O Captain, my Captain!

Walt Whitman wrote those words over a century ago, and I'm fairly confident that he would have no idea how relevant those short words would be to fundraisers today.

I'm talking about table captains, and these small group of people can really fire up your special events and take them to the next level.

As you plan a special event, it's imperative that you have the right people recruit and more importantly engage with participants prior to the event. While it's nice to count on some people to just 'fill the table', it's exponentially better to have someone that is connected and willing to reach out and sell your organization for you.

For example, at a fundraising banquet I've attended for the last several years, there's always one table sponsored by a local bank. This table is usually nearly empty- they pay for the table but for whatever reason it's been sparsely full the last three years.

Since this particular event is at capacity, I really think the organization should reevaluate the purpose of the event. If the event's focus is to purely raise money, then fine- have plenty of empty but full ($$$) tables.

However, special events are not the most efficient money-makers, and it's much better to have an energetic table captain recruit and engage participants to bring them closer to your mission. This strategy pays off in spades as you develop relationships that turn into much larger donations in the future.

For the Love of the Game

While some companies sponsor semi-professional soccer teams, we've decided to sponsor my son's T-Ball team this year.

If you haven't seen (or remember) a first year T-ball game, it's quite a sight. The kids are genuinely happy to just play for the love of the game.

Everybody hits.

No one strike outs.

No one keeps score.

Everyone high fives each other and then it's a race to have a snack.

Beautiful.

My son Michael's T-Ball team. Michael is wearing #2. There's a spelling mistake on the shirt- can you find it? (It was too late to change it, and besides, why have the non-profit little league organization throw away perfectly good shirts)

Team Building Eggs-ercise...

Last week we held an annual meeting of all of our team leaders and senior management. As part of the agenda, we included a team building exercise. After all, in just the last year we've added 5-6 new managers and we thought it would be a rather clever idea to make sure they actually knew each other.

We settled on an Egg Drop Team exercise, and it was very successful. I've participated in several variations over the years, and it's a fun activity to hold for almost any group of people, including your staff, volunteers, or even board members!

The premise is simple- the group is broken up into several teams of 3-4 people each. Each team is given the same materials to build a container that will successfully enable an egg to survive a drop from 9 feet. The materials can be almost anything, and in our case we included 2 cups, soda straws, paper clips, 3 feet of masking tape, etc. At the end of this blog I've included the actual directions and material list- feel free to use these directions or modify them as you wish.

One thing that’s not in the directions is that you can inject elements that reflect your actual team projects. For example, half-way through the exercise, we had a member of each team switch to another team. And then a little later, we changed the specifications of the goal. You can come up with your own changes that typically challenge a project’s momentum or possibly even its ultimate success.

The key to the exercise is to share the feelings and reactions from each team member. Usually (but not always), there's one member who will 'take control' of the project, or another member may act as a 'spy' for other teams, while another may simply act as a passive observer. It's also likely that some teams will fail and in our case, half of the teams did fail. Questions to ask here include "How did it feel to watch other teams succeed?" or "What was it like when your egg cracked?"

This exercise can teach people the value of teamwork, and the importance of knowing and understanding the effects that success and failure can bring within an overall organization. After all, what happens when a committee in your organization is behind on an initiative? Or if one special event is more successful than another? By sharing their feelings, your staff/volunteers/board members can better understand the importance of teamwork and who knows- maybe they just might invent a better egg drop device!

One final word: Remember the large plastic garbage bag to catch the dropped projects. And wear old shoes.

Some interesting designs ready for their test flight.
Make sure to cover the floor with a spare trash bag!

Operation Team EGG Drop!

Teams will be split up with 3-4 members per team.

Objective: To create a device so that an egg will survive a drop of 9 feet without breaking.

Materials: Each team will be given the following materials to build their device.

• 1 Egg (non Boiled)
• 3 Feet of Masking Tape
• 15 Soda Straws
• 2 Pencils
• 5 Paper Clips
• 2 Cups
• 1 Pair of Scissors

Guidelines:

1. You will have 10 minutes of design time per team. No construction of the actual device should take place. The design should be drawn so that all team members agree with the design.
2. When the design time is finished, each team will have 15 minutes to construct their device.
3. You should use at least one item from each list above in your final device.
4. You should name your device, and come up with 3 benefits and 3 features of your solution.
5. You should not borrow or copy another teams design. Please stay at your table.
6. One member of each team will present their device- the moderator will drop the device.
7. The Winner(s) will be those teams that design a device that successfully protects an egg from a single drop of 9 feet.