Also you can have small remote social gatherings. Have a lunch together from time to time (video, online) and chat about non-work things. Have an unlisted #team-offtopic channel. Things like that work in my experience if they're just available and not forced.

and... if you start 2 weeks after the last yearly get together... you're on the outs for a long time.

nothing against yearly meetings, but would hope people have ways of getting together more often if the group decides its necessary.

You can have different forms of meet-ups as well. My current company has the yearly gathering, plus the employees who live locally have a monthly lunch. None of them are on my team, but it still makes for some nice work-oriented socializing.