In my experience, charity dinners are usually the result of the hard work of at least five mums. The committee is formed eight months before the event, and it meets at least twice a month. Hours are spent agonising over chicken dijon or beef medallions and if it should be black tie or let's be crazy, how about a Bollywood theme? Activity increases to a crescendo in the last three weeks leading up to THE EVENT. Are the raffle tickets back? Can you go to HobbyCraft to pick up silver coated twigs? And some white silk lillis? More meetings. Lots of phone calls. Texts. Add it all up and it must be at least 200+ woman hours. 160 coffees. 240 chocolate digestives. Not to mention the lost sleep.
Our local Scout leader proved this theory all wrong. He organised a dinner ON HIS OWN. No meetings. No coffees. A few emails. Invites were word docs with clip art and last minute, one mum picked up some candles, flowers and ivy from her garden to decorate the tables.
At the end of the evening the tables were littered with empty wine bottles. There wasn't a raffle but we did play "heads and tails" and there was an auction of promises with chalets in France, Switzerland and Austria. He must have brought in at least £5k.
There's a lesson here somewhere. I just have to much of a hangover to figure it out.
Photo credit: Rachel Ford James
I've found that anything involving meetings is bound to cause procrastination! Good on that scout leader! Hope your head feels better soon x
Posted by: Trish@Mum's Gone to | 06 February 2010 at 11:15 AM
@Trish it's the meetings that do it every time, perhaps we shouldn't call them that...
Posted by: A Modern Mother | 06 February 2010 at 11:29 AM
Just goes to prove my thery. I avoid anything to do with comittee, it is just an excuse for people to feel important and talk about doing things, rather than actually doing!!
Posted by: TheMadHouse | 06 February 2010 at 12:03 PM
@madhouse it can go both ways but yes I am defo avoiding committee these days...
Posted by: A Modern Mother | 06 February 2010 at 12:26 PM
But chocolate digestives are very nice, they're worth procrastinating for. Sounds like you need to continue with another glass of wine - feel better soon!
Posted by: Calif Lorna | 06 February 2010 at 04:34 PM
That made me laugh!
Posted by: Iota | 06 February 2010 at 05:03 PM
Brilliant! Too many cooks etc is probably why it can take women longer to organise an event. Your scout leader sounds hugely efficient and capable of making excellent decisions without having to consult far too many sources. Has he thought of running for Prime Minister?
Posted by: Rosie Scribble | 06 February 2010 at 06:19 PM
I'd do anything for some chocolate digestives, even turn up at a meeting. How's your head? I've also got a real hangover here, an unexpected dinner, with lots of wine, no promises of chalets but no administration either. Hooray for fun nights!
Posted by: Brit In Bosnia | 06 February 2010 at 07:24 PM
We have a funraising bash every other year (and a mini one in between), and the committee is bloody enormous. I do the annual garage/jumble sale because we get in there, roll our sleeves up and just work. One meeting once a year is all we have. Fabulous!
Posted by: Expat Mum | 06 February 2010 at 08:04 PM
Sounds like a great night!
I've had it with female committees; I'm sorry to be stereotypical, but they do seem to prevaricate and procrastinate more than men...
Posted by: MTJAM | 06 February 2010 at 09:20 PM
This is cracking me up.
A couple of years ago, my husband volunteered me to organize the end-of-year picnic for my son's school (an event which has oh, about 500 guests).
Being a working mom who hadn't volunteered for very much with the PTA before, I did what I usually do (I'm a project manager), I made a list, set up a timeline and set to it.
Everything went swimmingly.
On the day of the event, I had countless gushing compliments from parents + staff. I thought everyone was going overboard a little.
The following year the same event was organized (chaired in the proper parlance) by a committee of 5. I think I actually broke a school rule by running the thing myself!!
p.s. There's a group of four gals involved in organizing and running the Passports With Purpose annual travel-and-mom-blogger fundraiser. It's definitely more fun with coffee, cupcakes + chocolate cookies.
Posted by: wandermom | 07 February 2010 at 03:17 AM
I used to arrange gala dinners annually at work. I had everything in hand and arranged but it was my male boss who liked to rearrange all my well made plans a hundred times.
Used to drive me batty!
Definitely too many cooks...
:D
Posted by: Insomniac Mummy | 07 February 2010 at 03:21 AM