Hi, Well here is the update our our potential Degruy Family Mini Reunion Meeting..... I check several hotels and their prices range from $150 - $300 per meeting room... without any refreshments. Jefferson Parish Public Library is $50 an hour but you get the previous half hour and the subsequent half hour at no cost... so basically $50 for 2 hours. Also... you can carry in refreshments from the little cafe.... so that way folks could pay for their own food and bring it in and that would alleviate our worrying about collecting checks for menus... etc....of course there wouldn't be any wine.... And I would think that for fun we could bring in some "nostalgic" items.... like crackers with Gruyere cheese.... what would a Degruy Family mini reunion be without that.... Or... what about Couturier Goats Milk Cheese.... Anyone have any other ideas????? Let's get creative....... Also... I think we should open this to anyone interested or bearing the name... for example, can I tell my Hotard uncles about it? Another Big Thing.... if we can get some Genealogical Association to co-sponsor it....like the Jefferson Parish Genealogical Assn, we could have it for the whole day at no cost.... Does anyone have connections....she made it very clear that this was very possible... to get the room for nothing... maybe we could invite someone to do a little talk on searching for the Degruys..... Any of you in any associations out there? Anyway I'm going to hold the room because, as expensive as it may be, it doesn't compare with the hotels. We could try for a free room in a bank or something... but, as I am in St. Louis, this is Really Hard for me to do..... so, again, unless you have connections..... Once we are settled about the place we need to put our heads together about how/if we want to "organize" the meeting..... Like have some special presentations...... So.......how about some input from you all... Other than meeting in order to put faces together with email addresses and chat with long distant cousins.... what would you like to hear about?????? Some family stories? What props can we bring.... maps showing plantations????? Photos.... What can we share.. for others to take home? Our personal tree starting with ourselves and going back 2-5 generations..... only items we are pretty doggone sure about...? Maybe a photo of us with info about ourselves.... We'll need name tags.... We'll also need a head count.... Please let us know if you think you will be attending October 15...... time?????? 10 - 12????? 1:00-3:00 ?????? Have to decide that too in order to reserve room.... Looking forward to hearing from you.... ps Michelle Gonzales' email is bouncing back... anyone know how to reach her?