A baby safety shower should be fun for all involved. But it's important to be well-organized.
As your first task, put together a planning committee to help you. The more assistance you get, the easier your job will be. Recruit representatives from groups and organizations that are interested in baby safety issues and can do the job well. Discuss early on:
o Who and how many people you want to invite to your baby safety shower.
o Where you can hold the shower.
o Who in the community -- volunteers, organizations, businesses -- can help you.
o How you will cover any costs.
o What theme and safety messages you want to convey.
o What games and activities you can use to make learning fun.
o Whether you want to enhance your shower with food, exhibits, gifts, and publicity.
o How you will schedule the shower day.
Suggestions and ideas for all of these topics are included in this How-to Kit.
Delegate responsibility for broad categories of shower-related activities (getting sponsors, publicity, food, program, decorations, etc.) to your committee members. Keep in touch with everyone regularly to ensure that everything gets done.
Think about how you can use contributions from many different sources. For example:
o Your partners can help you plan and organize the event -- and form the core of your working committee.
o Your sponsors can contribute most of the goods and services for the event.
o Your volunteers -- recruited from your organization and those of your partners and sponsors -- can staff the actual event.
Start planning early -- and enjoy yourself!
Planning and organization are crucial to the success of your baby safety shower. This timetable should help you plan a large event. A smaller shower can be organized more quickly.
16-18 weeks ahead:
o Recruit baby safety shower partners
o Form a planning committee
o Select tentative shower dates
o Decide whom to invite
o Select site and confirm exact date
14-16 weeks ahead:
o Choose shower theme, programs, activities, and workshops
o Recruit volunteers
o Recruit local businesses and organizations to underwrite expenses or donate shower goods, exhibits, and services
o Estimate costs
o Develop master "to-do" list
o Invite VIPs
12-14 weeks ahead:
o Develop activity, game workshop, and program materials
o Plan refreshments
o Plan site logistics with building management
o List needed equipment and supplies
10-12 weeks ahead:
o Plan opening ceremony
o Plan schedule of shower activities
o Plan publicity
o Make transportation and parking arrangements
8-10 weeks ahead:
o Arrange baby-sitting or child care
o Recruit greeters, workshop leaders, food preparers and servers
o Prepare invitation list
6-8 weeks ahead:
o Assign volunteers to shower activities
o Begin collecting donated items
o Make, print and/or duplicate shower materials (e.g., signs, fliers, posters, invitations, games, Baby Safety Checklist)
4-6 weeks ahead:
o Invite shower guests
o Publicize shower through fliers, posters, and local media
o Confirm food arrangements
o Finalize activities and workshops
o Order publications (see attachments section)
2-4 weeks ahead:
o Finish collecting donated items
o Reconfirm shower arrangements with partners and sponsors
o Hold orientation sessions for volunteers
o Distribute news release and broadcast ad
1 week to 1 day ahead:
o Make final media arrangements
o Check with volunteers to ensure that everything is on track
o Remind invited celebrities, partners, sponsors, public officials about the event
o Assemble workshop materials and equipment
o Reconfirm food arrangements
o Prepare gift bags for shower guests
Day of the event:
o Set up
o Enjoy the event!
o Clean up
1 week after:
o Thank everyone who helped
o Evaluate the event (what went well, what didn't, what you'd do differently next time)
o Complete and send in the evaluation form from the attachments section in the back of this How-to Kit
Decide which group you want to reach with safety information. For example, you may want to work with teen mothers, parents-to-be, low-income parents, low-literacy parents, or non-English speaking parents. The shower activities work best if developed around the special needs of one group at a time.
Work with organizations and groups that serve the people you have targeted. They can help you decide whom to invite and plan an appropriate program. They also can help you determine how many shower guests to invite. For example, you can hold a shower for 20 people in someone's living room or for 200 in your local high school gymnasium.
Make your guests feel special by inviting each one personally -- and encouraging them to RSVP. This will communicate that you really want them at the shower and will help you plan for the number of guests actually attending.
See the attachments section for a sample invitation.
Choose a site for the shower that's familiar and convenient to your invited audience and offers a warm, friendly environment.
Depending on the size of your shower, the site could be a community center, public library conference room, church social hall, hospital or clinic reception area, school cafeteria, gymnasium, auditorium, or a similar space in a professional office building. Check the following points.
o The site is available at a convenient time for your invited guests.
o The space in the facility:
o You can provide transportation for your guests, if needed. If your guests drive to the shower, be sure the site has free and safe parking. If your guests take public transportation, nearby bus or subway stops should be safe and convenient.
o The space in the facility can accommodate child care, if needed, during the shower.
o Any costs can be covered.
