Walkathon Maven

If you are married, or have ever booked entertainment for a special event, then you have probably gone to spy on the potential entertainers at someone else’s wedding, or event.

You want to make sure they sound good – right?

You want to make sure the lead singer has all their teeth – yes?

You want to make sure they will work well for your big day.

Same idea goes for your outdoor event site where you will have a stage, or tents and tables for things like Registration, Merchandise Sales, etc…

You need to go for a site visit well in advance of your event to make sure it will work for you.

Please, visit your outdoor event site in the rain.

Visit your outdoor event site in the pouring, torrential rain.

It is important to see where the rain moves, flows and creates lakes or streams.

You want to make sure that your walkers are not standing in a body of water while they are waiting in line at your registration tent or table.

Please do not make your walkers wait in ankle-deep water to turn-in their information and hard-earned donations!

Depending on Mutha Nature’s mood, you may have a beautiful sunny day or a cloudy day or a full-out rained-soaked nightmare.

(I prefer a mostly cloudy day in the high 60s)

Being prepared for her potential wrath will allow your guests (walkers) to enjoy the day without much discomfort.

My tip for you event managers….  Bring extra dry socks!

I am always a new woman when I replace my dew-soaked-wet-socks with nice and dry socks!

Ah yes. The lovely children’s book that is partner to

Everyone Farts.  A mainstay in the bathroom library collection.

I actually plan on presenting these books to my children during

a birthday gathering with their friends when they turn 21, or 30.

Should be a delightful payback moment for me.  Can’t wait!

During my travels to train event staff about site logistics,

I always like to find out the name of their local toilet rental company.

Here are my faves –

Potty Queen

Throne Depot

Rent a Throne

pot o gold waste

Rosie’s Rentals

Handy House

Johnny on the spot

Johns Johns

Johnny Pots

Beautiful Loos

Porta Bowl

Super Bowl

Full Moon

Larry’s Latrines

Mr. Party Pooper

Bob’s Johns

Don’s Johns

Handy Johns

Potty 4 U

Leave me a comment to add your favorite!

Do you know the potty-calculation for determining how many potties you need at your event?

I’ll letcha know next time….

When a special fundraising event occurs, we celebrate it by sharing the news with anyone who will read or listen about it.  The subject gets dicey when you have an anniversary that ends in a 5, or a 0, and the reason for the special event is to fund something that everyone wants to go away – like a disease.

It is understandable that donors can get angry when a special event raising money for a disease, or cause, is still happening five, 10 or 20 years later.  Is there a conspiracy with the funds?  Has the cure been found and the money pipeline is too lucrative to shut off?

Gotta find the cause to find a cure.  Why is it taking so long?  How much money needs to be funneled into research before answers can be provided?  If you have ever spent time in a research lab, then you know that a fractional itty-bitty percentage of tests make it out of the beaker-and-test-tube-phase before they can be tested on animals.  A fractional itty-bitty percentage of the tests made on animals make it into a human drug trial. 

The clinical research trials on humans take several years before it can be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for marketing.   Nobody wants to celebrate something that should have been resolved years ago.   Nobody wants to take a drug that has been rushed through the clinical trials process to find that it will be recalled 10 years later and they only people getting ‘better’ are the class-action lawyers that are making millions off the pharma companies.  We’ve all seen the commercials.    Research is a process.  A long one.  And it needs your support.

Having said that, I read an article by Meghan Telpner on HuffPo about the money train.

One of my major pet peeves is when a company spends more on the marketing and packaging of their “pink product” than the total donation given to the benefitting organization.   Even more annoying is the when these companies just say “research” without naming the organization, researcher, or foundation.

Check out my LINKS tab to see the websites you can use as a resource to check out the financials and grades of some charities you may be thinking of supporting.   If you really want to financially help an organization or foundation, then writing a check directly to that non-profit would make more of an impact than buying some self-serving, shameful crap.

What’s the number one reason people do not give?

Because they were never asked!

If you were able to enjoy a ladies night out viewing the artsy classic

“Magic Mike”, then you saw him make his way around a nightclub prior to his late-night performance next door with his promo-postcards in hand.  He personally asked the ladies to join him later that night at the club next door.  Magic Mike is a good fundraiser.  Magic Mike knows that he needs to personally invite his constituents (read: ladies who like men that grind wearing g-strings) to his fundraising event.  Yes, the funds will be deposited into various pieces of spandex apparel and yes, his charity is the Magic Mike Foundation for Living Expenses. 

The Point?  People give money because they were asked.  Live, and in-person is best.  Next best is a phone call.  Think telemarketing calls during dinner.  Annoying?  Yes, but they work.

The laziest way to ask for money is electronically.  Feed your contacts into one of many online-giving websites and VOILA!  A mass-generated email sent to all of your contacts.  Not very personal.  Easy to delete. 

Check out this article I read in Boston Magazine. Read the last paragraph of the article. The author, Patrick Doyle, has a good point.

Whether it is a dinner party for 10, an event with 40 or a walkathon with 40,000 people –  personal invitations will give you a greater return on your relationship investment.