WHAT HAPPENS AT A REUNION? We want you to enjoy yourself from the first day of the reunion. We do not separate wives and hubbies. Our activities are chosen to appeal to everyone, and serve to promote conversation and maximize reminiscing. We have activities for the early arrivals on Thursday night; and organized tours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We have group meals where a lot of “catching up” takes place as you break bread with your Shipmates. What to wear? Most events, other than the banquet, are fun/ casual affairs, and we dress accordingly. Our Saturday night banquet is a full-fledged program with a head table, guest speakers, color guard, a dance floor and band. We dress up for the banquet. Military officers can wear dress uniforms, and our organization officers at the head table are in tuxedoes. Attendees generally wear sport coats or suits, ladies wear dresses or pant suits. Our memorial ceremony is held to remember all departed Shipmates. It usually features Shipmates’ widows, who take an active part in the ceremony. We have up to ten widows who attend our reunions.

We do not hold a business meeting at the reunion. We're there for FUN. If you want to talk business, there are (almost) monthly committee meetings at which reunion business and USS BOSTON Shipmates project business is discussed. The annual business meeting of the organization (which takes place in September) is for elections, appointments, and annual reports.

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO NOW... FIRST, you register with us for meals and tours. You can participate in as many or as few activities as you wish. Pick out those functions you wish to attend, and add in those fees as shown. We must commit—with hard numbers—to the hotel and tour operators long before the events, then we’re obligated to pay for the number we provided. To know that number, we must have your Registration information well in advance of the event. Please fill out the Registration worksheet now.

Note that the Registration Fee is mostly the cost of holding a reunion somewhere other than a phone booth or park bench with a Hello My Name Is... thingy stuck on your shirt. Each attendee receives a memento of the reunion. So, add in the Registration Fee for the Shipmate, plus the Guest Registration fee for each person over the age of 5 accompanying the Shipmate. (Don't count the Shipmate as a guest.) Registration fees for walk-ins at the reunion are increased as shown because they trigger a considerable chain of events. The registration fee is nonrefundable. If your dues are unpaid, please pay them now.

“Earlybirds" who register with us (meaning, Registration form and payment in full) by May 31 get a unique USS BOSTON cup and become eligible for a drawing at the reunion, and can win one of their nights at the hotel free (only if they’re staying at the hotel).

Send the form and your check to the address shown on the other side of this form.

Next, you register with the host hotel for your room accommodations. We always negotiate our hotel rates to run three days before the reunion to three days after the reunion. Naturally, you can stay elsewhere, but Shipmates who do this once invariably tell us that they missed out on much of the camaraderie and socializing. In most cases you cannot find a comparable hotel at a cheaper rate.

We have a Welcome Aboard team that will have a package in your name at the hotel. This package will contain your name tags, a program and complete itinerary, meal and tour tickets for the activities you selected, gift checks to redeem, and other information. Welcome Aboard will be set up from 1:00pm to 3:00pm on Thursday in the Hunt Room. The program that you receive at the reunion will give you the times for the various events. Please make your plans so that you arrive a half hour before any scheduled event.
The hotel desk people will know where our USS BOSTON folks are. Much of our socializing is in our Memorabilia room, where we have part of our collection of USS BOSTON photos and artifacts on display (and where Shipmates put their own memorabilia on display, on loan). This is where you'll run into your old Shipmates, and where you can access comprehensive lists of the full membership and the reunion attendees. It's also here that you'll be able to buy USS BOSTON identity items such as coffee cups, hats, sweatshirts, tee shirts... things that the Shipmates have requested over the years, all with the USS BOSTON logo. The organization buys these items and generally takes the cost and rounds up to the nearest dollar. There is no profit motive.

About Cancellations... If something comes up and you're forced to cancel your reunion attendance, call us as soon as possible at 508–580–3808. We can send you a refund IF you advise us early enough for us to modify our counts to the hotel, which means in our hands at least thirty days prior to the reunion. If you cancel after that, we are still obligated to pay for the contracted functions, so there can be no refund. Another reason why it's important to notify us ASAP is that if you call too late, we might not get that message until we return from the reunion. Refunds are sent out prior to the annual meeting.