Work Social Committee

The Border Sheep

Just after setting one up in work and was wondering if anyone else is involved in one.
Need to get an idea of what budget we should look for (50 persons in the company)
Was thinking €250 a head for the year, including Christmas, but not sure is this is reasonable/too high/too low

Thanks in advance!

De Danann

The Border Sheep wrote: »

Just after setting one up in work and was wondering if anyone else is involved in one.
Need to get an idea of what budget we should look for (50 persons in the company)
Was thinking €250 a head for the year, including Christmas, but not sure is this is reasonable/too high/too low

Thanks in advance!

It depends on how much you want the membership fee to cover. Mine is about 45 euro per year. There are numerous events throughout the year (BBQs, pub quizzes, golf days etc) but the way they work is your membership gets you discounted tickets to them (eg you pay ten euro and non members pay thirty) rather than covering the entire expense for it.

I don't think I'd join a social club that cost me 250 per year to be honest, seems very steep especially considering your members wouldn't necessarily be available to go to every activity you organise.

Stevieluvsye

The Border Sheep wrote: »

Just after setting one up in work and was wondering if anyone else is involved in one.
Need to get an idea of what budget we should look for (50 persons in the company)
Was thinking €250 a head for the year, including Christmas, but not sure is this is reasonable/too high/too low

Thanks in advance!

That's too expensive. Max €10 a month and also will company match each members contribution?

The Border Sheep

Sorry, I didn't phrase that well.
I was looking to see what would be an amount to request from the company to set as a budget for each person so €250 a head would be €12,500 from the company

Trying to stay away from asking people to contribute to it as I feel the company should offer this themselves

Stevieluvsye

The Border Sheep wrote: »

Sorry, I didn't phrase that well.
I was looking to see what would be an amount to request from the company to set as a budget for each person so €250 a head would be €12,500 from the company

Trying to stay away from asking people to contribute to it as I feel the company should offer this themselves

€250 is reasonable if that also includes xmas party and should cover 3 other events throughout the year which would be the norm
Easter, Summer, Halloween

TheValeyard

250 is a bit steep. Ours is 120, which includes a summer and Christmas party. We also use a committee of six members to spread the work load, as there can be a fair bit in it. (special birthdays, weddings, death's, marriage)

Make sure to keep a exact list of who pays what, there will ALWAYS be one or two who try not to pay and still turn up to events. Or will try convince you they did pay. Never take money off someone without marking them off a list then and there. Or set up an online payment system.


Edit: if requesting money from the company. Try work out the cost of a meal X number of staff, or cost of venue, DJ, etc, then see if the company could match staff contributions.

Stevieluvsye

TheValeyard wrote: »

250 is a bit steep. Ours is 120, which includes a summer and Christmas party. We also use a committee of six members to spread the work load, as there can be a fair bit in it. (special birthdays, weddings, death's, marriage)

Make sure to keep a exact list of who pays what, there will ALWAYS be one or two who try not to pay and still turn up to events. Or will try convince you they did pay. Never take money off someone without marking them off a list then and there. Or set up an online payment system.


Edit: if requesting money from the company. Try work out the cost of a meal X number of staff, or cost of venue, DJ, etc, then see if the company could match staff contributions.

I don't think they are looking for anything from the staff, only the company going by their post

TheValeyard

Stevieluvsye wrote: »

I don't think they are looking for anything from the staff, only the company going by their post

Some places require staff contribution for funds to be released. Just from my experience.

Stevieluvsye

TheValeyard wrote: »

Some places require staff contribution for funds to be released. Just from my experience.

Yes, i pay €15 a month but company contribute at least double that per employee enrolled.

I think we have budgeted €450 per member per year, but that includes multiple events

TheValeyard

Stevieluvsye wrote: »

Yes, i pay €15 a month but company contribute at least double that per employee enrolled.

I think we have budgeted €450 per member per year, but that includes multiple events

It's also a really good way of improving staff morale

Stevieluvsye

TheValeyard wrote: »

It's also a really good way of improving staff morale

I work for a multi national so i absolutely agree!

