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All programmes are varied - so much depends upon the interests, enthusiasm and commitment of the various members of each Group. But, there are some simple rules which suggest every programme should include hostelling, club night activities, day or evening walks and special visits such as theatre trips. Hostelling, of course, should be high on the agenda with a variety of venues to suit the wishes - and the pockets - of as many members as possible. The frequency of hostel trips and of meetings is a matter for each Group; too few may result in the Group breaking up, too many may result in poor attendances.

Activity programmes have an important role in advertising a Local group to members and non members. Consider producing three or four programmes to cover a year of activities. Here are some guide lines.

Planning

Planning Group weekends is a lot of work and can be a thankless task. Generally speaking the committee is responsible for ensuring that some of those events get planned but by no means all the planning can be done in the context of committee meetings.

Usually one or two people will head up the planning but they should delegate as much as possible to the rest of the committee or other committed people. A good division of labour is for one person to organise indoor events, another outdoors.

Try and re-use events that have worked successfully in the past. These are easier to organise and everybody knows whether they want them or not. On the other hand it is easy for a Group to get into a rut and sometimes change should be introduced for the sake of variety.

It is a good idea to spread similar events throughout the available period. For instance, if you are planning to hold six social events and six hostel weekends then you should aim to alternate them rather than hold all six social events at once.

Generally speaking the larger the Group, the more events it can support in the period and the more diversified it can afford to become. Try not to let the Group become too specialised or cater only for one age group as this would discourage potential new members.

Content

The main purpose of the programme is to deal with forthcoming events. You should include:

• The date and time
• The venue
• The purpose or activity
• The speaker or guest
• The cost
• The organiser or host
• Any further description

You will probably also wish to include on your programme

• Details of events occurring on a regular basis
• Details in common to many of the events
• Items of news or general editorial
• Names, addresses and telephone numbers of the committee contacts.

At the very least the Chairman and Group Contact.

• Details of membership
• Advertisements from outside bodies
• Group Website address.

Err on the side of generating too much copy. It is easier to remove excess material than to generate more at a later stage (where changes are likely to cost you money and you may not have accurate details at hand).

Format

Programmes can appear in many different formats. The main ones are:

• An A4 sheet of paper or an A4 sheet folded.
• A magazine (sheets of paper bound together)

Single sheets of paper are the cheapest and most versatile but the least resilient. Magazines are the best format if you have lots of material to publish.