Next week we will be sending out a great Poster for your Notice Board to let you know when the all important Prom Committee Meeting is to be held.

Let us know when you see it on your notice board and you will be entered into a competition for itunes vouchers!

Spread the word!

Prom Fayre

Albrighton Hall Hotel and Spa, in Shrewsbury held their first Prom Fayre on October 20th. The evening was a great success with over 50 local girls modeling an amazing array of prom dresses from Jessica’s Bridal in Frankwell and Shropshire Designer Grace Barby of Grace and Glory.

Viv Kelly Dance school also performed 2 routines one in amazing funky tights from Thighs the Limit based in Mardol, Shrewsbury. There were lots of exhibitors with a great choice of accessories and jewellery from Masque Boutique, MeMe Mode and Solo Jewellery all local independent companies.

The boys weren’t left out as 2 local boys modeled suits from Skopes a new menswear concession located in House of Fraser.Local hairdresser Claire Greenhow was on hand not only to do all the models hair but also continued to show the audience lots of great prom hairstyles.

Brian Fisher Photography and Malcolm Whittall local cartoonist,amused us all.The atmosphere was extremely party-like with one of the suites dressed as an actual prom night,complete with helium balloons supplied by the Giant Party shop,disco, fantastic lighting, a lifesize James Bond model and even giant Oscars, supplied by Solid Gold entertainment.

Get me to the Prom on time!

 The theme didn’t just stop inside the hotel, there were vehicles from 2XL Limousines and a Vintage bus from Bolton's, and even a Red London double decker. 

 The raffle raised over £170 for the Breast Cancer Campaign, first prize was a Prom dress,which was won by a lady who booked her Summer ball at the Albrighton Hall Hotel on the evening,she was absolutely delighted.

Fiona Clarke, Business Development Co-Ordinator for the hotel said “ We really wanted to showcase all the local talent we have and give the teenagers some inspiration, the girls had a fabulous time and looked fantastic,the feedback has been so positive, I was even asked if I would do another one this year, we will definitely be making it an annual event, so date for your diary 19th October 2012.”

For more information contact Fiona 01939 291732

Hello,
I organised my 6th form leavers prom last June and used your website for advice. It was very helpful so thought I'd mention some things I think you could add as a sort of thank you
Personally, I'd love to see a "6th form/ college prom" section. There are just as many of these as there are proms for after GCSEs, in my area at least, but the main difference is that most people are over 18. The biggest problem I had was that there was a mix, with 2 months worth being under 18. Obviously everyone wanted a bar but many venues rejected us straight out as they refused to have a mix. One club accepted us and I told them around 16% would be minors. On the night it turned out many guys had brought girls in the year below as +1s. This led to around 30% being under 18 and the club stopped letting them in. This led to a huge fiasco outside and I had to get the owner there as the manager was no help. The owner showed up in a land rover with what looked like personal security… a bit mafia esq! After a while of shouting from both sides and pretty intense bargaining, he offered to hire in extra bouncers and split the club into two areas, one of which under 18s couldn't go.

This happened because I failed to get a written contract of all their terms and conditions. I had written confirmation of our booking but nothing about their policy on what happened. I understood that under 18s were a problem but his verbal agreement that it would be workable and us paying extra for more bouncers (which he didn't actually provide until it all went to hell) convinced me it would be fine.   Check out venue tips here

Anyway, this is a long winded story of how my prom went wrong and I think it would be great if you had a page stressing the importance of drinking laws and the rules and tips on how to play it safe.

My advice would be:
1) When taking tickets, calculate exactly how many under 18s there are going to be.
2) Make it perfectly clear how many there will be and keep the venue informed throughout the ticket sales process.
3) If the club give strict numbers of minors, don't sell under 18 +1 tickets until everyone else has had a chance to buy them. That way, under 18s in the leaving year have priority.
4) Get a written signed contract stating the venues backup plans, i.e., what has to happen for everyone to be kicked out/stop letting people in?

That was my main issue and one that I think other 6th form prom teams would find very useful.

