUP CREW LEAD] ✓ Tables and chairs reset to venue default ✓ Trash removed / bagged ✓ Personal items retrieved [TIME] Venue keys returned / final checkout Owner: Lead Coordinator ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CONTINGENCY NOTES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Rain backup: [MOVE INSIDE TO: [ROOM/AREA]] Late caterer: Start with snacks; delay lunch by [X] minutes max Low attendance: [CONTINGENCY IF FEWER THAN EXPECTED SHOW] Medical issue: [FIRST AID KIT LOCATION] / Call 911 / Notify [NAME]

Run-of-Show vs. Guest Schedule: Know the Difference

Run-of-Show (this template)Guest-Facing Schedule
Who sees itCoordinators and volunteers onlyAll guests
Time detail5–15 minute increments30–60 minute blocks
Includes ownersYes - every item has a nameNo
Includes setup/breakdownYesNo
Includes contingenciesYes - rain backup, etc.No
FormatWorking document, annotatableClean printable or screen-friendly

How Reunly Manages Your Event Schedule

Reunly's schedule builder lets you build your full event timeline with time slots, activity descriptions, and coordinator assignments. Your committee can access it on any device - so when the run-of-show changes at 2 PM on event day, everyone sees the updated version without a flurry of texts.

  • Schedule builder with time slots and activity descriptions
  • Coordinator assignments attached to each schedule item
  • Shared access - all committee members see the live schedule
  • Mobile-friendly for on-site reference during the event
  • Schedule history saved for future reunions

🚀 With Reunly

Skip the template - let Reunly handle this automatically

Reunly manages your event schedule and coordinator assignments so you don't have to copy and paste from a template.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a run-of-show document?

A run-of-show is a minute-by-minute master document that tells every coordinator and volunteer exactly what is happening at every moment of the event. It's different from the guest-facing schedule - it includes setup and breakdown, vendor arrival times, coordinator cues, and contingency notes that guests don't need to see.

Who should have the run-of-show?

Every committee member and volunteer lead should have a copy - printed and on their phone. The lead organizer should have the master version with all coordinator phone numbers. Vendors who need to hit specific cues (caterer, DJ) should get the relevant sections of the document.

How detailed should the run-of-show be?

More detail is almost always better. Include 5 to 15 minute time increments rather than broad blocks. Note the owner (person responsible) for each item. Include contingency notes for weather or timing shifts. A run-of-show that's 'too detailed' rarely causes problems - one that's too vague causes many.

When should I build the run-of-show?

Start drafting 3 to 4 weeks before the event and finalize it 1 week before. Walk through it with your committee at the final planning meeting to catch gaps, resolve timing conflicts, and make sure everyone knows their cues. Print final copies the day before the event.

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