What is Your Plan? Part 4

In Part 1 we looked at doing "last minute" youth ministry.

In Part 2 we looked at planning on purpose.

In Part 3 we looked at planning an events calendar.

Now how do we pull this off as a volunteer?  Form some lead teams.

The answer is team work!  Don't do it by yourself.  Doing youth ministry (or any ministry) alone leads to burn out and all the bases won't be covered.  No lone rangers allowed.  Get others who are interested in youth ministry or parents of the youth involved.  On a team all players are equal and important.

• Plan one event at a time and form a team for each event (use responsible students on the team as well as adults)
• Think of all the steps that will need to take place to pull off the event
• Divide up the steps among the team
• Set "due dates" for the to do list and follow up (you could use a simple excel spread sheet to keep track)

Example: (set due dates for each task and who is responsible for the step, give yourself bout 6 months of time to promote the event and organize)

Laser Tag Outreach Lock-In

Step 1 - Contact Laserquest to find out cost of renting the facility for an all night event.

Step 2 - Choose a date (remember there is never a perfect day where everyone is available)

Step 3 - Get deposit check from church check writer person.

Step 4 - Reserve Laserquest

Step 5 - Publicize the date, use posters, postcards, e-mails, church bulletin, etc... (Set dates for each different way of publicizing.)

Step 6 - Recruit drivers (we got hotel rooms for our drivers so they would be fresh for the drive back home in the morning)

Step 7 - Recruit adult sponsors to play laser tag with the students all night.  Decide on adult to student ratio.  We like 1 adult for every 6 to 8 students.

Step 8 - Set the date for students to turn in their non-refundable registration fee.

Step 9 - Collect registration fees.

Step 10 - Confirm your date with Laserquest and let them know your updated number of participants

Step 11 - Organize food and snacks and drinks

Step 12 - Leave on time even if you leave someone (some lessons have to be learned the hard way)

Step 13 - Return on time.

Step 13 - Debrief the team to see what worked and what didn't and what to do differently the next time.

So within this one event team you could have sub-teams: (team can be as small as one person, but the more the merrier)

Facility team - to reserve Laserquest and get all the info that is needed from Laserquest, set the date, reserve the facility

Transportation team -  to organize transportation and drivers and hotels if needed

Publicity team - Promote the event

Sponsor team - organize and recruit adults to chaperon and participate

Grub team - organize the foods