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ON-SITE PROGRAMMING

knowing what to do when you get there

After months of planning, it is going to be so exciting (maybe a bit stressful) once you finally arrive at your venue and anticipate the students coming. The person who is in charge of programming could be on-site coordinator or delegate this task to someone else.

Here is a sample checklist that you can tweak for your campus. Simply make a copy and refine your list.

Fall Retreat Item Checklist

WHAT SHOULD I DO ONCE I GET TO THE VENUE?

Once you arrive, check in with the camp, hotel, etc. staff and make sure everything is sorted with payment, waivers, rooms, and food. After becoming oriented with the staff here are some helpful next steps.

Set up the registration with all of the necessary materials
Gather your staff and leaders for the weekend to cast vision for the retreat, pray for life change, and go over agenda details, including everyone’s personal roles and responsibilities (this could happen earlier in the week)

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO STAY ORGANIZED DURING THE WEEKEND?

In addition to your weekend schedule, a detailed timeline promotes greater event flow. Expand the weekend schedule to include specific times what times the emcee goes on stage, videos are shown, icebreaker games are played for your leaders and tech people to follow.

WHAT IS MY BIG FOCUS?

Since most of your planning should be done ahead of time, focus on the production side. Production can make all the difference in main meetings in showing videos, worship and message slides, making sure the music is loud enough, and setting the ambiance through lighting and background music. Consider the theme and evaluate what's being said up front by speakers, the emcee, testimonies... Are they leading you where God is calling you to go? Is some onsite coaching needed?

Remember to think of your audience and their growth steps are during this setup and how you can best facilitate that.

ONCE I HAVE PLANNED AND SCHEDULED ALL THE CONENT AND COMMUNITY PORTION, WHERE SHOULD I FOCUS NEXT?

Although it doesn't have to go in this exact order (check out the timeline for that info), you can take a stroll through the operations guide to make sure all the programming is in line with your capacity.

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