The welcome bag is the first thing a woman touches at your retreat and the last thing she looks at in the car on the way home. It sets the tone, and it is usually assembled at 11 pm the night before by four volunteers and a folding table.
This is the checklist we wish every planner had, from six weeks out to the drive home, with a budget for three sizes of retreat.
Six weeks out
- Pick the theme verse. Everything in the bag points at it, so decide it first.
- Count. Registered attendees plus ten percent. Bags always run short, never long.
- Order the one thing that takes shipping time. Bands, printed journals, anything custom. Everything else can be bought the week of.
- Decide the "one more thing". The item that does something after the weekend. For most retreats that is a band she taps, or a letter she mails to herself.
Three weeks out
- Write the welcome note. One paragraph from the host, printed on a card. If you are using prayer bands, this same note is what every band opens to when it is tapped, so write it once and use it twice.
- Set up the retreat's prayer circle. One circle for the whole retreat, led by the team. Put the join code on the welcome card. See How to Keep 2,500 Women Praying Together After the Conference Ends for the week-after plan.
- Order the paper goods. Welcome cards, bookmarks, name tags, schedule.
One week out
- Everything in one room. Lay out one finished bag on the table as the model. Volunteers copy it.
- Assembly line, not piles. One item per station. A bag moves down the line. Twelve volunteers can do five hundred bags in an hour this way.
- Sort by size where it matters. If bands or shirts come in sizes, bag them by size and label the bags with a colored dot. Nobody wants to dig through two hundred bags on check-in morning.
The checklist
Every bag
- Schedule, one page, folded once
- Name tag
- Welcome card with the theme verse and the host's note
- Bookmark with the verse
- Pen
- Prayer band with the theme verse on it, sized
Most bags
- Small journal, first page written by the host
- Tea or coffee with the retreat word on the label
- A verse card for the mirror
- Snack
If the budget allows
- A second band to give away to someone who was not there
- A stamped envelope addressed to herself, for the last-session letter
- A photo of her table, printed Saturday night and slipped into the bag before Sunday
Budget tiers
Small retreat, up to 75 women. Every bag gets a band, the card, the bookmark, and a pen. Buy snacks and tea in bulk the week of. This bag takes an evening to assemble.
Mid-size, 75 to 400. Add the journal and the mirror card. Order bands by size from the Bulk Order tab, where quantity pricing applies. Plan two assembly nights.
Large, 400 and up. Add the second band and the self-addressed letter. Talk to your band supplier six weeks out; we set up the circle, the welcome note, and the join code cards as part of a large order. Assembly is a Saturday with a team and a plan.
The one item that keeps working
Most of a welcome bag is over by Sunday night. The band is not, if it is a prayer band. The verse is on the outside for the weekend. The chip on the inside is for after:
- She taps it and the retreat's page opens with the verse and the host's note.
- She leaves a prayer, and reads the prayers of the women who were in the room with her.
- The team posts a topic on the circle's wall, and she gets a nudge to pray on Wednesday.
- She gives her second band to a friend, and the friend taps into the same room.
That is the part our friend's conference band was missing. It had the verse and nothing behind it, and by midweek it was in the cup holder.
Ordering
Bands, sizes, and quantity pricing are in the store under Bulk Order. Shipping is free on orders of $35 or more. For a retreat of a few hundred or more, contact us early and we will handle the circle and the cards with you. If you want to see what she sees when she taps, What Is a Prayer Band? shows it.