Volunteer Event Coordinators Engage with Community

Sometimes the best candidates who serve as event coordinators are those who do promotional events for their own business. They naturally want their business district to gain attention. A coordinator should have enthusiasm for events and people.

Event coordinators lead volunteer planning committees by engaging their community.

A strong personality, often referred to as a “Type A” personality, is an excellent a tribute for this important volunteer job. Coordinators are natural leaders--they are often managers or owners of their own companies with an entrepreneurial bent. The coordinator is the traffic manager who keeps track of all information for the street fair. He or she archives what happens at meetings, produces reports and keeps lists up to date.

Ideally, the coordinator doesn’t have to take meeting notes, but good note-taking skills are essential. Coordinators capture information and keep copies of everything to repeat the event in future years. The coordinator’s primary role is to make sure everyone else is doing their job, tasks arecompleted, and to address issues that arise. Coordinators keep a detailed planning list to track “must-do” tasks for the committee.

To keep organized, coordinators can use a checklist or “Timeline and Task list” (T & T) that includes must-do tasks, deadlines and a point person for each task. If your fair is becoming a big annual event, extend your planning timeline out to twelve months, 10 months is an ideal timeline for a volunteer business group to start planning for the next year. 

As part of your evaluation process, consider starting to plan the next year. Ask planning committee members to recommit right away after evaluating your fair.

Attached: Street Fair Planning Committee sample table 

For for more ways to level up your event, read the comprehensive event planning guidebook by seasoned neighborhood business consultant, Bridget Bayer:

Street Fairs for Community and Profit:

How To Plan, Organize and Stage a Sensational Street Fair While Building Community

It’s a nuts-and-bolts book that will especially help new groups in planning—and actually executing—a street fair. For experienced organizers, it will help them PROFIT from their event. www.streetfairguide.com