Countdown to a tremendous volunteer appreciation
dinner with this handy checklist.
• 4 months before the dinner
Select a date and put it on your calendar
Recruit teams to plan, prepare, present,
and promote
Meet with your teams and plan the event
Menu
Speaker
Special music/entertainment
Any gifts
Plan the promotion of the event
Bulletin flyers
Personal invitations
Mailings
Newsletters
emails
Decide how you'll fund the dinner
Special offering
Make a menu and ask for each part of the
meal to be donated by non-teachers
Budget for the dinner
Determine who'll be invited
Volunteers only
All volunteers and their spouses/guests
All volunteers and their families
Determine how clean-up will be handled
• 3 months
before the event
Continue to
promote
Plan the theme/decorations
and begin to make them or find "crafty" people who're able to
help
• 2 months
before the event
Promote with
mailings for volunteers to RSVP
Finalize the
menu and begin having people sign up for parts of the meal
• 1 month
before the event
Confirm with
your speaker, special music, and cleanup crews
Check with
the church janitor/setup person to finalize table setup
Confirm total
people attending
Confirm you
have all parts of the meal signed up for or make arrangements to purchase
the ingredients for the meal
If giving
gifts, make purchases and wrap for presentation
• 2 weeks
before the event
Be sure all
decorations are ready
Cleanup plan
is in place
• Day
before the event
Complete to
setup and decorating and make any grocery purchases necessary
• Day
of the event
Prepare food
Greet your
volunteers as they arrive
Enjoy the
event
• Day after
the event
Ensure that
cleanup is complete
Send a thank
you cards to the speaker, special music and any sound and set up people
as well as anyone who helped with decorations, food prep, and cleanup
