Planning community events is a complicated and lengthy process. 5K runs, bike-a-thons, health and safety fairs, demonstrations, marches, rallies, outdoor festivals, street fairs, and carnivals require extensive planning, permits and organization.

Planning Community Events: the Planning Team

Planning community events is too much work for a single person. A planning committee is necessary to divide the work into manageable portions. A community event planning team is comprised of Chairpersons for the following categories: Overall Event, Logistics, Program/Agenda, Fund-raising, Media/Promotion, Space, Equipment, Food, Setup, Traffic Theme, Length, Speakers, Entertainment, Budget, Sponsors, Promotional Materials, and Media Packets. Each of these chairpersons can select and oversee a team of workers to complete their assigned tasks.

You should select each chairperson based on his or her prior experience, expertise, commitment to the event, willingness to work, and availability.

Planning Community Events: Setting Goals and a Timeline

Next up on the agenda for planning community events is setting your event goals and establishing a time-line. Determine what you wish your event to accomplish and outline clear objectives related to that goal.

Next, you need to establish a time-line for accomplishing each of your objectives. It is not unusual for a community event to take more than one year in the planning phase. It is better to allow enough time for unexpected problems than to push the clock and risk completing tasks poorly or overworking the event committees.

Planning Community Events: Financial Backing and Budgets

For any community event to be a success, solid financial backing must be obtained. This can come from paid advertising, donations, sponsors, or private contributions. You can also plan fundraising events to support your community event. These fundraisers can be held as far in advance as a year before the scheduled event.

Once solid financial backing has been established, a realistic and detailed budget must be created for the event. Setting a budget for a community event can be difficult. Selecting a few financially savvy people to serve on the budget committee can help make this process easier.

Planning Community Events: Management and Overseeing

Managing and overseeing the community events planning process is necessary to ensure that each committee is making adequate process, all permits are obtained, and city ordinances are followed. Overseeing the progress of each committee is the job of the head chairperson. If a committee is struggling with a particular task, extra help may need to be brought in to stay on schedule.

Planning community events is a large task that requires many hands to achieve success. This checklist is a simple guideline for beginning the community events planning process. More detailed information is available from your local library or event planning professional.

Are you looking for new picnic food ideas for your summer outing? Picnic foods need to be tasty, portable, and resistant to spoiling, and finding recipes that meet these requirements is challenging.

Finger foods are always a good choice for your picnic menu, but may not provide enough variety for more mature tastes. To keep you picnic food ideas fresh and healthy, try out a few of these picnic food ideas for your next summer outing.

Picnic Food Ideas

*Try packing fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole chesses for a fresher picnic menu. You can tuck a small cutting board and a sharp knife to prepare your foods on the spot.

*Avoid packing any picnic foods that contain mayonnaise, eggs, or dairy products to avoid the risk of food poisoning. Meats and fish should also be used with caution. If you include meat on your picnic menu, be sure to keep it cool and out of the sun.

*Instead of coleslaw, try shredded broccoli with carrots and a light salad dressing.

*Mixed nuts make great alternative picnic finger foods.

*Salsa and tortilla chips are safer, and healthier, than dairy-based dips.

*A few alternatives to the traditional sliced bread sandwich are wraps, bread pouches, croissants, bagels, and crackers. You can stuff these sliced bread alternatives with your favorite veggies or sandwich ingredients.

*Summer fruits and vegetables are great picnic items. Zucchini, squash, tomatoes, watermelon, strawberries, peaches, pears, and grapes are perfect for picnic totes.

*For a lighter picnic menu, replace that traditional fried chicken with cold chicken strips tossed in Italian dressing or your favorite barbeque sauce. You can serve the chicken on bread, pita wraps, or over cold pasta.

*Picnic beverages should be refreshing if you plan to spend time in the sun. Be sure to check if alcoholic beverages are prohibited near your chosen picnic destination before packing a bottle of wine or your favorite beer. Always include bottled water for extra hydration during your outdoor activities.

*For a little added twist, include fresh lemon slices, lime wedges, and peppermint sprigs to flavor your iced tea or water.

* Picnic food ideas for a romantic picnic could include finger foods, like whole strawberries, cheese chunks, and sliced French bread. Avoid recipes that call for broccoli, beans, garlic, or onions to reduce unpleasant odors during your romantic picnic. Include your sweetheart’s favorite foods and don’t forget to pack something sweet for dessert.

