Anniversary Favor Sitemap

Preface - This book has been written to help any person charged with the responsibility for setting up the machinery and the program for a major public anniversary celebration and exploiting the publicity and public relations values of the occasion.

The mechanics of organizing a 10th Anniversary, a Silver (25th) or Golden (50th) Jubilee, a 75th Anniversary, a Centennial Year, or any similar milestone may, of course, be adapted to celebra­tions of lesser dimensions and shorter duration.

01. Management - So you've decided to mark a company anniversary with a pub­lic celebration?
Fine.
But why?
Have you stopped to ask yourself exactly why you are willing to undertake the mass of involved and thankless detail represented by even a simple anniversary celebration?

Is it because some other organization in your area has held a celebration with more or less success, and anything they can do, you can do better?

02. Program Co-ordinator - You have been chosen to plan and organize an anniversary celebration for a business, industrial, commercial, or specialized company, firm, corporation, or establishment.
Good. The remainder of this book will be addressed directly to you.
Who you are we do not know.
How you were selected we do not know.

03. First Month - For merchandising reasons, or in apparent hope of greater public impact when the program is finally presented, or because they're just naturally evasive, organizations occasionally elect to wrap anniversary plans in a mantle of secrecy and silence.

When a sensational new model in a violently competitive field is to be unveiled as a part of the anniversary celebration there may be some sense to the maneuver. Otherwise we've never found con­cealment worth the effort

04. Second Month - By this time—the beginning o£ your second month on the job— you have gained all the company acceptance you are going to get. You've made your own friends and maybe even a few ene­mies. The management people who'd have been touchy if not consulted have been consulted (if not personally in all cases, then at least by the flyer you sent out requesting suggestions and by your confirmatory telephone call), and some of them have already set a definite date for the personal visit you want.

05. Third Month - For the past two months, consciously or not, you have been directing every thought and every effort toward this first formal committee meeting. You didn't know just where or when it would take place, and you didn't know who'd be present, but you knew it was bound to happen.

06. Fourth Month - Progress Report #2, which you should now be assembling as a basis for Progress Meeting #2 at the end of this month, must be as complete and informative as you possibly can make it at this stage of your planning.

It should include all Ideas presently in your hands, whether brand-new, previously Approved, or previously designated For Further Consideration. It should include your specific recommen­dations concerning each one (e.g., why you think is should be kept in the program or eliminated forthwith), and the most ac­curate estimated costs you are able to provide

07. Fifth Month - Behind you are one informal (the original question-and-answer meeting you had with the General Chairman four months ago) and two Progress Meetings with the Policy Committee. Since you haven't had your ears burned, you may assume that you've done a reasonably acceptable job up to now. But don't crow yet— you're far from being in the best possible shape.

08. Sixth Month - By this time you and your General Chairman have traveled a long way together in understanding what goes into a successful celebration. You know the sort of "personality" you'd like your observance to possess, what you'd like it to accomplish, and at least in a general way how best to attain your objectives.

Some guiding policies have been set up, there is some knowl­edge throughout the organization of anniversary activities in preparation, and some of the events for the anniversary program have been finally selected.

09. Seventh Month - At the end of this month you should hold Progress Meeting #4. The basis of the meeting will, of course, be Progress Report #4. It is from this meeting and this report that a final determination of anniversary program events should be made.

On page 163 you will find a suggested agenda for Progress Meeting #4. We recommend that you use it as a guide, that you compose your agenda immediately, and that you lose no time in bringing it to the General Chairman for clearance.

10. Eighth Month - And suddenly the end is in sight.
There comes a day when the Silence breaks and your telephone rings. It is the General Chairman.
"We've come up with a bunch o£ Ideas we like' he says. "Can you come in sometime and talk about them? Tomorrow? Good. And meantime give a few minutes thought to production, will you? You know: How do we begin? Which Idea do we take first? That sort of thing."
A few minutes thought!

11. Anniversary Program - There is a saying that there is only one really beautiful child in the world and each mother has it. Something of the same feeling surrounds anniversary celebrations. From the beginning of time, there has been only one really meaningful celebration and that is the one you have prepared for this company.

12. Loose Ends - If you're going to have a celebration, then HAVE a celebra­tion! Have a celebration that will give every other organization in the community a mark to shoot at until the end of time. Do an inspired job—not just a job—or don't undertake an anniversary celebration at all.

13. Source Book - (For more intensive examination of individual suggestions—their potentials, varieties, applica­tions, strengths, and limitations—consult the sub­ject file at your local library. In view of the amount of excellent material available, it would be pointless as well as presumptuous to pretend that the discussions and recommendations below are exhaustive.)

THE END