Another small issue I had was with photographers. The school IT guy also runs a photography company and he quoted us £350 to show up and take set shots with a screen where students would have to pay around £10 online for prints  and an extra £700 for someone to take roaming photos and give them to us on a disk to put on the Facebook group.
I thought that was way too much so I paid them for the set shots but hired a friend with my mums SLR camera for £100 to take the roaming photos and give them to me. This was fine until the professional guy found out and got angry at me threatening to take me to court over it… clearly not a very nice guy if he was willing to take money from students. Anyway, perhaps making it clear that photographers don't like to have other companies there as well would be helpful.

Other than that, things that worked well:
1) I took £350 cash with me to buy rounds of 50 shots, line them along the bar and get everyone there to take them all at once. Didn't end up doing this annoyingly, due to the under 18 nightmare!
2) Phoning taxi companies and getting lots of discount cards to put on the door and telling them when the prom ended.
3) Buying bottle openers with the school name on it (people loved this)

Anyway, sorry for the long email! Just thought my experiences might be of use!

Kind Regards,

Steve

View details here ( www.ukpromshow.co.uk)  with a list of exhibitors, links to exhibitor’s web sites. Directions to the venues and also a page to register for free tickets.

Admission is FOC & guests will be greeted with a complimentary non alcohol cocktail & an A5 Prom Brochure.

 If you can think of anything you would like us to include – let us know at the end of this post.

Free entry and 500 free goodgy bags ups for grabs!

If you're looking forward to your school prom, you're in the right place!

In case you're new around here, let me tell you about some of the things we talked about last academic year and what we have lined up for this year.

And I'll also tell you about our juicy monthly prize draw on Facebook.

Before that though, don't forget to download your FREE prom organiser e-book by clicking on the link at the top, or the button over there on the right or just by clicking here. You go ahead, I can wait.

So, what can you read right here, right now to get you up to speed on all things prom-tacular?

Posts for prom committee peeps

From whether you're the right kind of person to be on a prom committee to the nuts and bolts of what the people on a prom committee actually do, this is the section you need to read if you want to be right in the thick of organising your school prom.

See all the prom committee posts

Fundraising and finance for proms

Not the most fun or glamorous part I know, but still important. Find posts on prom budgets, cashflow and how to manage it all in the prom finance section.

Organising the prom

Once you've got the committee and money plans all sorted, it's time to think about your prom theme, key people like your prom photographer and how to entertain your prom guests.

Enjoying your school prom

Let's face it, there are some bits that you might be worried about, such as the whole getting a prom date thing. Well, we've already given ten romantic ways to ask someone to be your prom date, wondered whether you even need a prom date anyway and given some tips on how NOT to get a prom date. No doubt there will be more to come…

See all of the "Enjoying your prom" posts.

Looking fab for your prom

And how could we have a prom blog without advice on how to look your most gorgeous on the night?

One of our most popular posts is about choosing the best prom dress design for your body shape, and there is also one about rather fabulous corsage bracelets too.

That leads me rather neatly onto what's coming soon: the first will be a post about which colour suits you best, and I'll be doing a series on different prom themes to help you with some ideas.

Is there anything you want to know about? If you have a prom related question, simply drop me a line and let me know.

Facebook

We hang out on Facebook too, come and join us and you'll automatically be entered into a monthly prize draw for iTunes vouchers (or vouchers for something else if you don't have an iPod). Find us on Facebook here and click on "like" at the top – we'd love to get to know you.

And don't forget your e-book!

Happy new school year!

Em x

The Prom Organiser wordsmith

In other words, all of the fun bits and none of the stress…

Things can get sticky later on however. When all of the big decisions are made, like prom theme, ticket price, date etc, the details have to be taken care of. Once the details have been decided upon, someone actually has to go and make it happen. Someone has to phone a prom service supplier and get a quote. Someone has to make sure the bank account is opened and the funds there and accessible. Someone has to collate quotes, then confirm bookings, pay deposits, keep receipts, check the balance is paid and oh! Suddenly that's not looking so fun any more, is it?

Ways to stop the stress creeping into prom organising

If you implement these tips early on, not only will the later stages of prom planning be a lot less stressful, next year's prom committee will have an easier time of it too.

