Planning events
Planning should start early in the calendar year to encourage community involvement and allow time to seek available grants and sponsorships that may assist the event.
Community involvement helps:
- keep the community informed through word-of-mouth
- reduce levels of misconception and misinformation
- increase ownership of the event by the community
- students to better understand local needs
- identify a broader range of ideas and issues that might not have been considered.
Key stakeholder and community interest will generally be around the issues of risk management and successful, positive and safe event coordination.
Activities you can use to involve your community in an event include:
- public meetings
- presentations to local groups such as Rotary, Lions and other service clubs
- newspaper stories and advertisements inviting participation
- local television and radio stories
- advertisements inviting community participation and seeking sponsorship.
Results of consultation need to be fed into the decision-making process right from the beginning, for example:
- write up the resolutions and actions arising out of meetings and consultation
- let people know clearly and concisely the critical points raised in the consultation and the resolutions and actions arising out meetings
- publicise the resolutions and actions arising from meetings through local media, including radio, newspapers, ads on community notice boards.
- Organising events
- General considerations when involving the community in consultation
- Risk management
- Finding sponsors
- Event management
- Dealing with the media
- Further information
Last updated: 30 June 2008.