In the spirit of the Christmas season… our, 12 Days of Golf Outing Planning (backwards and without the Pear Tree thing)
On The First Day of Golf Outing Planning… Pick the date for your event. Keep in mind that Friday is the most popular day of the week. Monday’s are the norm for private clubs and weekends are expensive until the names of the months end in “ber”. Pick a morning shotgun start to save yourself a nice bit of money at a nicer facility if you don’t mind a luncheon as opposed to a dinner after golf.
On The Second Day of Golf Outing Planning… Choose your golf course. Don’t go directly for the cheapest facility! You get what you pay for and people will pay for what they get! You cannot charge $195 to play a course that typically costs $18 to play. Make sure you know your costs for lunch, dinner and golf, as well as taxes and gratuities. You don’t want any surprises the day of your event.
On The Third Day of Golf Outing Planning… Get a committee to “commit”. That doesn’t mean all together in a room at 7:30 pm up against Survivor on CBS… I know it seems like this would have been earlier, but sometimes “too many cooks” as they say, boogers up the sauce. And besides, now you have two less meetings on date of the event and location to worry about getting everyone together.
On The Fourth Day of Golf Outing Planning… Have committee ALL focus on one single job! ASKING GOLFERS TO PLAY! Nothing else. No other topic. Period. Nobody gets out of this job. Everyone must go through their friends and family list, Christmas card list, Facebook list, co-workers, health club buddies, car pool club, church group etc, etc, etc and REQUEST 6 to 8 people to play in the golf outing. That’s it! Not “if “they want to play?… But “CAN” you play? And fully expect a “yes” answer. Each person asked has to fill their foursome of course, and before you know it…. Your field is full and all each of you did was ask 6 – 8 of your closest friends. Close the meeting. Simple as that.
On The Fifth Day of Golf Outing Planning… Everyone reports back with their 6-8 people they asked to play and gets their new assignments. Drop the names and contact info of these people on the table (for dramatic effect ) if you like. This actually might be the very first face to face meeting you need. No sense wearing the group out. Some will drop out soon enough on their own anyway.
On The Sixth Day of Golf Outing Planning… Set up your online registration and start a Facebook page for the event. You will need the online registration website, including online payments quickly and each of you need to start pumping information about the golf event into that Facebook page immediately and often. Children, Grandchildren and neighbors need to be notified of its existence as well. SPREAD THE WORD and put the link to Facebook in your Online Registration page as well as into each of your email signatures for daily email. Then, use it! Post pictures, funny stories from events past, what this year’s event is promising and how it is shaping up… Unlike a corn field in Iowa, just because you build it, doesn’t mean they will come. And your clock is ticking.
On The Seventh Day of Golf Outing Planning… Choose the games that you will have for players on the course from SMT Golf Outings. The 7th day is typically a day of rest, so, do this one with your feet up and the football game on. You will need this information for day #8 – When you have them, post them on your Facebook page both for the outing and your personal Facebook pages.
On The Eight Day of Golf Outing Planning… Set up your sponsorship packages based off your decisions yesterday. Forget what you have done in the past for a moment, because you now have fun and cool stuff to sell sponsorships for. The old Platinum Sponsors are harder to find than Bigfoot. Grab yourself some low hanging fruit and move on. Use the games you have chosen yesterday and ask sponsors how you can help them. Ask them what they need as opposed to telling them what you need and don’t allow any of your committee to swap donations for rounds of golf in your event. Especially hole in one insurance!!!!! If you barter everything out, you have not made any money and you still need to pay the golf course after the event is over. This awakening will be rude indeed.
On The Ninth Day of Golf Outing Planning… Break your committee up into securing sponsors/donors and send them on their way. Don’t forget to give them instructions both on what they are selling and moreover what you expect from them in the way of productivity. Don’t be afraid to hand out small tokens of appreciation for a job well done. A gift card from a local movie theater or restaurant goes a long way. NOTE: if your goal is to raise $25,000 in raffle and silent auction items, you must plan on having double that amount in prize value on hand. Raffles and Silent Auctions are for bargain hunters. Live auctions are for your true supporters!
On The Tenth Day of Golf Outing Planning… Call another meeting for everyone to get together. By now you will know who has been most successful in securing their golfers and you can squeeze the slackers in your group to step up. Get a progress report from each person on donations and sponsorship dollars so each can see and be motivated by each other’s successes and find support and suggestions if they are lagging. It is a true Dr. Phil moment right there in your own living room.
On The Eleventh Day of Golf Outing Planning… Make sure everyone is back on track. If a full field of players are somehow not secured, ask your committee to lather, rinse and repeat day #4 immediately. If that is not possible… Bring in new committee members or spouses of the ones you now have just for this task! Don’t be afraid to actually mail out old fashioned invitations to your event playing up your cause. You know, with postage stamps on them. It is classy to get an invite in the mail with a nice RSVP card. Thirdly, ask the golf course to send out an email blast for your event asking for players since their course will be closed that day, and the revenue helps them anyway. Most will do it, oddly, only if you ask.
On The Twelfth Day of Golf Outing Planning… Simply double check everything with your committee. Tee signs and the guy printing them, logos from donors, the golf course to make sure the food is right and to keep them updated on number of players ( not that they care, but they will appreciate the update ) Player arrival gifts ordered, crossing your fingers for great weather and you better go and find your own golf clubs.
Of course this is a general outline, meant a bit in jest, but it really isn’t much more difficult than this. Simply rely on those in the golf business to help you. The golf course you have chosen does this every single day. Let them do their job. SMT Golf Outing Services does this every day. All we really leave you with, from the 12 Days of Planning above is to secure golfers and sponsors and we have golf outing packages that brings you all of the games and prizes that you need…
Enjoy it. Its only golf, and really, the golf has nothing to do with your goal at all! This is simply a money raising event held outdoors at a golf course.
We are here to help.