1. Keep a prom committee minutes book

Nominate a person who will take notes (usually called minutes) during every committee meeting, and summarises the decisions made during that meeting. When there are twenty people in a room shouting out their opinions all at once, it's easy to lose track of what has actually been settled upon.

It might help to write key decisions on the whiteboard so that everyone can see them as they are made – and don't get a horrible surprise later on because they missed something.

2. Keep an actions and to-do list produced from each meeting

A key decision invariably leads to an action, which produces a to-do list for key people. For example, if you decide that you want to have a magician perform for guests during the prom, that means someone has to find one (the action) and the to-do list would be to find entertainers that perform at large scale events like proms, weddings and balls and contact them for quotes.

If the person nominated to do that sees it written down in the book, they're more likely to remember to do it.

3. Start every meeting with a review of minutes and actions update

Taking a minute to read the big decisions from the last meeting and asking each person with tasks how they're getting on does two important things: it gets everyone's brain back into the business of organising a prom and it also signals to people who have important tasks that they should be making progress. If they have forgotten and then have to say that in front of everyone, they're a lot less likely to forget again.

Sound harsh? Well, it might be, but believe me, you don't want to find out a week before the prom that someone forgot to confirm a booking, or that the tickets haven't been printed because someone got distracted.

4. Get a box file for all paperwork relating to suppliers

When you start to get formal quotes, contracts, deposit receipts etc from your suppliers the paperwork really adds up and every single piece of it is important. Buy a box file NOW and use it to keep all of it in the same place. Bring it to every meeting so that people can place whatever they've obtained into the central file. It could save you a lot of time and stress later on.

5. Get a big box to put it all in and a place to store it (preferably the library)

With a minutes book, an accounts book (we'll talk about that another time) and the suppliers paperwork, along with poster proofs, tickets and all kinds of stuff that you don’t want to loose, getting one of those big plastic tubs with a lid is a great idea.

Keeping it in the library is best because classrooms rarely have space and you might have meetings in different rooms. Libraries are used to keeping important things, and it means that everyone knows where to look year after year. The teacher who is helping you this year may not be at the school for subsequent prom committees, so if they have all of the stuff you figured out in a box that they can get right at the start, think about how much easier they'll find prom organising.

Think about how nice it would have been to go and get that box, turn to a new page in the minutes book and make your mark for all of your school's future prom committees to find.

Prom committee paperwork… it's not glam, it's not sexy, but if you get it right, it can make everything so much easier.

P.S. I know everything is being done on computer these days, but the core items I describe here are best in dedicated paper notebooks because computer systems change, people will lose or delete files kept on their own computers and memory sticks when they leave school and who knows what people will be using in five years time anyway? A box of books and files is easier to hand down year after year.

One of the earliest decisions the prom committee needs to make is whether there will be a prom king and queen. Here is some information on how it's done in America (after all, that's where this whole prom thing has come from in the first place) and some thoughts about whether it fits for a UK school prom.

American prom kings and queens

Being the king and queen of a prom is a Big Deal in America. You can tell by the number of films and TV shows that feature it. I'm old enough to remember a whole episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that revolved around the contest to become prom queen for example.

In many schools, electing a prom king and queen is nothing more than a popularity contest. The candidates need to be nominated and seconded, and then weeks of crazing campaigning involving posters all over the school and bribes and secret deals are carried out frantically right up until the vote, with the winners announced at the prom itself.

Nowadays however, many American schools are only letting students who have achieved a certain level of academic grades, or those who participate in extra-curricula activities be nominated. I suppose they're trying to encourage better performance at school and also improve the image of academic success. I quite like the idea of linking that prime moment in the spotlight with more than just a popularity contest.

Does the whole prom king and queen thing work in the UK?

Well, yes, if you want it to! Some schools don't like students to be too distracted by their campaigns and so don't allow the whole popularity contest aspect of voting for a prom king and queen. If that's the case in your school, you could do it differently…

Choosing the prom royalty on the night

You could ask a group of teachers, or a secretly allocated group of guests (who would be excluded from winning) to agree on a prom king and queen on the night itself, perhaps based upon their outfits and how well they're dancing.

If that seems like too much of a minefield, then simply arrange for a ballot on the night, just like the general election. You could give voting slips with each ticket, so people can only make one vote each.

