Workshop

Mike Burks - I was the leader for this project. I was responsible for the introduction and reflection, and a liaison to Glad Tiding for the workshop.

Spencer Matheny - Wrote the workshop plan and collected information for the budget / logistics. I commented on groups 1, 2, and 4's blog. 

Kelly Neal - I collected data from the workshop, compiled information for the budget / logistics as well as the workshop results.  ~ I have commented on group 1,2 & 4's blog.

Introduction 

Our workshop was a very successful one. We had a total of 29 members of the community attend. We had two main goals for our workshop. We wanted to spread the word about The Big Read. We did this by listing many steps on how to support and spread the word about The Big Read. We asked them if they enjoyed their time at the workshop to show their support by telling more people and going to more workshops. We wanted to expand The Big Read’s relationship with the people of he community (Gordan, 1998). The more people that hear about it the more they will be inclined to help the cause. We also wanted to create a learning environment for our workshop attendees. We wanted to show them how reading is important and vital to our lives today. We wanted them to see that we should still be reading in our daily lives.

With our purpose set for the workshop, we also had to set some goals to make it successful. We wanted to create a positive environment for the attendees while also keeping it an educational venue. I believe we achieved these goals. There was a lot of excitement surrounding the attendees at our workshop. It was great to see the excitement as well as the learning that was taking place. We created incentive for participation in the workshop by providing prizes if questions were answered correctly. This ensured the participants to make sure they were gathering all of the information they could so they could get the prize. The workshop was a great success. Many attendees said they liked it and would attend another workshop.

Workshop Plan

Just like with the marketing plan we had to be able, as a group, figure out our strengths and weaknesses. Which member can do this and which member can do that. Once we established those skill sets we then started to plan which member had certain roles. To start from the beginning, we had to find a place to host our workshop. This has to be one of the first steps because then we were able see what resources were available for us to utilize. Once we had this established we then thought of what activities we could create so that we could inform our participants and draw them in to attending our workshop. As a group we met and discussed what needs needed to be met not only for us, but our participants and learners as well. It is an important aspect in any workshop that you outline certain needs of either the participants or yourself (Brown & Keeley, 1988). Once you can define those needs you can think of ways to conduct your workshop to enlighten your guests and participants. As a group we decided that we wanted to have different incentives for the participants which included food and prizes. 
If people know they have a chance at either getting free food and possibly free prizes it can draw them into coming. We were able to do these things because of the venue that was provided for us. According to Duvall (1951) planning ahead to see if there can be any type of activity or food provided is a key step into making a workshop successful. We were also able to utilize our budget very well. For the actual workshop, we wanted to create an environment to where the participants had a sufficient amount of time to engage in discussions with each other as well as be involved in activities. We did not want the workshop to be of the lecture type because lectures shouldn’t be the main focus for a workshop (Brown and Keeley, 1988). That why we were able to introduce ourselves as well as discuss The Big Read and the book, Fahrenheit 451, in a timely manner. We created activities that started off having groups of people introduce themselves

because if they can know a little information about each other they can get comfortable with one another to where they will participate together in other activities. As a group we also planned that evaluation will be a huge part for our results. We wanted to create survey to give to our participants to see if there need to be changes, improvements, what are our weaknesses and strengths, etc., that way if we every conduct another workshop we can make it even better.

Budget and Logistics

Our groups were allotted a total budget of $100.00 for our workshop.  Budgeting of an event is one key to the success of any organization, Matkin (1985) states that budgeting is “a process of planning the future operations of an organization and systematically comparing those plans with actual results” (p.5).  It was important that our group come together and determine a working budget so as to keep track of all fixed and variable expenses for the workshop.  For this event we used the process of Expenditure Budgeting, Galbraith (1997) expresses this as the process of keeping track of how all resources will be spent, to keep track of all financial transactions. 

