The Bible Of Festival Planning

THE SCHOOLS COMMITTEE (AN OPERATING COMMITTEE), POSSIBLY (SOMETIMES THE CHAIR(S) RUN IT) GOAL: To work closely with the school staff, involved parents and children, with the object to create excitement and a sense of community within the congregation and neighborhood. DUTIES OF THE SCHOOLS COMMITTEE This Committee is so strategically important that we let one of our Co-Chairs handle all of these duties bypassing an official Committee (she is to this day quite a woman, though); however, if you so desire you may set it up with a separate Committee (a lot of work here. · Get the teachers involved. Set up meetings (through the Principal of course) with Grades one through six or eighth grade teachers (some public schools go through the ninth grade), and get them excited about the upcoming Festival. Energize them. Give them initial suggestions on having their children develop projects reflecting international cultural themes. For example: Task(s): assign to teachers (interface): -- decorate the halls outside their classrooms using the children to design the projects as “school learning tasks.” Some are given credit for this. -- classrooms may also be decorated. -- solicit ideas of the teachers which may contribute to other aspects of the Festival e.g., the dance hall, the grounds, elaborate on their rooms./6 -- request from whoever represents the teachers the name of the country selected (by class grade). Communicate this in a letter home to the parents. (one month prior to Festival) -- each class may be designated to sing a song from the country they have chosen to represent; thus, this committee needs to coordinate with the music teacher for these children. -- arrange for social-service credits if your schools so employ them. -- assist Raffle Coordinator in arranging for the distribution of tickets to the teachers for sale by the students (door-to-door) -- prepare a permission form for the students to participate in the Festival. This form is to be sent home with the student to be filled out by the parent and will give an accurate count of students who will attend the Festival (two weeks prior to the Festival). (See the Forms section, APPENDIX L of this book for a sample) -- send a reminder to volunteers who have pledged donations of food, stating the time, place, types of containers and other details. Remind all volunteers to show up as scheduled. Note/6: This of course suggests that Festival attendees, (the public at large of all faiths) will be walking through the school and the classrooms. They will. And this is a good time for people to see what kind of great school you have and thus an opportunity for you to advertise the benefits to those who might send their children there. Another Pastor/Minister Check here. THE FIRST MEETING OF THE SCHOOLS COMMITTEE (providing YOU have not decided to have this interface done by one of the Committee Heads) Task(s): -- determine staffing for the Schools Committee. -- Forms to be signed by the parents making them aware they are working as part of the Festival. See APPENDIX (L) for sample form. -- prepare a letter to the parents asking that they be dressed on the days of the Festival in accord with their chosen country's colors (try and make it nothing elaborate so as not to expose the parents to a great expense - concentrate on the country's colors which the teachers can give to the students to bring home). See APPENDIX (I) & (L) for sample letter. -- 7th & 8th or 9th grade participation i.e., that they are allowed to be workers in the Festival. The next Operating Committee should be one that will design the setup of the overall structure of the Festival including grounds, school, dance floor and whatever else may be in your realm of operation. THE SITE DESIGN AND LAYOUT COMMITTEE (AN OPERATING COMMITTEE) Goal: To provide a workable Festival plan which includes assessment of the most practical locations for all games, food wagons, and rides, thus guaranteeing a smoothly operating fun time for all involved. DUTIES OF THE SITE DESIGN AND LAYOUT COMMITTEE (not a large Committee) · Basically this Committee needs to be staffed by one or two persons who are skilled in mechanical drawing or engineering drawings and they will envision the placement of games, ticket-seller tables, rides and other functions of the Festival. This needs to be done in a one-on-one discussion with the International Festival Head-YOU again. The big-a-BOSS. Task(s): -- obtain from the Games Committee, the Foods Committee, the Entertainment Committee, and the Schools Committee all of their data regarding the Festival, i.e., the number and kinds of games, the whereabouts food will be served be it in a hall, or on the grounds (a stand or a wagon), where the entertainment will be held (in a hall, on the church steps, somewhere else), and interiorly where decorations or setups will be in the school building? And from the Chairperson(s) the location of ticket-seller tables on the grounds? DUTIES OF THE FINANCE COMMITEE · Establish an overall target budget · What methodology will be used to collect the revenue? ·· Initial Fund Sources (Pre-Festival actions) ··· Local Merchants Task(s): Assign someone to write Merchant Letters -- It is better to perform this task with the Parish Letterhead paper so this is another permission to ask the Pastor. This should be tightly controlled by the head of the Finance Committee. Use a watermark for added security. With the Pastor's okay it may be better to develop a separate Letterhead that would be used just for the IF. Again, guarantee tight control. Solicit Corporate or individual sponsors to underwrite the Festival. Most Churches are covered by tax-exempt status rules such as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organizations and businesses should be told that their donations are deductible to the full extent of the law (see the forms section for a donation form). ··· Secondary Fund Sources (During-Festival actions) Task(s): Assign someone to do the following: -- obtain rolls of tickets for rides, games, door prizes -- determine the number of ticket-selling-tables to set up throughout the grounds. Work closely with the Design/Grounds Committee on this one. -- decide overall for the entire Festival how many each ride, game, or crafts, or large items like the Dunk Tank, or MoonBounce. Obviously, if you rent a game or buy a game, the number of tickets required should be higher than games constructed by your volunteers; also, a set price should be set per ticket, like value of $.50 cents each. Our opinion is that since the greatest good to be derived from the Festival is to make our children happy we recommend that you charge only one ticket per play, ride, or other function. -- The Traveling Box: Assign someone to make rounds to the ticket tables every so often and not on the same schedule. The box will be used to pick up the ticket money and bring it to the Rectory, or wherever your counting room is; monies should be tallied each night and recorded with two persons present for safety precautions. The count and monies should be turned into the Finance Officer each night. Actually, three Primary Committees are sufficient. The third one will be on Safety and Security. Give the Head of this Committee a name, Jane Bond or something arcane. This Committee is so important because of the liability of the Parish, Congregation or Civic association for the protection of all its members. Duties of this Committee are limited to the Festival and will interface with the normal Parish security managers, i.e., who do background checks on individuals and may be out of the diocese in Catholic Churches. Obviously, actual implementation will vary depending on your denomination, or civic involvement.