Things to know for PLANNING…….Crees Blog Entry

For the last 5 years I’ve put together Feeding the Homeless for Thanksgiving, and people always ask me is it hard to plan and what does it take to pull it off? So in this blog entry… I’ll share everything you need to know in order to make things go just as planned.

Patience.. it takes a lot of patience. When you’re dealing with many different personalities, you HAVE to be a person who is very understanding of things that come up. I LOVE working with children.. so you can say that I have more patience in this area than many.

Leader…. you have to be a person who can multitask, and know what to do “next” if something goes wrong. Remember people are always looking at your facial expression, your mood change, your tone of voice, your body language….. everything. If you show any signs of “getting frustrated”… just know it could effect your whole team. Many times there could be things going on with your team players, and if that’s the case, if you break down over any thing, this could easy shift their personal issues into your FUNCTION. People feel that if the Leader experience a break down, then that’s a time where they feel that its okay to focus on their own personal issues. I say this because I can clearly remember being apart of something, when the Leader had a moment where they storm off, became upset and argumentative… and I thought to myself…. “I can be at home sitting on the couch eating ice cream for this mess”. People ask a lot of questions…..as a Leader you have to know what you want, and how you want it done. People look to you for answers….always.

Visualize…. you have to already have a visual of how you want things to go. If you don’t others will “gladly” tell you how you should do this and do that, confusing the project with different kinds of opinions and ideas. There is NOTHING wrong with feedback, but YOU have to know what you want before you present it to your team.

Expect for things to go wrong…. I say this because “THIS IS REAL LIFE”. Even if its the smallest thing…. expect for something to go wrong… so that you can always be on guard * with a smile* TO FIX IT!!!! The worst thing to see is a Leader who runs into a problem, panic, get an attitude, changing the whole atmosphere of the team players, just because that person didn’t have a plan B. As we were opening the 7-8 huge cans for the string beans, the can opener didn’t want to work at all. We didn’t have time to go out and buy another one, so what my friend did was….. opened them all with a knife…..with a smile. Now had I panicked and started getting frustrated about it…. it could have easily changed the working atmosphere of others. No one wants to work around a person who can’t control themselves when something goes wrong.

Do what it takes to MAKE IT HAPPEN…. I had to meet so many different people when it was time to pick up items for the Homeless Project. It was challenging traveling on different days and times to meet people all over the city. But it was something that I “mentally prepared” myself to do. I couldn’t quit in the middle of it, and I didn’t whine. I JUST DID IT! I had to put gas in my van 3 days in a row. You have to have that “make it happen” mentality to pull off anything that YOU plan. When your team see that you’re putting in the work…. they will too.

Email….. People will make you want to pull out your hair. BUT DONT. 🙂 I had several people to email me and say…. “why didn’t you call and remind me that the project was here?”….that’s a NO-NO for me. People expect for you to call them and send messages reminding them to be apart. I don’t do that. I’ll post it on face book SEVERAL TIMES, private emails to those who ask for reminders, and that’s it. I found out that people who want to be a part and who cant be part…… WILL CONTACT YOU AND LET YOU KNOW. I love people who communicate with me. Its okay either way… but to say to me… “why didn’t you remind me”…. is disrespectful to MY TIME. I received another email from someone wanting to drop off can goods , a pie, and a pack of dinner rolls. When I explained to her that we make dinners, and all 150 people get the same thing. Well, she looked at it as if I was “lecturing” her, she got mad said her feelings were hurt… and that was it. I tried telling her… its OKAY.. if you can’t help out this year…. ITS OKAY. Its like going to a all black party… and you “TRY” to get in with red… then when the owner of the house stops you and say “hey….. why didn’t you wear black… its a all black party? The person answers…. “well I didn’t have any black to wear”. OKAY WELL……. YOU CANT COME TO THIS FUNCTION. WHEN WE HAVE A RED PARTY… THEN YOU CAN COME… ITS ALRIGHT IF YOU CANT MAKE IT THIS TIME.*quit trying to make a dollar out of .15* ITS OKAY IF YOU HAVE TO SIT THIS ONE OUT. SIT IT OUT… ITS OKAY. I WILL NOT LET YOU IN MY DOOR. People will try to fit your “already” planned function… and make it apart of their pity party. I HAVE ZERO TOLERANCE FOR THOSE PEOPLE….NONE. I’m sweet as PIE. But I WILL NEVER CALL YOU AGAIN, IF YOU HAVE A HARD TIME UNDERSTANDING THE RULES.

Have fun and laugh during the preparations of your function. Make sure that your people eat… who wants to put together a function and there’s no food? I learned that real quick when I put my first one together. LOL My people were mad at me for “making dinners” and not having food for them. So, always make sure there is something to eat.