Unfriendly Church Member has organised an event which is set to flop. What can I offer to do to help?

[PrickedConscience]

Our church is arranging an even for Black History Month for 28th October. For it to be a success, at least 300 tickets at £10 each would need to be sold. So far less than 30 have been sold and the event is advertised as 'tickets available until 21st - advance sales only, no tickets available on the door'.

The event has been poorly organised and advertised - even within the church, and entertainment, food and other things have been ordered which the ticket sales are unlikely to meet. The objective is to raise money for the church, but it seems that the church will lose a fair bit of money this time.

I feel like I should offer to help in some way, but at this late stage, I just dont know what will help. The main organiser is not an approachable person and not someone who I am on friendly or even nodding terms with. Any suggestions?

(PS I have namechanged for this thread)

TIA

You need an urgent meeting with your church members who supported the idea, including this unapproachable person, and a last minute aggressive marketing strategy. e.g putting up posters in key places, giving everyone 10 tickets to sell etc

If you've done all this already, it's probably doomed to failure. To commit to such an event which sounds like it's going to cost over £3000 to set up without there being demand is plain bonkers. Hopefully your group will learn from this and think more carefully about organising such challenging events in the future.

I feel that even the most aggressive marketing strategy is too late at this stage. I think even this woman, who is also the chair of the organisers has resigned herslef to this. From what I have seen this week, a series of opportunities have been passed by. The church is attached to a school in an area that is not particularly residential and has a few private schools close by. That means that less people will be around as half term is this week for some schools and the following week for the others.

I agree that a meeting is the only way forward with this. The 'organisers' are a few people, some related to the said chairwoman.

It may be better to just cancel and cut the losses thus far? Do you think that is a negative suggestion? Maybe the event could be postponed and perhaps an arrangement made with the entertainers to try to minimise the financial loss. Or do you think it would just be better to abandon it altogether for this year?

I really have prayed hard about this, truly I have. The answer seems to be that this has happened to remind the organisers about the need and importance of unity and co-operation with the church and the broader community.

I do feel bad about the situation as one church member in particular has tried and is still trying really hard to salvage this situation.

Anyone else?

Get your printers printing NOW!
Send a letter home with pupils of local schools.
Contact local radio and ask them to read out the details.
Contact local paper and put details in there.
Get volunteers to post leaflets every evening until the event.
Ask local supermarket if you can sell tickets in their entrance (ooeer) if you mention their generosity on the programme at the event.

Forgot about half term, but means there are more volunteers available to distribute leaflets!

Nothing

Pray about it. Approach her - you might even be pleasantly surprised by her reaction. She is your sister in Christ, and you are part of the same body.

BTW, we always find with events is that the tickets sales or sign-ups never happen until the last minute.

Thanks for the suggestions received so far. Krib, Im confused by your post; I beleive that doing 'nothing' is not an option for me.

Agree, PC - it's not an option to do nothing.