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| Under 25 | | 2 | |
25-50 | | 28 | |
50-75 | | 41 | |
75-100 | | 33 | |
100-125 | | 31 | |
125-150 | | 20 | |
150-200 | | 22 | |
Over 200 | | 45 | |
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| |  Posted 5/27/2007 10:27:08 AM | |
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| actorgeek (5/27/2007)
I'm doing Bethlehem Village in December, but I have a few questions about attendance...
Do you set a limit on how many kids you will take?
Do you charge a fee?
If you charge a fee, do people who pre-register get a discount?
I was thinking of charging like $5 for kids who pre-reistered (since this is a fundraiser and a one day event) and something around $8 for kids who didn't. Of course, if someone couldn't afford to pay to bring their kid, we could always make room for them! Setting a limit seems odd to do for VBSI think we need too, but I've never done a one day event like this.If you trying to show kidswho God is andhow specialHe is, it doesn'tmake since toturn them away?It also covers 2 churches! I was thinking something around 120, because each church gets about 60-80 for VBS in the summer.
God Bless,
We set a limit of 160 elementary and 30 preschool. It's primarily driven by space but also somewhat driven by number of volunteers. Yes, it would be nice to be open to more but you can't have kids sitting on top of each other!
We charge $25 per kid (our form actually calls it a "suggested donation" and it does give a person a chance to declare that this is a hardship and therefore skip the fee). We are able to do this because:
1) this is typical for our community
2) our VBS is not an outreach but more of a fun activity for our own church kids (with 6000 families it's not hard to find this many kids)
3) most of our families are middle to upper middle class (i.e. this is extremely affordable)
4) when I do get a reaction to the price it is "is that all?!?" "How do you do that?" (they are used to hundreds of dollars for day camps, soccer camps, music camps etc. etc...so this is a great bargain for them).
All of our kids are preregistered a month early (it's a very popular event at our church so again getting it filled is not an issue).
You have to look at who you are reaching when determining if you want to charge a fee. If it is an outreach to a poor community you would much more likely to do it free to make it available.
If you do charge a fee and you have trouble getting early registrations I would recommend giving the discounted fee if you sign up by such and such a date...I did that one year (when we weren't quite as popular and I wanted to encourage early signups) and it seemed to help.
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| | | Posted 5/27/2007 6:56:23 PM | |
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| | It makes sense to set a limit if you can't effectively do a larger program. You hate to turn away people but you have to be able to plan supplies and have enough people to do it. In the past we haven't had a preregistration requirement for VBS and kids bring their friends as the week goes on. I think that will still work for the older kids but I'm very concerned about the preschool level. We've been running over 15 many weeks during church in our preschool program. We've also started a very popular community program with a play time for preschoolers and moms in our multipurpose room (we've reached over 100 kids in less than 3 months, praise God!). I'm concerned that combination could result in a very large preschool class. Last year before this it was already about our largest class. We are limited by having an adequate room, enough volunteers to safely monitor this age, and having enough supplies (preschoolers won't understand if we run out). Therefore I'm requiring that only preschoolers MUST be registered and limiting enrollment (probably to 18 in case I need to slip in a volunteers kid or someone comes and it would be just wrong to turn them away in the circumstance). I think your fee sounds reasonable. You could put something in your advertising that if scholarships are available. R
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| | | Posted 5/31/2007 8:25:21 AM | |
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| We are a small church in San Antonio, but with a big heart. We had all 26 kids sign up the first weekend of registration and 31 support staff. Less than two weeks to go and we are at 37 kids. I keep praying for rain. God said to plan for 50 which I have done. I am doing the natural, He is going to do the super natural. Chris The Church @ Stone Oak tcaso.org
Teacher Chris
The Church @ Stone Oak, San Antonio TX |
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| | | Posted 5/31/2007 8:27:56 AM | |
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| | Hey Matt I have charged for VBS in the past and it like makes the individual have a financial obligation to come to VBS each night. It's paid for kinda thing. Yes offering a discount for pre-registration is a great idea, but doesn't always work like it should. I still will get a 20% additional registration the night of the event as people are just lazy. What can I saw. Chris
Teacher Chris
The Church @ Stone Oak, San Antonio TX |
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| | | Posted 6/5/2007 10:05:23 PM | |
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| | Our VBS started Monday and so far we have 33 registered. Donna in KY.
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| | | Posted 6/10/2007 7:42:54 PM | |
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| | We just finished our Avalanche Rance and had 157 children registered! Average daily attendance however was about 150. It was awesome. |
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| | | Posted 6/10/2007 11:48:10 PM | |
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| | So Excited...and So scared! We have doubled the size of our VBS in the last 5 years to a cap of 250. This year we hit max 3 weeks before our program begins, so I upped the cap to 300 and just did more recruiting. The snack leader is a bit nervous and the craft people are REALLY crazy as now I can not get prayer bears, but I KNOW the Lord will provide and we'll be reaching 50 more! |
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| | | Posted 6/27/2007 12:23:08 PM | |
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| | We planned for 70 kids and we ended up with 88 kids. 95 kids had registered but 7 never showed up. We did ages 3 to 12
Sheila in SC |
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| | | Posted 6/29/2007 8:06:54 AM | |
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| | We had 550 last year but hope for more this year! Beth |
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