Proposed
Beyond the cookout and the card table. These are ideas on the table so the weekend gives everybody — elders, grown folks, teenagers, and children — something to do with their hands and something to take home. Tell us which ones you'd actually attend and we'll build the schedule around the winners.
Teens & young adults
Friday, Aug 6, 3:30 – 5:00 pm
A hands-on session on making money from what you already do well — hair, sneakers, photography, baking, editing, music. Pricing, first customers, and getting paid without getting used.
Led by family entrepreneurs, one hour, notebooks provided.
All ages, 16+
Saturday, Aug 7, 9:00 – 10:30 am
The paperwork nobody explains: naming it, registering it, opening the business account, tracking expenses, and what to hand a tax preparer in January.
Invite a family accountant or a local small-business center to co-lead.
Adults & older teens
Saturday, Aug 7, 10:45 am – 12:15 pm
One book announced six months out so everybody arrives having read it. Ninety minutes of real conversation in a circle, discussion questions printed, no book report energy.
Two facilitators, ideally one elder and one young reader.
Everybody, split rooms
Saturday, Aug 7, 2:00 – 4:00 pm
A local painter walks the whole room through one canvas — adults in one space, kids in another with the same subject. Everybody leaves with something on a wall at home.
Hire a local teaching artist in the host city; supplies included in registration.
All ages, together
Saturday, Aug 7, 2:00 – 4:00 pm
An artist leads us in building one large illustrated tree — McNeil, Emerson, and Stevenson branches drawn in by the people who belong to them. It gets photographed, printed, and mailed out after.
Muralist or illustrator plus the family record keepers.
Elders paired with grandchildren
Friday, Aug 6, 3:30 – 5:00 pm
A quiet room, two chairs, a recorder, and a printed question list. Grandchildren interview elders for fifteen minutes each. This is how the next book gets written.
Needs a volunteer, two phones on tripods, and a sign-up sheet.
Cooks and future cooks
Saturday, Aug 7, 10:45 am – 12:15 pm
The dishes that show up every year, taught properly — measured, written down, and collected into a family cookbook instead of living in somebody's head.
Emerson branch kitchen, plus a scribe.
Everybody who can stand up
Saturday, Aug 7, 5:00 – 6:00 pm
An hour before the banquet learning the same routine so the floor moves together at night. Chairs at the edges for anybody who wants to sit and clap.
Local instructor or the cousin who already knows every dance.
Adults
Saturday, Aug 7, 9:00 – 10:30 am
Wills, deeds, life insurance, and keeping family land in the family. Uncomfortable, necessary, and better done in a room together than over the phone after a funeral.
Invite an estate attorney or financial planner.
Drop in anytime
Friday, Aug 6, 1:00 – 3:00 pm
Bring loose photos and documents. A scanner runs all weekend, images get labeled with names and years, and everybody goes home with the whole digital archive.
Two volunteers, one scanner, one laptop.
18+ — first-apartment and renting years
Friday, Aug 6, 3:30 – 5:00 pm
A lot of us won't buy a first home until our thirties, so this is the renter's toolkit: patching nail and TV-mount holes so the landlord can't touch the security deposit, hanging heavy things right, unclogging a drain, and when to stop and call a pro.
The handy one in the family (we all have one), plus a practice drywall square and a $20 tool list to take home.
Details & RSVPTentative
Where every workshop, excursion, and main event sits in the weekend. Nothing overlaps that shouldn't, and the two Saturday morning blocks run twice so nobody has to choose between the money sessions and the kitchen.
Arrival day
1:00 – 3:00 pm
Workshop
Photo & Archive Table
Hotel lobby, drop in all weekend
Excursion
City excursion (half day)
Depends on the host city vote
3:30 – 5:00 pm
Workshop
Turn Your Talent Into Income
Meeting room A — teens & young adults
Workshop
Record the Elders
Quiet suite, 15-minute sign-up slots
Workshop
Renter's DIY: Patch It & Fix It
Meeting room C — hands-on practice wall
7:00 pm
Main event
Welcome night & registration
Ballroom foyer
The big day
9:00 – 10:30 am
Workshop
Starting a Small Business, Start to Finish
Meeting room A
Workshop
Money Talks for Grown Folks
Meeting room B
10:45 am – 12:15 pm
Workshop
Family Book Club
Library lounge, circle seating
Workshop
Recipe Lab
Demo kitchen
12:30 – 4:00 pm
Main event
Family day & cookout
Park pavilion — group photo at 2:00
2:00 – 4:00 pm
Workshop
Paint & Sip (and Paint & Punch)
Two rooms — adults and kids
Workshop
Draw the Family Tree
Pavilion long table, all ages
5:00 – 6:00 pm
Workshop
Line Dance & Step Class
Ballroom, before doors open
7:00 pm
Main event
Banquet & program
Grand ballroom
Farewell
9:30 am
Main event
Worship together
Host city church
11:30 am
Main event
Farewell brunch
Hotel restaurant
1:30 pm
Excursion
Optional day-trip excursion
For anybody staying the extra night
Sign up
Check everything you'd actually attend and say how many seats your household needs. Sessions with the most hands up get the biggest rooms — and the ones nobody picks come off the schedule.
Baltimore
Day trips and outings around our host city.
Reginald F. Lewis Museum
Maryland African American history, group rate, twenty minutes from the harbor.
Crab feast on the water
Long tables, brown paper, mallets. The banquet's loud cousin.
Lexington Market & harbor walk
Easy afternoon that works for strollers and walkers both.
Send the committee the workshops you'd attend — or offer to lead one. If you have a skill, that's a session.