I wanted to share how our Churches packing party went. I hope this gives people ideas and maybe can help you with your next packing party. Thank you so much for watching!
Hi Anna-Beth, Thank-you for sharing this video. Your Packing Party was very well organised. I love the coloured table cloths. And it seems so many lessons were learned and are to be learned for 2024. I agree the "tips" and "education" about OCC and its impacts would be a logical next step now that have you have doubled (wow!) your packing party attendance. As for packing options like water bottles or tins, I would perhaps have a demonstration model to show what can be packed inside. Perhaps these could be developed / experiemented with during the year (e.g., workshops) as you prepare your packing party supplies. You may want to check in with your team on who may want take on 'extra' responsibilities next year as a "packing coach". TFS!
Thank you for sharing your packing party video! It is so helpful to see what other people do. We had our packing party this past year and it was the first one for our church. I had the boxes and tables set up like you did at the beginning. One thing I did catch was someone picking up a box that was already labeled and under a sign that was labeled, pick it up and go to a different table that does not match it. This may have happened with yours as well since you had pencil packs gone but the boxes were still there for that age group. So this year I want to put the tables right next to the boxes so people don't have steps to take to get to the right table. I like the idea of having the helpers check the boxes after the essentials. You could put the Red tables where people check directly at the end of the essentials line. So that people get their boxes checked before they go around the corner. Mandatory. I went to a packing party at another church and that is what they did. Happy packing!
I love that idea and I'm definitely going to mention that to my team about putting the boxes next to the table. I actually think you're right and it would help significantly lessen the amount of times people go to the wrong table and things like that. I love all your ideas thank you so much for watching!
I noticed that you had all of the boxes packed. I read where one church offered a pizza party to the Sunday school class that assembled the most boxes in x amount of time. Everyone gathered and competed. Great job that your team did on organization. The amount of time to get it to that point must have been tremendous. Thank you. So lovely to hear how your ministry has grown.
Yes that's a great idea. We had our youth group and different small groups at our church volunteer to help assemble all the boxes prior to the party. It was a big help!
I think this was so well organised. I for one like to colour coordinate the boxes or have a theme so i would prefer to choose the essentials myself. The instructional video at the beginning was great so maybe just emphasise on that video that the essentials are essential and that you should take care to choose one of each. Maybe also stress that there are plenty of boxes to go around so that you don't need to rush your way through one box in your excitement to get to the next. But overall this looks amazing.
Thank you so much and yes I totally agree with you on all those points. Definitely going to try to emphasize a couple of those things more next year so hopefully we don't have boxes missing items. Thank you so much for watching!
Great job! Thanks for sharing and inspiring us! What do you do with extra filler after the packing party? For your pre-video next year, maybe show an example or two of how to pack a box and fit everything in.
Well thank you so much for watching! And yes I think that is a wonderful idea. Definitely having examples of how to pack a box and make things fit would help. So what we typically do is a couple things. We always have things set aside for people in our church who may be can't fully fill a box and need extras to add to their box, send some to the processing plant as filler and depending on the item sometimes save it for next year's shoe boxes at our workshop.
Awesome Annabeth! Maybe one suggestion if don’t decide to go with the pre-made essential packs is to have checklist signs at the organization table. But I’m thinking the pre-made packs might be the way to go
I think that this is awesome and such a blessing - I have recommended your channel to our church coordinator to get some ideas of how to make it easier for her. I have learned so much about making my boxes better by watching multiple people and taking a bit from each one. I am so grateful for people like you as I am starting my first year of year round buying and packing.
Oh that's wonderful and so happy and blessed at the thought these videos can be a help to anybody! Best of luck to you with your first year of year round packing and biying! I will say that was a big help and game changer for me when my husband and I switch to doing that. Also financially a big help. So much easier to buy things throughout the year little by little than all at once during packing season. I pray many blessings over your packing this year!
