If you want my two cents, read on. Regardless of the size of your ministry events are a great way to get students to show up. This is true if you have 4 students or 400. Here is a quick list of some things to consider as you plan your event.
- Determine the Purpose - Every event doesn't need to have a theological component. Don't try to spiritualize your middle school trip to the corn maze.
- Pick a Strategic Time - Push to have your event either during your regular youth group time or if you meet on Sunday mornings, immediately following your youth group time. We used to do our events on Friday night in order to get students to show up for something fun. The problem was they already had fun plans for Friday night. Our youth group time is on Sunday nights for the convenience factor. If a student can show up on Sunday for an event, they can certainly show up the following week for group.
- Get Them to Return - Give them a reason to come back after the event. This is not budget dependent! If you have a budget that allows you to give out t-shirts to every student who shows up the following week do it! Showing pictures or a video of the event the following week, that's free!
- Count the Cost - The larger the number of attendees for events, the more planning you need to do. There will come a time when you can't do an event every month of the year. When I first started, we had a fun event for every month: Jan - Ski Trip, Feb - PCTC Conference, Mar - Camp Tockwagh (Service Project), Apr - Movie Night, May - Bowling, Jun - MS Camp Out/HS Graduation Service, Jul - MS Mini Golf/HS CIY Conference, Aug - Movie night, Sep - Amusement Park, Oct - MS Corn Maze and Bonfire/HS Haunted House (the following week we would teach on Demons), Nov - Shady Maple (All You Can Eat Smorgasbord), Dec - Mall Scavenger Hunt and Christmas Party. Currently we do a large scale quarterly event.
- Big Yellow School Bus - Contact a local bus company for transportation. You will be surprised how affordable they are and here are three benefits: you get a professional driver, you can easily accommodate a wide number of attendees (from 1 to 72), you can actually talk to students and not have to drive!
- Cell Phone List - Put parents at ease by giving them several leaders phone numbers.
- Event Release Form - Keep a form on hand for the entire year that works as a waiver and insurance purposes.
- Split the Groups - If you want HS Students to invite their friends, don't have MS students be a part of the event.
- Bring a Friend Incentive - We've done this two ways in the past; first, the kid who brings the most friends gets a prize like an (ipod shuffle) or gets to (shave Sally's head). The second option was "for every two friends you bring you get (a movie ticket) gets a chance to win (four movie tickets). Whoever brings the most friends seems to be going better for us now because we have some powerful bringers. In the past, an incintive for everyone to bring others was better because the same kid was winning every time.
- Hang out before and after - Before and after your event, depending on the time, encourage your leaders to get together with the students. Sleepovers the night before or after the event were huge for the students.
That's all I got for now. If you have any other great tips please leave them as comments. If you have any specific questions email me!
