[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][text_output] Are you looking for an extra “outreach” event to host this semester on your campus? Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and it appeals to almost all of the students on your campus. Here’s a quick checklist to guide you through throwing your very own Valentine’s Day Dance! You may not be able to do all of this if you start planning for this year now, but this will help you get off to a great start and give you something to build on.
- Pick a date. No, not that kind of date :). You may choose to host your dance the week-of Valentine’s Day on the day that your group already meets. For example, my group meets on Thursday nights, so we’re planning our dance for the Thursday prior to Valentine’s Day.
- Set goals. Why are you throwing this dance? To meet new people? To build your internal culture? A good goal for your dance is to make everybody feel welcome, whether a single person or couple is attending. Valentine’s Day can be an awkward time for singles and couple alike. There’s a lot of different kinds of pressure coming from multiple directions for both singles and couples. Keep your dance fun, inviting, and pressure-free.
- Reserve a room. Make sure your room has enough room to host more people than your usual meeting space. On my campus, we host these kind of dances every semester, and we see almost double the amount of people that come to our regular large-group meetings. Also, do yourself a favor and make sure that the room has a cool vibe, enough space for people to dance, and table and chairs to put around the outside of the room for the wallflowers :).
- Get a DJ. This is a cool opportunity for building relationships with another club on campus. If your school has a radio station, or music club, get in touch with them to ask about sending a DJ your way. Just be clear with the DJ that you don’t want any vulgar or sexual language in your songs. Also, slow songs are awkward. We’ve had really great experiences hosting different DJs from different clubs on campus. It’s a great way to build a relationship with a new student, and get their club involved. Also, these student DJs get really pumped if you can afford to give them a little bit of money for their service.
- Put a party committee together. Usually, you can get a few students really riled up about putting an event like this together, which means you don’t have to do it all yourself! Oh, the glory! Just make sure you’re in communication with this committee and guide them through any steps that they get stuck.
- Set a budget. Your event will have expenses in terms of snacks, DJ, advertisements, and decorations. How much can you afford to spend? Usually $50-70 gets us pretty far for an event like this.
- Train your leaders to welcome new people. It’s nice to throw a party for the sake of throwing a party, but you’re on a mission to reach the lost on your campus! Talk with your student leaders before the event and remind them that there will be people coming through your doors who may have no idea about Jesus. This is an important opportunity for your student leaders to welcome them and befriend them.
- Get an official photographer. This has been a great element for our dances in the past. This person doesn’t need to be a professional, but I’m willing to bet that you have a student with a decent camera, and who likes to take pictures. If not, what an opportunity to hook up with the photography club on campus! At our events, we usually create some sort of photo-booth, and the students are usually pretty pumped to take pictures with each other. After the event, we throw the pictures on our Facebook page and tag as many people as we can. These photos generate the most traffic and engagement on our Facebook page out of any other activity, and we usually squeeze a few “likes” out of the deal too, allowing us to connect with more people about what we’re up to!
- Advertise. This is pretty simple, but let your campus know that you’re hosting this event. Have your students hang fliers, advertise on the school radio station, make a Facebook event, etc. The more the merrier!
- Have fun. Get out to the dance floor and bust a move! If you’re like me and hate dancing, find another way to have fun, like taking slow-motion videos of your students dancing to a “bass drop”, or meeting new students.
Leave a comment and let me know how your event goes, or ask any questions you have! [/text_output][author title=”About the Author”][/vc_column][/vc_row]