I was updating my resume, and came upon a fact that had eluded me this far. I started to add up the amount of money that I have been directly involved in raising for charitable causes. I was really impressed with it. It’s very rewarding to think I may have made a difference in people’s lives by doing this work.
I am not blowing my own horn here, just taking stock of my life and examing the path it has wandered down. I never would have predicted this path. In all I am pleased with the road taken. Some of the potholes haven’t been so good to me, and I have made more than a couple of wrong turns along the way. Nothing too serious though.
I can’t wait to see where the next twenty years lands me.
Well, the Hootenanny has come and gone. I’ve had enough time to catch up on the lost sleep, and to think about how things went in a somewhat objective way. This was my first experience in planning an event of this size and nature. Here’s what I learned.
As hard as it is weather cannot be controlled (so the fact the torrential rain, thunder and lightning started literally 5 minutes before the gates opened and continued for the next 16 hours was our crap luck)
Defining the scope of this kind of outdoor event is extremely important AND almost impossible. You can define the scope of advertizing, you can define the demographic you are attending, you CANNOT foretell the attendance that will result (see point one with the weather)
You need to have contingency plans for every failure possible including failure of the contingency plan.
You need to have people organizing who are willing to place their egos on the back burner and to do ‘whatever needs doing’
Bigger is not always better. It is crucial following any big event to perform a post mortem to dissect the event. What went well, what didn’t, how to improve. I believe that a careful cost benefit analysis needs always to be completed, and not only looked at financially. The bigger the event the bigger the potential for profit and loss, the more work, and stress and planning involved. What is the value of the volunteers, when does their cost enter into the equation? For the record we had over 250 volunteers participating. This doesn’t include vendors, and supplier donations.
Schedule time to have fun for at least part of the day you are having your event. I did take 1/2 hour to just walk around and watch the people. It made me feel great so many people were having such a wonderful time. Especially Heather who was always smiling.
Have meticulous accounting, minimal numbers of trusted people handling cash, and careful ticketing sales and tracking. We sort of fell down on the last part. It’s very hard to keep track of ticket sales when the tickets are being distributed by all sorts of volunteers.
For the record, the event drew approximately the same number of people as last year (around 2500), raised about $70K (numbers should gel in the next week or so as the final excess supplies are sold off and bills are paid or waived). The party was a great success. I couldn’t be prouder of our entirely volunteer committee, the community that I live in, the vendors and suppliers we called, or my family for supporting ALS research.
If you’re too drunk to walk, then drive, if you’re to drunk to drive, then have your 12 year old drive you.
No kidding, some woman in Texas had her 12 year old drive her to a bar. Police found out after the girl turned without signalling and hit a house. I can’t believe I missed the boat on having my 12 year old drive me! She’s 14 now, so it would be old news.
