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Publicity – With a Face

Posted by Debby on August 12, 2014

It is an issue we all face: How do we publicize our events? How do we get the word out?

Often, publicity for our women’s events is fairly impersonal. We use print media–announcements in the bulletin, posters around the church and in the women’s bathroom. Possibly you have used a radio ad to publicize a big event. Plus, now there is social media: events can be posted on the church website, posted on FaceBook, and probably even tweeted if you know how to do that.

However, I think the most effective form of publicity has a personal touch: a personal invite, a hand-written card, an announcement made by one of the women during a church service, class or event–where a face can be associated with the event. And what if we decorated a table with all the pertinent information available, PLUS a person at the table to answer questions and personally invite women who walk by?

Posted in: Lessons Learned, News & Information, Retreat and Event Planning, Starting Points in Retreat Planning

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Do You Micro-Manage?

Posted by Debby on August 5, 2014

“Micro-Manager” is a business term that has been coined for the leader who is controlling and gives excessive attention to minor details. He or she tries to ensure perfection by insisting on reviewing and approving everything. A micro-manager squelches initiative and creativity, and is perceived as having a lack of faith in the employee’s competence. Conversely, the term “macro-manager” refers to one who leaves the employee alone to their assigned tasks, confident that he or she has chosen competent workers who can complete the task.

Outside of the business world, we can still micro-manage and squelch the initiative and creativity of those serving under us. Yes, we want everything to be perfect for a retreat or women’s event. But we also need to give the assigned leader space to learn and grow and even make mistakes as they seek the Lord and use their God-given gifts and abilities. No, they may not do things exactly the way that you would have; but God doesn’t need another “you.” And maybe it’s time for a change in “the way things have always been done.”

Posted in: Developing Leadership, Lessons Learned, News & Information, Realities of Ministry

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Responsibilities of a Retreat Coordinator

Posted by Debby on July 22, 2014

The position we call “retreat coordinator” may or may not be filled by the ministry leader. In our case, our pastor’s wife is the ministry leader. But she is called upon for many other needs, and it would be very hard for her to coordinate the retreat both in the planning stages and at the retreat. That is why we have a retreat coordinator. She reports to the ministry leader, but does the organization and supervision involved in planning a retreat. It is important to have this position filled by a strong leader.

The best way to really see what the retreat coordinator does is to look at one of our flow charts. She is like the hub of the retreat, and other leaders are in charge of various aspects of the retreat. But everything is overseen by the coordinator.

The coordinator is involved in the retreat from the beginning – determining the who, when, where and what of the retreat. As retreat planning begins, depending on what is most important to you, you book the speaker and date of the retreat, OR you book the venue on a certain date and then find the speaker who can work with you on your chosen date. The retreat coordinator communicates with the speaker throughout the planning stages and works with the venue so that a contract can be signed. Once you have the date, a speaker and a venue, then the fun begins. If your speaker has not already suggested a theme, one of the preliminary planning activities is determining the retreat theme.

Once the basics have been confirmed, the coordinator works with a leadership team who will report back to her and/or she will hold their hand as they go through the process of planning the retreat. The leadership team is given responsibility to oversee the various ingredients of the retreat: registration, greeting, printed material, prayer team, skit, workshops, etc. In small churches like ours, the members of the leadership team often takes on more than one of these responsibilities. But the need for one person to coordinate remains.

Posted in: Developing Leadership, Lessons Learned, News & Information, Realities of Ministry, Retreat and Event Planning, Starting Points in Retreat Planning

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Three Biggest Decisions in Retreat Planning

Posted by Debby on June 17, 2014

If you are considering a retreat this year, you may be getting a bit of a late start. There are three critical decisions that I feel need to have been made by now, unless you have a very unusual situation–or you are very lucky. Normally, we have found that a minimum of two of these three decisions should be made even a year in advance of your overnight event.

Location – retreat centers and hotels are normally booked up to a year or two in advance. Normally we try to schedule our hotel one year in advance.
Date – you may be limited by the availability of your chosen location or the availability of your speaker. If the two don’t work together you’ll have to decide which is more important to you: the date you want or the speaker you want (read more about this decision here).
Speaker – a popular speaker may have limited dates of availability.

In our case, we are preparing for a late November retreat. Our priority this year was to get the retreat location that we wanted and had used last year. We found that they were booked into 2016, with very few favorable dates in 2014 available. So we booked the location and date in December of 2013 and took a risk.

Our decision about a speaker was then limited to someone who could come on that date. We have just finalized our speaker(s). In June, (nearly six month prior to retreat date) we will officially begin planning as a group-assigning responsibilities, determining schedule, and the many other components of retreat planning.

Tags: date, location, retreat centre, retreat planning, speaker

Posted in: Lessons Learned, Location, Location, Location, News & Information, Retreat and Event Planning, Starting Points in Retreat Planning

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Leaders’ Meetings (Part II)

Posted by Debby on February 18, 2014

As mentioned last week, our women’s leaders meet once a month. Denise our pastor’s wife and head of the women’s ministry, has an agenda. Here are some things we have learned over the years regarding these meetings:

We have a “secretary” who takes notes during the meeting. These notes are forwarded to all leaders after the meeting. If someone has to miss the meeting, the notes keep her updated on everything that was discussed at the meeting; Also, the notes include “action points” which basically list who has volunteered to do what. For instance, “Kathy will make calls to find a venue for our women’s event;” “Debby will make a flyer;” “Cheryl will fill out forms requested by the church.” Any leader can look back at this email if she has forgotten her assignment.
We always begin the meeting with prayer. And the agenda always includes an extended time of prayer for the women’s ministry and upcoming events as well as personal prayer for one another;
We always bring our calendars so that we can all record any upcoming dates/events and check for scheduling conflicts. Our preference would be to not schedule an event or meeting when several of our leaders would be gone for a school break or vacation. We always check with the church calendar before making a final decision.
We discuss the current issues in the women’s ministry. If we are in the midst of a women’s study, we always touch base to make sure no one is experiencing any problems.
This is where we plan for upcoming events, and delegate responsibilities among the leadership team women. We also keep one another updated on our progress. For instance, if we are planning a women’s event several months in advance, we would delegate someone to be in contact with the venue and she would report back at the next meeting.

Posted in: Developing Leadership, Lessons Learned, News & Information, Retreat and Event Planning

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