5 TIPS TO HELP YOU ORGANISE A WINDUP
This is it, the junior sports season is finally coming to an end. No more lost sleep on Saturday and Sunday mornings because you had to wake up early and take your child to their sports game. Whether it’s soccer, football, cricket or netball, we’ve all been there. Rushing to get equipment in order to take the kids straight to practice after school, waiting around making idle conversation with other parents and friends (of course, if you’re lucky they are ideally your new friends too). We’ve all been there, so read on for some tips on how to organise a windup.
SECURE YOUR LOCATION
It may seem silly that we’re mentioning it, but when you book a place, make sure it is 100% secured. There is nothing worse than the dreaded phone call a week before your event to say ‘Oh sorry, but we’ve accidently double booked, we have to cancel’. This means you have less than 7 days to secure a new place, which is not always possible. There are so many things to consider if you have a sudden location change. You have to let all the parents and friends know, which may affect the numbers attending if they cannot get to the new spot. You have to change your catering plans (what if the new location has no BBQ facilities) HOW WILL YOU GIVE PEOPLE THEIR BELOVED SNAG? If you’ve booked entertainment, you’ll need to let them know the new details, and this may also affect whether they can attend, depending on access to any required power or water. You now have a disaster on your hands. Of course, all of this can be avoided – just make sure you have that signed piece of paper to make sure the venue is booked for you. Don’t forget to book in advance, that way you know you’ve done your best to get the preferred location first.
PARENT VOLUNTEERS
You are the president of the club, but you can’t organise everything single-handedly. Ensure your team is well aware of what needs to be done to make sure the day is successful. Allocate tasks to each person, so no one crosses over.
This way you know every aspect is covered and hopefully, there are no hiccups on the day. You will need someone to take care of the location booking, the entertainment, the food, the trophy presentations to name a few. Make sure your committee meetings are held regularly enough so you can all agree on the decisions that need to be made and get back to your suppliers to avoid missing out. Get planning people!
BOOK ENTERTAINMENT
Once you’ve got the location and volunteers sorted, there are the day’s activities to consider, because we know kids need to be kept busy at all times.
Once the presentations are over and the food is finished, what are they going to do for the rest of the day? We think you should book some inflatables or amusements to keep them occupied.
If you’re stuck for ideas, sometimes going with a sports theme is a good place to start. For example, if you are hosting a soccer wind-up, why not run a few games of Bubble Soccer? This is a fun twist on the beloved game. Kids (and adults alike) will get to run around, kick the ball and bump into each other without being worried about getting injured. If cricket season is ending, the weather is traditionally still warm enough for water activities. Why not hire a water slide? In all honesty, the weather doesn’t matter when you are a child and even if it is a bit nippy on the day, we guarantee they will still be having a ball splashing around in the water. If you have the whole oval to yourselves, think about booking something really impressive. Perth’s Monsterball Amusements & Hire have recently added the 24FT FUN DIVE to their huge collection of inflatables. This one is a whopping 22m long. It’s safe to say no one will be bored with this unit around.
FOOD IDEAS
You can never go wrong with the humble sausage sizzle, Australia’s most well known and loved barbeque cuisine. Yes, we did call it cuisine, because that’s what it is! In all seriousness, though, this is often the best food to provide when on a budget and trying to cater for large amounts of people. It is always more cost efficient to buy in bulk and many stores or butchers have bulk packages available.
A sausage sizzle and a soft drink are an excellent combination, the kids will appreciate being allowed to drink Coca-Cola for the day too! Once again buying soft drink cans in bulk is the way to go. If you want to recover some of your costs or add to fundraising efforts, charge a fee for the combination and then ask for a gold coin donation for each additional drink there after. The other option is to have each parent bring a dish, whether it’s a salad, fruit platter, dessert or even some more drinks to share. This is a great way to get everyone involved in the wind-up and show their team spirit. Our friends from wassupdog could surely help you out with your catering needs ?
PRESENTATION CEREMONY
The ceremony has come around. Each child gets recognition for their dedication to training and playing the game they love over the past few months. We honestly think the parents deserve a trophy or, at the very least, some sort of reward for waking up just as early(earlier) and making sure your child made it to every game (we wish).
In all seriousness though it is always nice to personalise everything. Each child’s name is already engraved on their trophy, so a few words from the coach will go a long way towards boosting their self-esteem. Think about saying something special about each child and how they contributed to the team spirit over the past season. They will always remember Coach ‘Insert name here’ and their kind words for the rest of their lives.
We were joking when we said this is the end. It’s the end of a specific sport yes, but onto the next! Your child loves to keep active, so goodbye sleep, goodbye free time and goodbye social life. Just remember you love them very very much.
