Help for Young Life Leaders NOW

Last Saturday we planned out our Fall 2011 clubs. I’ve mentioned it before but here is how we do it:

1. I ask each leader to come with three new fully planned themed clubs (mixer, game, skit, additional fun things to spice it up)
2. I write all of their ideas on a board with minimal explanation (do this part quick)
3. We review the list to see if there are any obvious clubs that are basically the same, and then combine them
4. I have everyone take a piece of paper and write down their top 5 (you could do as many as works for you obviously)
5. This part may sound lame, but… I have them close their eyes and raise their hands as I say each club and I write down how many people voted for it (I don’t want people to think their idea was bad or know who did or did not vote for their ideas)
6. When we are done I circle the top ideas. This semester we needed nine new clubs.
7. Since I am the senior leader, I make some executive decisions about some of the clubs, but usually 95% of it is what we vote for.
8. We then break up into teams and plan the clubs in detail.
9. We finally come back together, explain our plans, tweak the ideas as a group and write them down.

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For those of you on Twitter, like me, there is a fantastic resource for YL ideas. I’ve been following it for a few months. It was quiet for a little while but has recently been posting some great ideas. I recommend you check it out!

https://twitter.com/younglifeideas

Here are the plans my team came up with for our club this semester. I’ll let you know how they turn out. Enjoy!

The “This Year…” series looks back at lessons learned in the past year of YL. It will feature several posts and guest posts.

Here is one from my friend Tanita from Tucson, AZ…

Kids like to cook together–weird thing I learned after I invited 4-5 kids to come over and cook dinner together on a Monday night when there wasn’t YL and 16 kids showed up. They learned how to peel a potato, slice vegetables, sauté, and all sorts of cooking stuff that none of them had ever done before. The kids LOVED it, guys and girls put on my aprons and followed a recipe and made dinner & dessert. But they loved the "family" home feeling of making and eating dinner together. They begged to do it again. I suggest you find a recipe that has a lot of prep to give kids something to do, cutting veggies, preparing spices, etc.

The next time I invited kids over to cook again, 25 kids showed up…that was a little crazy…

SO, Top Chef club was the most popular club we had over the year…there were sandwich stations set up with different supplies provided, and then teams of 4-5 kids had to create a sandwich that was judged by a couple leaders.

PS… If you have things you learned this year, email me! smcgever (at) yahoo.com or find me on Facebook.