Avoiding a St. Valentine’s banquet massacre
It’s easier to find a church that doesn’t celebrate communion than to find one that doesn’t honor St. Valentine with a banquet. Practically every church in America, regardless of denomination, follows this tradition.
Every year, my wife and I attend the Section Six Valentine’s Day banquet, sponsored by the Section Six Youth Department. Churches from across central and western Illinois gather to eat fried chicken, play silly games and listen to humorous speeches about love.
This year was different, though, because my wife and I are currently serving as Section Six Youth Directors, making us responsible for organizing the entire affair, from reserving the room to ordering the food to selecting the speaker. The banquet was last Saturday evening, and trust me when I say it’s much more fun to be a guest than it is to be in charge.
Right after I was elected to serve as youth director, my pastor, Randy Pate (who also happens to be my presbyter), told me I needed to compile a sort of “how to” manual for whomever my predecessor might be. I thought that wasn’t bad advice, especially since I’ve often wished Amazon.com offered The Idiot’s Guide to Serving as Sectional Youth Director.
This was my first “go around” at organizing a Valentine’s Day banquet. Everything went okay, but it was certainly a learning experience. With this in mind, I’d like to offer six observations to the next guy.
Promote the event as much as possible. We mailed a flier to each pastor approximately four weeks before the event, which had been on our sectional calendar for some time. I also e-mailed a flier to every pastor in my address book. After that, I didn’t contact them again until it was time to get a head count for the caterer. I wish I would have contacted them the at least one week before the RSVP deadline, though, just to refresh their memories.
Enlist the help of others. My wife played an integral role in planning this event, arranging both the banquet location and the menu. Other friends pitched in and helped collect money, welcome guests and perform other last minute tasks. My only regret is that I didn’t tap the wisdom of the previous youth director. He and his wife had pulled off several successful banquets, so I should have asked for more of their input on what did and didn’t work.
Honor the RSVP deadline. Pastors are busy people, and promoting banquets usually isn’t high on their list of priorities. We asked churches to RSVP eight days before the banquet; most did not. Several pastors did not have an exact head count when we called: this became a problem when we ran out of chairs at the banquet. Next year we’re going to change the RSVP arrangements.
Rest up before the event. This was impossible for Tollie and me because our realtor was showing our house on Saturday afternoon. That meant we were a little tired that evening, which made handling stress a little more difficult.
Pay attention to the details. Every Valentine’s banquet includes a few cheesy games, and ours was no exception. Even the simplest games can require some odd props, though, so make sure you have those items available when the banquet starts. And it might not hurt to do a trial run with a few friends before trying the game in front of the banquet crowd.
Write a script. I’m fairly confident in front of crowds, but being master of ceremonies at a banquet made me nervous. This made it difficult to remember all of the brilliant plans I had mapped out in my mind. Too bad I didn’t do the intelligent thing and write them down.
Remember that you can’t control every detail. You can have the best banquet plan ever created, but rest assured there will be at least one glitch. Don’t sweat it. I did, and ended up leaving the banquet in a bad mood. But no one else seemed to mind that things didn’t go perfectly: many attendees even commented on how much they enjoyed the evening. Looking back, I wish I would have relaxed and enjoyed it more myself.
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