*For a picnic with kids, pack individual ingredients and allow kids to prepare their own picnic creations. Sandwich ingredients, mix-your-own fruit and veggie salads, individual cold pizzas, and decorated deserts are always a hit with kids.

Creating your own picnic food ideas allows you to incorporate your favorite foods into your picnic menu. Picnic food ideas should be fun, tasty, and easy to transport without spoiling.

Be sure to pack a few plastic bags to cart home the leftovers, and pack a few extra crackers to feed the ducks, birds, and squirrels that are may invite themselves to your picnic.

Coming up with ideas for bridal shower games is one of the major tasks of planning a bridal shower. If you are a bridesmaid looking for ideas for bridal shower games, these game ideas will help you make your loved one’s bridal shower a fun-filled success.

Ideas for Bridal Shower Games: Don’t Say It

This game begins as soon as the guests begin arriving. Each guest is given three decorated clothespins when they arrive. They are instructed to not say the words “wedding” or “bride”. In turn, each guest is to try to get the other guests to say these two forbidden words. When a guest is caught saying wedding or bride, they must give up a clothespin to the person who first calls them on slipping up. The guest with the most pins at the end of the shower wins a prize.

Ideas for Bridal Shower Games: Bridal Bingo

Guests are each given a blank Bingo card before the bride begins opening presents. Each card should have five columns and five rows, for a total of 25 blank squares. Each guest writes in his or her best guesses as to the gifts the bride is likely to receive at the shower. As the bride opens her gifts, guests mark off any that appear on their card. The first person to get five in a row yells out, “BINGO”, and wins a prize.

Ideas for Bridal Shower Games: Guess the Legs

This game is sure to bring a few laughs, but it requires cooperation from a good-natured groom. Before the wedding shower, recruit the groom and four or five other men to visit the shower at a given time. (The game only takes a few minutes of their time, unless they decide to stay for refreshments.)

Blindfold the bride and have the men enter the room with their pants rolled up to their ankles. The blindfolded bride must feel each set of legs to determine which ones belong to her beloved.
If she’s successful and can pick out her groom, reward her with a prize, if not, the prize goes home with the groom.

Ideas for Bridal Shower Games: What’s Inside

This game begins by passing out a page listing items that may be found in a woman’s purse. Each item is given a point value with the rarest items earning more points. Each woman rummages through her purse in search of items on the list.

The final question can be used as a tiebreaker, or just for fun. Ask the guests who believes they have the most unusual item in their purse. The bride votes for the most unusual item and awards an extra 10 points to the owner.

Ideas for bridal shower games are abundant, but not all games are appropriate for every bridal shower. Consider the guests who will be attending and avoid any games that may be considered offensive.

Company Party planners like us have seen all kinds of corporate events and parties.

Just as celebrating a holiday, birthday, anniversary, or hosting a family gathering is important to the health and growth of your family; it is equally as important to the well being of your company.
In today’s world it is hard to find quality employees, hard working staff members, and people who you can trust to make a commitment to your business in the manner which you know it requires. When you finally do find the people you need – it is in your best interest to make them feel appreciated.

Maintaining employee relations and encouraging quality extracurricular interaction among staff can produce bonds which will ultimately build your business. Taking the time to pull people aside and saying a heartfelt “Thank You for a Job Well done” has immeasurable effects on company moral, employee loyalty, and the longevity of your company.

Hosting a company event or celebration is a great way to nurture the relationships which keep your company going. Giving back to those who have given their time and commitment to the company encourages people to continue the commitments they have made. It is also a great way to find new people to continue a companies growth.

When your employees talk about the good things your company does for them- it often creates a desire in other people to work for your company!

The bottom line is that creating memories which your staff will remember for years to come will instill a sense of pride which will translate into a commitment to your company which can be attained no other way. Creating memories of a happy workplace creates discussion, interaction, and makes your company a desirable place to work which in turn brings you higher quality workers.

Our mobile ropes course is the ideal attraction to have for any event.

We have utilized it for team building activities, at carnivals and fairs, school events, celebrations, and all sorts of other special events. You can see some video of it in action by clicking the following link: Ropes Course Video

The ropes course features all kinds of elements and challenges including rope swings, tight ropes, tremor bridges, and even a fire mans pole to slide down.