How to be an Effective Prom Planner
How to be an Effective Prom Planner
Being chosen as the prom planner or head of the prom planning committee for your prom is a great honor and distinction. To be given such a responsibility means that the school recognizes your management and executive capability. It is however, a big task that requires great attention to details and a lot of coordination to ensure that the prom turns out to be perfect. To help you plan a perfect prom that will do you, your committee and your school proud, here are some planning pointers for you:
• Prepare a check list of all the details, big and small, that need to be attended to and do a tasking assignment. Assign tasks to committee members within their known area of expertise.
• The theme of the prom should be decided by the entire committee but the details of the decoration can be assigned to a member.
• If the prom will be held outside of the school and choosing a venue is one of the duties of your committee, take this task as your own personal assignment. This is a most important element in ensuring the success of the prom.
• Prepare evaluation criteria of what would be an ideal prom night venue such as price and what the price includes, safety and accessibility of the location, ample parking space, venue capacity, its sound and lighting facilities, and the venue’s capability to handle a band.
• You can also request for suggestions from your members and evaluate the proposed venues as a team.
• In choosing entertainment, ask the committee member assigned to take care of this aspect to submit at least three alternatives that the whole committee can deliberate on. All the committee members can even go and watch the bands perform live so that you will have a basis for comparison.
• Selection criteria for a band should be its flexibility and ability to perform different types of music and its dependability. You want to make sure that when prom night arrives there will be a band to provide the music. Some bands are pretty notorious for their unreliability.
• DJs have become very popular fixtures in proms. Discuss with the committee if the prom budget would allow the hiring of a DJ. The selection of a DJ should go through the same process as selecting a band.
• Once the committee has selected a band or DJ or both, have a contract of undertaking prepared with all the details that you have agreed upon written in clear and understandable terms – the price and what it includes such as sound and light equipments, mode and time of payment, time, date and address of the prom venue, time they are expected to be in attendance. Be very explicit to prevent some switch and bait ploy. Ensure also that the band or DJ or both are covered by a liability insurance.
• Call for regular committee meetings to get an update of each and every committee member’s progress in their assigned task. If help is needed by a particular committee member assigned to a task of say coming up with fund raising activities, or prom décor, all the members of the committee particularly you, as the head of the committee should be ready to lend a hand.
