Who attends your events – Invite the staff

After writing ‘Your board and trustees should be working’ – I was reminded of how often the executive team in some organizations were the only people who would regularly attend events hosted by or for the organization – why?

Lets look at something, who does the ‘real’ work, who are the people responsible for raising the funds, administering services, answering queries from the public? Is it the management team, or is it the front line staff – the worker bees?

Sure events cost money and every ticket sold helps offset costs, but surely some of the people who attend could forgo their place at the table, instead giving it to someone who spends hours everyday working to ensure the organization can and does meet its goals.

Imagine what it would do for staff morale if staff were invited to attend events, they’d have the opportunity to meet and talk with people the organization works with as well as sponsors etc; they’d have ‘stories’ the could share with other staff and be able to use the experience of the event to help them in their day to day work.

Sure there could be a challenge in working out what staff to invite, but it’s worth the effort to spend time looking around and seeing who would benefit most from attending. Don’t make the decision on a pecking order in the organization – instead invite staff who offer a range of skills, staff who have been with the organization a while, as well as at least someone who may have only been there a short time who shows promise.

If you have regular events do you invite staff to attend – if not why not? If you do, then how do you work out who attends?