Our workshop was held at Glad Tidings Student Ministries Center located 3001 S. Burlington Dr. Muncie, IN.  Glad Tidings has a separate facility that they use for their school aged services, that is located directly next to their main worship center.  We were able to secure the venue for a cost of total cost of $40.00, this included usage of all spaces as well as technical support from the Glad Tidings representative.  As Glackin (2009) would ascertain “hosting a well-run, well attended training workshop requires time and staff resources” (p.76).  By having the full resources of Glad Tidings at our disposal, we could be assured that all things would be taken care of facility wise.

To promote the event, the bulk of promotion was handled through our Facebook pages.  With over 200 friends viewing posts about the Big Read, we were happy with the coverage of our promotions but knew there could be more.  We decided to use $20.00 of our budget on additional marketing by creating flyers.  These flyers were developed with our partner, Integrity Fulfillment Services (IFS), to create 200 flyers to handout locally.  Our intentions were to provide additional ways to spread the word about our workshop, and at 10 cents per copy this was a relatively cheap way to reach a larger audience.  Our marketing campaign has always looked at reaching the largest number possible, knowing that not everyone will attend our event, but just seeing our information will increase awareness for the Big Read in general.  In the end our generous partner at IFS was able to donate the entire printing session for the cause of the Big Read, thus allowing our entire marketing effort to cost $0.00.

Our group had discussions on what options would help to attract patrons to our workshop, and food seemed like the logical #1 option talked about by each member.  We first had to determine the total number of participants that we anticipated showing up.  We were able to determine this via our marketing plan (Facebook).  By creating a FB event and having people signup to attend, we were able to only purchase the quantity of items needed for that many people.  Because we had just over 20 sign up for the event, we decided to purchase enough food, desserts and drinks for 25-30 people to be safe.  Table #1 shows our initial projections of the budget per person attending the workshop.  From this number, we were able to determine what foods or snacks that we could offer for the event.  It was determined that pizza would fit within our budget, allowing for each person to have two slices of pizza each.  We partnered with a local culinary program to provide the additional snacks at no cost.  Other items like water, utensils, give-a-ways and napkins were purchased at the local Walmart.

Table #2 shows our final expenditures for the event, as it shows our final dollar spent on the workshop was $127.13 for a total of $4.38 per person spent.  Further we were able to do a breakdown of total monies spent on specific categories such as; marketing, food, give-a-ways.  This breakdown resulted in a dollar amount per persons reached as seen below.

Table # 1(Projections)

Total $ Allotted	Number of Participants	$ / Per Person
$100.00	20	$5.00

Table # 2(Final Costs)

Category	Price	Quantity Served	Price / Per
Facilities	$40.00	29	$1.38
Marketing	$0.00	419	$0.00
Food	$47.13	29	$1.88
Give-a-ways	$40.00	29 (eligible)	$1.38

Workshop Activities and Results

We centered our workshop on the idea of open discussions about reading in general.  The thought was to gauge, if and why, people read less today than in the past.  The Fahrenheit 451 book would be mentioned, but not be the central point of the workshop.  Creating meaningful discussions and adding interest in the Big Read as a whole was our theme.  Attendees arrived (a total of 29 people), and we collected information and had them sign a waiver for participation and photographs.  We invited them to sit at a table of their choosing.  Some of our attendees already knew each other, but for many the event was an opportunity to meet new people.  We determined that feeding our audience first would help create the open dialog that we desired.  We set our workshop up in small circular table to allow conversation tableside, as well as in a group (See Picture #1).

After giving groups time to visit the food table (See Picture #2), we then held the opening conversations.  Our team introduced ourselves, and gave brief information on the events of the evening followed by information about Fahrenheit 451 and its author Ray Bradbury.  Little did the attendees know, this information would come in handy for final prize give-a-way which ended in a tie (See Picture #3). 

Initial conversations centered on reading, and its place in modern culture.  Questions were asked about people’s favorite books, how often they currently read and have their opinions of reading changed over time.  The groups were then instructed to work with the groups that had assembled at each table to discuss reasons or excuses people use to not read.  Groups were instructed to write down their top 7 answers.

