Recently we canceled an event I was really excited about – a senior trip called The Last Hurrah – and I think to one degree or another we hit all 3 of these common mistakes when planning it. Hope you can learn from this!
3 COMMON MISTAKES WHEN PLANNING A NEW EVENT
You put it in the wrong spot on the calendar. The strategy behind putting The Last Hurrah in May was to help keep seniors around toward the end of their senior year – but I think we might have pushed it too far back. As the school year winds down, everything comes to a head for them and something has to go. For our seniors it was this event, so 5 days before the event we still had a whopping registration of zero. Ouch. Our goal of secretly keeping students in youth group trumped what should have been our real goal: hanging out with our seniors for one last time. Ironically, we now have neither.
You charge too much for it. I don’t think this was our biggest failure, but this economy is starting to hit us pretty hard, too. We were charging $95 for essentially an overnighter. I think for what we had planned it was a steal! We were keeping some of the details quiet and it ended up at least factoring into the decision whether or not to register for it. Another pricing model has to be in mind for next year.
You plan something people won’t get behind. I’m still not ready to give this one up altogether, I think the idea is sound and want to try it again next year. However, we might ask our senior small group leaders more to gain some insight on what type of a seniors-only event might work best. We’ll do some research and figure out when. Then we’ll have a “can’t miss” event instead of a “totally missed” event.
The next time you’re tempted to drop a new event into your calendar, spend an extra minute to think about when it is planned, how much it costs and if people will get behind the event. What else do you need to think about?
JG
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Josh Griffin has been in youth ministry for 16+ years in a small church and a big church. He currently serves as the High School Pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA. [
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Geoff Stewart serves the Jr / Sr High School Pastor at Peace Portal Alliance Church in Surrey B.C.
Chris Wesley serves as the Director of Student Ministry at Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Maryland.
Colton Harker serves with Josh at Saddleback Church. He is currently in his second year in youth ministry.
Josh,
You faced a couple of things here in SoCal… A lot of youth go to Spirit West Coast which is a 3-4 day event in Del Mar and Prom is the following weekend for two of your local schools. There was also your leadership over-nighter just two weeks ago, own your weekend going on… Can’t do it all. Love ya.
Jim
Agreed! I think we goofed … so trying to learn from it as well as help other youth workers, too. Thanks, Jim. Love your boys (and your daughter soon, too, right?!
JG
we are doing this for the first time this year too. We are keeping it super low key and are not doing it until closer to the end of the summer, before they go away to school.
One of the things that I’ve had to consider is all the cost that mount up at the end of the senior year – prom/pictures/invitations/college application fees + any weekly expenses they have. Their schedules mount up the last month or so as well with the planning of all the above, plus they are trying to squeeze in last moment memories with their friends from school.
So we have decided to wait until the mid-end of July when they have a few extra bucks (from all the grad. money they get it in) and a little extra time before they head off.
As i try to get something new started i try to think though the pricing the most. If i want it to become a big hit and tradition i set the price low the first year to gain momentum and get people interested and then the next year charge what we need to to break even. I feel that if it is worth making a big deal of it is worth losing a little bit of cash to make that happen in the future.
The other huge factor as i have seen it is getting my leaders on board early. If i get my small group adult leaders and most of my student leaders pumped early the sign up is way easier, and the price does not effect this as much.
But it is really a hard day when you need to cancel something, it make me feel like a total failure, but it may be God getting us ready for something bigger and better in the future.
You talk about this all the time, but make sure you plan on how to cast a vision for the new event. Whether it is a senior trip or a new discipleship method, getting people behind it comes from creatively casting a vision. In ministry we think and pray about events and new areas of ministry sometimes for weeks and months before we share it with the students or the church. And we try to cram the weeks of prayer, thought, and excitement into one meeting where we introduce the new idea. Work on casting that vision of what this new event would look like, why it is needed, and what the possible results could be.
I’ve been in youth ministry for over 17 years now, and I still drop the ball, pulling mistakes like this one. I’m glad to see that I’m not the only veteran who goes, “I know better. Why did I do that?”
I am very thankful for this post. this past semester of 2011 I’ve had to cancel at least 2 events I was excited about, due to waning interest or scheduling conflicts. While I previously would have bounced ideas/calendar stuff off trusted leaders, I didn’t do that with these two events, and it shows. Extra feedback goes a long way. I feel more encouraged…it happens to the best of us sometimes! thank you