Women Month Magic Show: Looking After the People Who Organise It
Women Month Magic Show: Looking After the People Who Organise It
Every organization that marks March has a small group of people who make it happen. They are usually women, usually volunteers, usually doing it alongside a full workload, and usually the same people who did it last year and the year before.
Nobody plans anything for them, and the programming they produce for everybody else is paid for with their evenings. I'm Magical Katrina, an award winning magician and mentalist, and I want to make the case for a Women Month magic show partly on the grounds of what it saves the people organizing it.
The Committee Is Doing a Second Job
Start with the thing that's rarely said out loud. Organizing March means scoping ideas, finding speakers, chasing approvals, booking rooms, writing communications, managing a budget that may not exist, and then hosting on the day.
That's a project, and it's being delivered by people whose actual roles are something else entirely. The organization benefits from it, reports on it, and puts it in recruitment material, and the cost sits with four or five volunteers. Recognizing that is the first step toward making it sustainable.
Internal Speakers Are More Work Than They Look
Worth understanding when weighing options. A panel of internal colleagues looks free and cheap, and the actual cost is in the organizing: finding willing people, briefing them, managing the person who agrees then withdraws, writing questions, chairing it, and smoothing over whatever gets said that shouldn't have been.
An external booking is one email, one contract, and one person who turns up and does the thing. The fee buys content and it also buys the organizer's time back, which for a volunteer committee is frequently the more valuable half of the purchase.
One Good Thing Beats Five Adequate Ones
The programming advice that most reduces the load. Committees under pressure produce a crowded month: a panel, a book group, a lunchtime talk, a social, a newsletter series, and a speaker, each requiring work and each attended by a handful of people.
One properly good event, promoted once, attended by many, achieves more than five thin ones and costs a fraction of the effort. If your committee is stretched, cutting the program is not a failure of ambition, it's the decision that makes next year possible.
Rotate, or You Will Lose People
Worth saying plainly. The same individuals organizing this every year is how committees collapse, and when somebody steps back after three years of unpaid organizing, the knowledge goes with them.
Build in rotation deliberately, write down what you did and what it cost, and bring somebody new in each year before you need to. A program that depends entirely on two people is one resignation from not happening at all, and that's a risk the organization carries without knowing it.
Ask for Time, Not Just Budget
Practically the most useful thing a committee can request. Organizations will frequently approve a budget for this work and almost never approve the hours, which means the money is spent in people's own time.
Ask explicitly: an afternoon a month for the committee, recognition in objectives, or a line in a performance review. Some organizations will say yes simply because nobody has asked. A program supported with time is run by people who aren't quietly resentful, and that shows in the events.
Your Own Committee Should Attend, Not Host
Worth designing for. The people who organized the event typically spend it managing the room, watching the clock, handling the technology, and checking the speaker is all right, which means they're the only people in the building who don't experience it.
Book something that needs nothing from you on the day. An external performer who arrives, works, and leaves with no technical requirement means the committee can sit down and watch like everybody else, which after six weeks of organizing is the least they should get.
Something Enjoyable Is Easier to Promote
Worth considering for attendance. A committee spending its energy persuading colleagues to attend a worthy session is doing the hardest kind of internal marketing, and the attendance frequently disappoints anyway.
An event people actually want to come to promotes itself, which removes a whole workstream from your plan. That's not a reason to choose entertainment over substance, and it is a reason to recognize that a session people look forward to costs the organizers far less effort than one they have to be talked into.
Why Book Magical Katrina
If you're the one organizing this, here's my case. I'm a member of the Magic Circle in London and the Academy of Magical Arts in Hollywood, one of relatively few women to hold both, I've earned multiple magic awards, and I've performed for clients including Formula 1, the Olympics, Porsche, Prada, Zapier, and the Ritz Carlton, with appearances on Penn & Teller: Fool Us and Masters of Illusion. Booking me is one email and one contract, I need no stage, power, or sound so there's nothing for you to arrange, I can send a certificate of insurance and standard paperwork the day you ask, and on the day you can sit down and watch it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the committee's workload matter?
Because organizing March is a project delivered by volunteers whose actual roles are something else, and the organization benefits from it, reports on it, and puts it in recruitment material while the cost sits with four or five people. Recognizing that is what makes it sustainable.
Isn't an internal panel cheaper?
Only in fees. The real cost is organizing: finding willing colleagues, briefing them, managing withdrawals, writing questions, chairing, and smoothing over anything awkward. An external booking is one email and one person who turns up, which buys the organizer's time back.
Should we run several events?
Usually fewer. Committees under pressure produce a crowded month of thin events each requiring work and each attended by a handful, whereas one properly good event promoted once achieves more for a fraction of the effort.
How do we stop the committee burning out?
Rotate deliberately, write down what you did and what it cost, and bring somebody new in each year before you need to. A program depending on two people is one resignation from not happening, which is a risk the organization carries without knowing it.
What should we ask the organization for?
Time as well as budget, since organizations frequently approve money and almost never approve hours, which means the work happens in people's own evenings. Ask for an afternoon a month, recognition in objectives, or a line in a review, since some will say yes because nobody asked.
How do we actually get to enjoy it ourselves?
Book something that needs nothing from you on the day, since organizers usually spend the event managing the room and the technology and are the only people who don't experience it. A performer who arrives, works, and leaves means you can sit down.
Does the type of event affect attendance work?
Considerably. Persuading colleagues to attend a worthy session is the hardest internal marketing there is, whereas something people want to come to promotes itself, which removes an entire workstream from your plan.
What do you need from us?
A date, a room or a video link, and a rough idea of the audience. Nothing else, since I bring everything, need no stage, power, or sound, and can provide insurance and paperwork the day you ask.
Protect the People Who Make It Happen
March programming exists because a handful of people volunteer to create it, and the surest way to still have a program in three years is to make it lighter on them now.
Run fewer, better events. Choose things that need one email rather than six weeks of coordination. Ask for time as well as money. Rotate the committee before somebody burns out. And book a Women Month magic show or anything else that means the organizers can sit down and watch the thing they spent two months arranging.
Reach out with your date and audience, and I'll make the booking as little work for you as possible.