Zaph

Two things I learned from many years on the social club where I work – 1) you need to charge a membership fee. This gets people invested in the club and will encourage them to attend events as they’ll want to get some return on their subs. Our subs are a fiver monthly, deducted from your salary. Obviously it’ll also provide extra funding for events.; and 2) never, ever run free events. It’s unbelievable the difference a small fee of 5 or 10 euro can make to attendances. If people don’t have to pay anything, they think nothing of committing and then cancelling at short notice or simply don’t turn up. If they have to put their hand in their pocket up-front they generally feel that they should go seeing as they’ve paid for it. Also the fee should be non-refundable, otherwise you’ll have the same problem with no-shows.

BrokenArrows

The Border Sheep wrote: »

Just after setting one up in work and was wondering if anyone else is involved in one.
Need to get an idea of what budget we should look for (50 persons in the company)
Was thinking €250 a head for the year, including Christmas, but not sure is this is reasonable/too high/too low

Thanks in advance!

Jesus that's a steep price to pay.
We used to pay €5 a month and the company topped it up too.

You're looking to collect 12.5k a year for what exactly? The occasional pissup?

The Border Sheep

All good ideas, thanks for the input
I think 250e a head is a fair amount myself. The reason I ask is that we've just been informed that there is no budget for the Christmas party as the company budget was spent during the year, just worked it out that it's currently 60e a head, which would barely get a Christmas party so I need to get something realistic in place

razorblunt

Wherever you book the Xmas Party make sure you get a room for yourself.
That explains why our crowd also have weird venues and then try to give you shíte for leaving early.

Gregor Samsa

In our place, we can contribute €6.50 a month to Sports & Social, and the company matches it. So we have €156 per head. The company has a separate employee engagement budget for other events, and things like team outings and the staff Xmas party are also directly funded by the company, not the S&S budget. So the S&S is a bonus fund controlled by a staff committee (not management or HR).

Monthly contributions come straight our of payroll, so there's no issue with chasing people for money. We used to have about 115 members (out of a staff of about 130), so had a budget of over 17 grand a year (numbers fluctuated). We used to get about 10-20 people coming to most after-work events, obviously much more for events held during working hours in the office itself (pizza lunch, office treasure hunts, sports day, X Box tournaments, etc), so the money went a long way. Any money left over at the end of the year went towards prizes for a raffle - which used to be pretty good: TVs, iPads, decent vouchers, etc.. It was a bit difficult leaving the small amount of non-members out of the in-office events, so we had to be somewhat careful with that. Non members had the option of paying full admission fee for after work events (I don't think any actually went to any). Our biggest event was Xmas party for kids. As some members didn't have any, we let them bring up to 3 nieces/nephews/cousins if relevant.

Over the years, as the demographics in the office changed and we downsized, we found less and less people going to the after work events. We've now got about 40 members (from 50 staff). That ends up with an uptake of 5-8 people for most after work events, which isn't sustainable. We're currently going through a process of trying to figure out if it's worth carrying on. As I said, it's not the only source of funding for events, so we wouldn't be at a total loss, but it's sill a good chunk of change if we can find the right way to spend it.

You also get people dropping out for stupid, petty reasons: They didn't go to the kids xmas party, but still want the Santa present. Some other kid got a bigger (but not necessarily more expensive) Santa present than theirs. They prefer the pizza from some other place, and feel the need to protest by withdrawing their membership. The don't bother to go to any events, and then look for a refund at the end of they year, and are shocked when they're told that's not how it works. We found that it all worked very well for the first few years, but can get to be a bit of a ball ache after a while.

The Border Sheep

I was looking at the shared party in one of the hotels, meal and entertainment seems like a great deal. Anyone ever being to one and any suggestions or a good location in Dublin?

I didn't know this was a thing. I've never worked in an office that had a social club with fees. It's a good idea if the money goes toward events outside of the usual range of company events, but you mention a Christmas party, which should be the employer's job.

250 euro per annum seems steep. What do you get for that?

In most offices, the employer pays for the Christmas party and other social events, and that's the way it should be IMO.

