Banquets at the end of a sport or officiating season can be a nice way of capping off a season of hard work. In order to pull off a successful banquet, it must be planned for. Some basic questions need to be answered. Where should the banquet be held? Who, other than members, can attend? Spouses or just members? Will food and drink be served? How will the expenses for the banquet be covered? By the association or those who attend? Once those questions have been answered, you can take tackle the following:
- Set the date for the banquet well in advance, at least three months, to give members time to plan for it. Be sure the date doesn’t conflict with other meetings members may have to attend. You don’t want the members to choose between the association and other obligations.
- Set an agenda for the banquet. While the banquet should be a light-hearted event, it should follow some structure. It can be as basic as social hour, dinner, awards and dismissal. Some associations have business meetings at their banquets. Agendas are very useful to keep the meeting from bogging down.
- Everyone loves to be praised for their achievements and officials are no different. Since officials don’t get praised when working, positive recognition is a must from your peers. Awards can vary from a certificate for postseason assignments to plaques for state assignments. Whatever you choose, be consistent with the awards and keep it within the financial capabilities of the association.
- Invite a guest speaker to attend the banquet. Ask a local conference commissioner, state representative or official who is working at high level of sports to attend the meeting and speak about issues that are relative to your group. Try and keep the speaker to a limited amount of time and be sure to open floor for questions.
- If your association has the financial means to purchase gift certificates or you can get them donated, they make great door prizes. Come up with different reasons for distributing them — perfect meeting attendance, having the highest test scores and the like.
- At the conclusion of the banquet, ask for feedback about the event. What can be done differently? Where can improvements be made? Don’t have the members give them to you that night, rather, have them email or phone suggestions to banquet organizers within two weeks of the event. That will give members time to fully appreciate the event and write about it in a more objective manner.
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