Where do you start?
There's so much to think about when organising a prom or any large party. Here are some tips for successful organisation but there are many more things to think about:-
Form a committee
There's so much to organise and do, it's much too much for one person. The workload and decision process can be shared. Each person can be responsible for one or several tasks that need to be performed and they can concentrate on their own tasks.
Who should be on the committee?
Your committee should be made up of willing and capable volunteers. Willing - because you won't get commitment and hard work out of someone who doesn't want to be there. Capable - because you will need to talk to suppliers, promote your prom, get decisions made and work done. And get some reserves so that if someone drops out you don't have to share their work amongst the rest of the committee.
How many people should be on the committee?
Don't have too many. Keep it to an odd number so that you don't have split decisions. Five or seven should be ample. The more people you have the more difficult it will be to reach any decisions and the longer the meetings will take.
What jobs will there be?
Firstly you will need a Chairman - to run the meetings. Then a Treasurer to look after the money side and thirdly you will need a Secretary to take notes at the meetings and to make sure everyone knows what jobs they have been assigned and when they should have them completed by. There will be other jobs assigned to other people when you have decided what needs to be done.
What do we do first?
Call a committee meeting and decide what the rules are -
How often do you meet.
How will decisions be made.
Where do you meet.
The best thing you can do at this stage is to find out what happened last year.
Is there a file you can look at?
Is there someone at the school who was involved in organising last year's prom?
What worked well?
What didn't work?
How many people went?
How much did the tickets cost?
Was a profit or loss made?
If a profit was made - can you use this for this year's prom?
Where was it held?
How were supplier deposits funded?
Do you need a bank account?
Which suppliers were used for what?
Remember to find out as much as possible about last year, this saves you doing all the hard work and allows you to learn from other people's hard work. Ask the questions - What? Why? Who? Where? When?
What are the most important things to plan?
The Venue - decide whether it is to be a school hall or an hotel - the cost will vary considerably and will determine how many people can attend.
The Date - don't clash with exams, don't leave it too late until everyone has gone on holiday, what day of the week should it be?
Without the venue and date - you can't confirm anything else. Then you can start thinking about things like:-
Entertainment - do you want a band or a disco or a singer?
Food and drink - outside caterers or hotel caterers
The budget - how much is it all going to cost - how much will people pay?
Promoting the Prom - do you have an intranet, or will you do poster/flyers? Don't forget to promote the organisers names and contact details.
Do you want a photographer - many will come along these days and print the photos on the night - often this will be just for the cost of the photos sold.
Do you want to decorate the room with balloons etc.
Make a Plan -
Get a list together of everything that needs to be done, when it needs to be done by and who is going to do it. Review this plan at every meeting and tick off the list when jobs have been done and chase up those who are not getting their jobs done. Don't leave everything until the last minute. Once you have a plan, you are a long way to being organised and to organising a successful event.
Remember everything has a cost and it all has to be budgeted and paid for, you might want to have a room full of balloons but it might put £1.50 onto the price of a ticket and you only need a few of these £1.50's before your price becomes too high for people to pay and you won't get anyone there. There may also be deposits to find, how will you raise these? Will you sell tickets in advance to get the deposit money, then you will have to know how much the total ticket price is.
Do lots of research before commiting to anything and make the decisions jointly, there's nothing worse than one person doing all the work and then getting the blame if something goes wrong.
Meet regularly and review your plan and what you have achieved so far and what still needs to be achieved.
Make decisions between you and be prepared to compromise to reach agreement.
Give yourselves plenty of time.
Wow, such a lot to think about - but it can be very rewarding and a good experience for you to get involved (and it will look good on your CV).
And for those who don't get involved - don't forget to thank those who have made your special night a success.