It's very annoying for those of us who don't drink when money from a social committee is used to buy wine and other alcohol. Many other non-drinkers in my place have stopped paying the money for this precise reason.

Whatever you do, be very transparent with everybody about where the money is spent.

PS: €250 is ridiculous. €50 is more than enough.

Gregor Samsa

The Border Sheep wrote: »

I was looking at the shared party in one of the hotels, meal and entertainment seems like a great deal. Anyone ever being to one and any suggestions or a good location in Dublin?

Not in Dublin, so I can't give any recommendations, but IMHO for a 50 person office, a shared xmas party is the best way to go.

When we had more people, we could sustain a great party in a function room on our own. We get about a 60% uptake on the xmas party (there's always people who can't/won't go for various reasons)., so with the current 50 people, we get about 30 going. That's 3 or 4 tables at a shared xmas party, and you get to be part of the bigger atmosphere of having a couple of hundred people at the event - 4 course meal, band and a DJ. We're in a small town in the west, so some people would stay over in the hotel as they'd have a distance to travel home (and no public transport). Everyone would make the effort to get dressed up, and it was something of a special night. Bit like a wedding reception, really.

Last year we had a smaller thing where there was just a meal in a restaurant over a pub, then a band in the pub downstairs after. I didn't get to go, but by all accounts most people left early and it wasn't much craic.

Gregor Samsa

Deleted User wrote: »

It's very annoying for those of us who don't drink when money from a social committee is used to buy wine and other alcohol. Many other non-drinkers in my place have stopped paying the money for this precise reason.

I don't think ours ever actually bought alcohol. Drink is banned in the office anyway (our other offices globally have a company funded "beer friday", but we don't). At the xmas party, we'd sometimes have a tab at the bar the bar that obviously allows people to get alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks, but it was only if there was a surplus of funds. Similarly with in office lunches (pizza, etc) - we'd always cater for the diary requirements of the staff (vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free, etc as necessary). At the end of the year, we'd have a wide range of raffle prizes to cater for a variety of tastes and preferences. But it's impossible to please everyone all the time.

andekwarhola

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I didn't know this was a thing. I've never worked in an office that had a social club with fees. It's a good idea if the money goes toward events outside of the usual range of company events, but you mention a Christmas party, which should be the employer's job.

250 euro per annum seems steep. What do you get for that?

In most offices, the employer pays for the Christmas party and other social events, and that's the way it should be IMO.

Have one in my job.

Forgot the exact monthly contribution but its small and they do pretty good stuff. Sometimes they'll charge a little cover charge, like a fiver for some activities.

This year, they've had lunchtime hikes (lunch provided), cinema trips, beer and wine tasting nights, summer barbecues etc.

The company do the Christmas night out, nothing to do with the them.

Mrs OBumble

The Border Sheep wrote: »

All good ideas, thanks for the input
I think 250e a head is a fair amount myself. The reason I ask is that we've just been informed that there is no budget for the Christmas party as the company budget was spent during the year, just worked it out that it's currently 60e a head, which would barely get a Christmas party so I need to get something realistic in place

So there's no budget for a Christmas party, but yet you think you can get 250 per head out of the company? ..... sorry but I don't think that will fly

Sounds to me like you need to start with clarifying your goals, and then work out income sources.

The Border Sheep

That's where part of the problem lies, there is no budget for the Christmas party as no plan was put in place for the year.
To try rectify that, I'm looking for the company to give me something for this year, and put a budget in for next year to prevent the same happening
I think €250 sounds fair for that, but that's where you guys come in and get my feet back on the ground

Badly Drunk Boy

TheValeyard wrote: »

It's also a really good way of improving staff morale

Stevieluvsye wrote: »

I work for a multi national so i absolutely agree!

Seriously? (Or are your bosses watching?)

I work for a multi-national too, but I'm not in the Sports & Social club. Years ago, we have the option of being in it or not so I politely declined, but nowadays new recruits have to join.

They have discounted tickets for the cinema or the odd show in Dublin, but that wouldn't interest me. If I want to do something like that, I'll do it on my own terms.

Apart from that, there are raffles a few times a years but I can survive without them too.