Adopting the high flyer approach

You could always set criteria for nominees like being in a school club, getting certain grades or having been positively involved in school life in some other way. It depends on your school; that might cause an uproar in some and for others it might be a way to improve how much people participate and how well they do in that prom year.

I don't think that being prom king and queen has taken off in the UK as much as it has in the States, but who knows what will happen as it grows in popularity. And who wouldn't like to have a fuss made over them?

Are you having a prom king and queen? How are you going to decide who it should be? Let us know in the comments!

The Chairperson

When you have a big group of people working on a big project, it’s absolutely critical to have someone who can see the bigger picture, keep everything on schedule and be ultimately responsible for making sure everything gets done.

The Chairperson needs to be able to keep everyone motivated, encourage all the different prom committee members to work together well, and be able to report back to teachers and parents about key information.

In one Somerset school they have a male and female chairperson, to make sure that both groups are represented.

Most important skills required: The ability to stay calm, to delegate and resolve conflict.

Treasurer

This is arguably the second most important role as there is a lot of money control involved in prom planning. The treasurer is the one who keeps track of how much money is coming in through fundraising, and how much is going out to pay invoices. This is a role that requires a lot of work, and frequent contact with the teacher who controls the school prom bank account. (You have got one of those, right?)

Most important skills required: Good head for money and maths, attention to detail, forward planning, ability to file important paperwork well.

Head of promotions

Having a person who will make sure that the tickets and prom posters are designed and produced to schedule is a great help. This person is also responsible for giving information to teachers for assembly announcements, promoting fundraising events and also ensuring that timely announcements are made in school newsletters and letters home to parents.

Most important skills required: Artistic eye (artwork itself can always be delegated), forward planning, confidence to make announcements.

Head of prom king and queen arrangements

If you have decided to have a prom king and queen, there is work involved throughout the build up to the prom and on the night itself. We’ll be posting more about the prom king and queen soon so you can see just how much is involved.

Most important skills required: Forward planning, sociable nature.

Head of entertainment

This role is so extensive and important that you might want to assign a team of helpers. In the planning stage, it involves a lot of researching and quote requests, perhaps even auditioning or checking references. On the night, this prom committee member will need to ensure that entertainers have everything they need, solve any problems that crop up and manage any other logistics involved (e.g. power supply to a chocolate fountain) with the school caretaker.

Some prom committees group the prom photography and videography arrangements under entertainment, it’s up to you.

Most important skills required: Reliability, appreciation of broad tastes, practical problem solving.

Head of prom decorations

Prom decorations involve a lot of work once the theme has been decided. Not only is there the sourcing of quotes, choosing the best decorations and buying them, there’s also arranging for them to be put up and taken down afterwards. This role will benefit from a small team of assistants, especially when it’s time to decorate the prom venue.

Most important skills required: Good eye for colour, creative, practical, good problem solver.

Head of food and drink

This role is very much shaped by how your prom committee is planning to handle the catering side of things. If you are going to hire professional caterers, then the head of food and drink only has to source potential companies and liaise with the chosen one. However, if you are planning to lay on a buffet with help from parents and the local supermarket or restaurants, there is a lot more organising involved. The role is especially important in the latter as you don’t want to end up with fifty deserts and only one plate of sandwiches.

Most important skills required: Ability to coordinate lots of different people, an appreciation of different dietary requirements.

Head of post-prom arrangements

This is arguably one of the least glamorous roles, but like lots of the most icky roles in life, it is one of the most important. In all fairness, it’s not just about cleaning up, it’s also about ensuring that any other loose ends are tied up. Returning lost and found for example, or liaising with the photographer and helping the treasurer ensure that all bills are paid and the paperwork collated. You might decide that you don’t need a person to oversee this, but make sure you have plans to deal with the tidying up and paying bills afterwards, as it’s so easy to forget about it when you’re excited about the fun parts…

Most important skills required: Total reliability, ability to motivate people who are very tired and potentially unenthusiastic.

How is your prom committee shaping up?

Do you have any other prom committee roles to add to our list? We’d love to hear about how you have organised your prom committee, let us know in the comments below…