No matter where you hold your shower, keep a list of emergency or medical services telephone numbers handy, just in case you need them.
You'll need plenty of volunteers to prepare for the shower and then help on the day of the event. Start recruiting early.
Decide how many volunteers you want and what they will do. Volunteers can head committees, solicit sponsors, collect donations, set up equipment, make decorations, greet guests, run game workshops, serve food, clean up, and much more. Plan to line up more people than you need, in case some drop out before the event.
To help volunteers, be very clear about what they must do. Provide orientation sessions. If needed, schedule a dry run close to the event so all involved feel comfortable about their assignment.
After the shower, be sure to thank everyone for making the event a success!
Baby showers involve games, gifts, and edible goodies. Start early to enlist the help of interested health and safety organizations, companies doing business in your area, and volunteers. There are probably many in your community eager to help.
Good places to start:
o Trade groups, local manufacturers, and merchants (e.g., grocery, drug, department stores, and companies in the health care or safety business). Contact the community relations managers for possible donations of baby-related goods and services, refreshments, prizes, free advertising, etc.
o Community organizations (e.g., hospitals, auxiliary leagues, chambers of commerce, foundations, local print and broadcast media). Contact community relations or public affairs managers about speakers, or baby-sitting help.
o Government organizations (e.g., local CPSC offices, state and local health departments, local offices servicing the community with federally-sponsored health and safety programs for children). Contact public affairs or public relations offices to alert them and solicit support.
o Local elected officials (e.g., mayor, city or town council members). Invite celebrity guests with an important link to the community you're serving.
Tips for working with other organizations:
o Target organizations that have goods or services relevant to the safety and health of babies, young toddlers, or new parents.
o Provide the company or organization with an incentive for contributing to your event (e.g., good community public relations, potential new customers).
o When contacting a company or organization, describe the purpose of the shower and what valuable role this group can play.
o After an organization makes a commitment, send it a letter spelling out your understanding of the agreement.
o Identify a contact person (and a backup individual) who can get you the needed goods or services in the time and quantities required.
o Keep in touch with the contact people about how plans for your event are developing or changing.
o Try to arrange for these groups to deliver their goods to the event site.
o If an organization is providing an exhibit, get the name and phone number of the person staffing it at the shower.
o Make arrangements at the shower site to receive and store deliveries for the event.
o Make arrangements with either staff at the shower site or the organizations providing exhibit booths to have the materials and props removed or thrown away at the conclusion of the event.
o Following the shower, write or call to thank everyone involved. Let them know how important they were to the shower's success.
A baby safety shower need not cost a lot, but you'll probably have some expenses. Your partners and sponsors may be able to underwrite your expenses or donate most of the goods and services. Here is a list of possible expenses:
o Facility (electricity, janitorial services, tables, chairs, etc.)
o Game and program materials (game workshops, exhibits, etc.)
o Duplication and mailing of invitations (see Part Four: Attachments)
o Transportation for shower guests
o Food (snack or meal)
o Decorations
o Prizes
o Audio-visuals (television and VCR, overhead or slide projector)
If you can't cover these costs or arrange for donations, you may need to modify the shower activities. For example, you can make your own invitations or duplicate the one in this How-to Kit and hand-deliver them. You can ask volunteers to donate homemade food. You can design your own decorations. Be creative! What's most important is developing a warm and friendly atmosphere where your guests feel comfortable and motivated to learn.
Publicizing your shower can have many benefits. It can announce details of your upcoming shower to your target audience. It also can alert businesses, local elected officials, media celebrities, and other community leaders to your efforts and attract their support.
Notify the local media about your event. The sample press release and broadcast advertisement in Part Four: Attachments should help you get started. Follow up with personal calls to the news or community events director.
It helps if there is a well-known person associated with your shower. For example, you may want to invite a well-known VIP, like the mayor or a local TV personality. Try enlisting a radio or television show or local newspaper as a sponsor of the shower. These organizations often are interested in supporting community efforts important to their audiences.
Don't forget the value of fliers posted in grocery stores, drugstores, libraries, bus stops -- any public location where your targeted audience is likely to see them.
GO TO PART TWO: Developing Your Shower Program
GO TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission protects the public from the
unreasonable risk of injury or death from 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency's
jurisdiction.
To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury and for information on
CPSC's fax-on-demand service, call CPSC's hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC's teletypewriter
at (800) 638-8270.
Consumers can also report product hazards via electronic mail by sending a message to
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Comments: info@cpsc.gov
Revised: May 5, 1996
URL: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/shower/showerp1.html