Elaine's motto:  Don't eat the elephant all at once. 
There is a lot of information here.  Like any worthy endeavor, take it step by step. On this page we outline your 1st four steps:

Step 1:     Committee Recruitment
Step 2:     Venue & Date
Step 3:     Sponsorship
Step 4:     Graphics 

To ensure enjoyable & profitable events, we assembled our best possible advice in this"How To" and organized it by
committee into pages–everything your group needs for success. 

Please ask your chairs to read and

 Sign this agreement.

Putting together a successful committee requires finding the right chairs. 

• We suggest throwing a Recruitment Party! 
Invite any and all people (The target is about 50 people to get the word out.) About 1/2 will sign up for the committee.
We have used this Paperless Post design to invite prospective members to kick-off parties:   

http://www.paperlesspost.com/cards#/cards/invitations/bachelorette_invitations/card/530

Sample invitation copy:
"We invite you to kick up your heels as we kick around some ideas for Wine Women & Shoes ~ CITY ~ 2013, benefiting CHARITY.
Bring your CITY sole sisters and wear your favorite shoes as we sip & share to make sure next year's fundraiser is the BEST event yet!"

• Show this fun energizing WWS video! (You can download it too.)

• View & download: 

Kick-off Committee Meeting PowerPoint presentation
Charity Reel Video
Download Chairty Reel to burn to disc

• Assign Committee Roles:  Many hands make light work–if they are the right hands.
Once you've recruited people, how do you assign them? 

• Start thinking about place for your event. 
   It helps to have your Venue & Logistics committee chair selected before proceeding, but not absolutely necessary.
   Visit our Venue Committee Page for more details & ideas on choosing your ideal location.

Ideas & Inspirations:
•  Single rooms and big, open spaces that flow nicely are ideal.
•  An area for the marketplace/tasting and a separate one for the fashion show so you can create a little drama for the show.
   This makes for a nice differentiation of spaces
•  In spaces where there isn’t room for a fashion show, informal modeling has been very successful.
•  Read the Venue & Logistics page for more ideas.
•  In choosing a day, it's helpful to have a better understanding of the event timelines:

Long-Term Event Timeline This outlines the primary tasks in building a WW&S event and which committee handles
 what & when.  It’s a great “bird’s eye view” of the process, and a checklist to ensure that you cover all of your bases.

Event Day Timeline Sample  This is the "day of" timeline from the 2012 Napa event.  It is an excellent
guideline for what happens on event day.
  

• Start Networking with potential sponsors
Have your Sponsorship committee chair selected before proceeding!

Suggested Steps:
•  Appoint a well-connected Sponsorship Chair (if you have not yet)
•  Engage every committee member to leverage connections in various industries
•  Create target list of businesses including any newly opened businesses in your market, which you might approach.
•  Creat custom sponsorship opportunities (see sample presentations here)  that you want to market.

• WW&S suggests approaching the following businesses
  
      •  Possible corporate sponsors:  plastic surgery/laser eye centers; dermatologists; banks; real estate agents; car dealerships;
         major corporations in your city; foundations; a WNBA Team; concierge doctors; hospitals or hospital groups; mortgage or 
         refinancing companies; orthodontists; plumbers; flooring companies; cell phone companies; contractors or builders, oil companies, 
         agricultural companies. . ..

      • Possible media sponsors: TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, or “bloggers”

See a sample of asponsorship deck from Sacramento's 2012 event.  It gives an idea of what businesses may buy in & at what level.

This "branding" appears on all of your event collateral, including Web sites, so it's good to get this done early. 

Ideas & Inspirations:

•  Select a Print & Graphics committee chair, that person will work with WW&S to create your templates
•  With WW&S, chose graphics packages. 

View examples here:

Graphics Packages, Invitation Samples

Program Samples

Fonts

WW&S Logo

Lessons Learned

One person can't whistle a symphony

• Great teamwork builds a successful WW&S event.  Delegate and Communicate.
• A strong committee ensures that all of the work won't fall on the charity staff's or chair's shoulders.

Mind your own beeswax

• Committee chairs should stay focused on their tasks not someone else's. It's the event chairs' job  to oversee everyone.

Am I an event chair or an octopus?

• Delegate day-of work to volunteers, staff, other committee members, and WW&S team.
• Ensure your committee chairs are managing their respective areas on event day.

I'm here! Now what do I do?

• Have the event chair and committee chairs greeting guests at the event check-in.  The committee chairs and event co-chairs rotate
   time slots with one another so they continue managing thier areas.  She who doesn't delegate does not get to enjoy the event!

• Hold a pre-event team line-up on event day. 

Sample Documents
(For Viewing & Downloading)

 Event Timelines:

Long-Term Event Timeline

Event Day Timeline Sample

Committee Recruiting Materials:

Kick-off Committee Meeting PowerPoint presentation