It was a truly positive experience to hear people of differing ages and experiences discuss their reading habits.  After 10-15 minutes of discussion each group was introduced to a Family Feud style game in which the top 7 answers were revealed.  Two teams ended up in a tie for the win, with the tie breaker being a question from the opening remarks.

As the evening wrapped up, each attendee was instructed to take out the number card that was assigned to them when they arrived.  We then drew for giveaways which ranged from small gift cards, Fahrenheit 451 book or candy.  After all the items had been dispersed to the audience, we asked that each person at the table would fill out an exit survey which asked questions pertaining to their reading habits.

The intentions of our survey were to gauge participants’ reactions to reading in general, as well gaining insight into the success of our workshop.  Glackin (2009) describes a surveys purpose in a workshop as a means to “offer insight into what went well and what did not” (p.87).  The results of our survey (See Chart #1), suggest that the majority of our participants currently spend less than 4 hours per week reading, but 67% responded that they are more inclined to read more after attending the workshop.  Additionally, 44% suggested that they would like to attend additional Big Read events in our community.

Chart #2 (Survey Results)

	0-1	2-3	3-4	4 or More
How many hours a week do you read on average?	50%	25%	15%	10%
	Strongly Agree	Agree	Somewhat Disagree	Strongly Disagree
I am inclined to read more after attending this workshop	22%	45%	33%	0%
	Strongly Agree	Agree	Somewhat Disagree	Strongly Disagree
I want to Participate in more Big Read activities after attending this event	20%	24%	30%	26%

Reflection

Looking back, our workshop was a great success. We had everyone participating in our workshop activities. The most significant part was when asked the participants to fill out the survey at the end of our presentation. This will allow us to look back and see what people enjoyed and what they did not. We will be able to take this information and apply it to The Big Read. This way we can spread the word and get people in the community reading again.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Workshop Table

1.	Purpose	To create a successful and meaningful Big Read workshop that encourages community members to read more frequently.
2.	Goals	·         Have a minimum of 20 community members attend ·         Increase the likeliness of the attendees to read more often ·         Spread the word about The Big Read
3.	Workshop Plan	Introductions – Spencer Matheny, Mike Burks, and Kelly Neal Background on The Big Read – Mike Burks Ray Bradbury and Fahrenheit 451 information – Kelly Neal Conversation about favorite books – Spencer Matheny Top 10 reasons we do not read contest – Spencer Matheny Prizes and handouts – Mike Burks, Spencer Matheny, and Kelly Neal
4.	Workshop Activities	·         Talk about The Big Read and how to attend later events and support ·         Give a backstory to Ray Bradbury and Fahrenheit 451 ·         Ask attendees about their favorite book and describe it to their group ·         Have groups work together to write the top 10 reasons people do not read anymore ·         Give prizes at the end
5.	Workshop Results	The workshop was a great success. We had several people ask us about The Big Read afterwards. The survey told us that 22% of the attendees were inclined to read more after the workshop while 20% wanted to attend another Big Read Workshop.
6.	Budget	Facilities $40.00 Marketing $0.00 Food $47.13     Give-a-ways $40.00      Total $127.13

References

Barbara C. Glackin & Cheri A. Folkner (2009): Planning,           Organizing, and Hosting a Workshop—It's All in the Details, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 47:1, 74-89

Galbraith, M., & Sisco, B. (1997). Administering successful programs for adults: Promoting excellence in adult, community, and continuing education (Original ed.). Malabar, Fla.: Krieger Pub.

Gordan, I. (1998). Relationship marketing: new strategies, techniques and technologies to win the customers you want and keep them forever.

Browne, M., & Keeley, S. (1988). Successful Instructional Development Workshops. College Teaching, 36(3), 98-101.

Duvall, E. (1951). Steps to Success in Workshops. Marriage and Family Living, 13(1), 11-12.

Matkin, G. (1985). Effective budgeting in continuing education: A comprehensive guide to improving program planning and organizational performance (1.st ed.). San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass.