So you've provisionally booked the paintball venue; sent e-mails out to everyone you can think of and got a good response and now you're asking them for money to pay the deposit.
For many organisers, this is where the trouble begins.
ORGANISING YOUR COLLEAGUES:
THE PROBLEM When you first booked you had 30 people all saying they would love to go paintballing for the day. Everyone has given it the seal of approval but no one wants to organise it. Perhaps they know something you don't.
People are always happy to say yes to something until it comes to paying.
They then act as if they didn't know anything about it or had forgotten and made other plans for the weekend.
If they don't come up with that 'lame excuse' they will find another just as bad.
It only takes a few people to drop out and you can end up finding yourself with an exodus. When this happens, you may lose interest yourself and just cancel the whole thing.
THE OBJECTIVE The strange thing is that if they were all to pay their £10 and turn up on the day, they'd all love it and want to go again as soon as possible, plus you would be a hero for organising the whole damn thing in the first place.
There are however ways and means of making people live up to their promises simply by using a bit of psychology.
THE SOLUTION [1] CHOOSING A DATE When booking the event, try to pick a date close to the end of the month when everyone gets paid and the disposable income is in plenty supply. This dispenses with the 'I can't afford it this week' excuse.
[2] SELLING THE IDEA Firstly I recommend recruiting a helping hand. Someone else who also knows all the people you are likely to invite and perhaps some more. The more people the merrier because you are bound to have a few drop outs eventually.
You and your helper must initially sell the idea in order to get the initial momentum going amongst your colleagues. The trick is to sell it to the most important people first. 'Important', in that whatever they say seems to get agreement from everyone else; they are 'leaders', not the 'led'. You achieve this by thinking of what positives the day holds for those few individuals. You can work this out by knowing what motivates them. For some people it's a way of having some fun and unwinding; for others it's an opportunity to shoot the boss or be seen to be a team player by the management. Whatever the motive, use it when approaching a key person. If you are approaching a manager try to think of positive reasons why he/she should attend. These are perhaps building better relationships and producing a more positive and productive work force or being seen to to be in control by being captain of the team.
This works when you approach two managers that are perhaps feuding over something or compete with each other constantly. You make both managers a team captain by telling each of them that the other manager is considering attending, as a team captain. Not only will both managers attend but they'll also make sure that their department also turns up on the day making your job even easier.
One other way of selling the idea initially is by inviting a company supplier or company client at the outset. If you get a good response from the other company and have established a Co-organiser from within their ranks, you have solved %50 of the problem. Organisers who achieve this often get a better response from their own company. There are many reasons for this so I will only give a few. Managers see the event as being an opportunity to entertain their suppliers/clients, staff simply go out of curiosity and see it as a social event with people that they quite like but have never met. Often, relationships with individuals outside of a company can be better than those within a company. Strange but true.
[3] GETTING A FIRM COMITTMENT Once you have a small list of 'important' people who have said they'd like to go, place the list on the notice board with space for others to add their e-mail address and telephone number.
Make sure the list has the event date and location at the top of the page plus a note saying that anyone who puts their name down to go 'owes you £10 for the deposit which you will pay on their behalf on Friday to the paintball company'. This is in fact a little 'white lie', but it does make people think twice before putting their name down. They are also twice as unlikely to try any of the lame excuses mentioned earlier. In fact, this really is the psychological trick that makes life easy when organising deposits. People feel like they have actually paid £10 already even though they haven't. They are committed to pay you even though you are not committed to pay anything to the paintball company.
In case you are wondering, what if the paintball company decides to give the booking to someone else. The answer is they won't. You normally book at least a month in advance and that gives you plenty of time to get the deposit together. Deposits usually need to be with the paintball company at least one week prior to the event although this period may differ from company to company.
"Just a quick email which I hope can be passed on to those that marshalled and organised the day paintballing. Our group had a great time and enjoyed all of it, even the stag hunt!!
It was a great day and we all felt is was very well organised and as safe as paintball can be. We all spent the evening comparing bruises and tactics like true war veterans.
I hope this can be passed on to all concerned.
Thanks again "Gary Finch
Organising
Quad Bikes ..
Birthday Treat..
Combat Games Ltd, 31 St Georges Terrace. Brighton, BN2 1JJ.