Map pinning and coffee kits.

The R.S.V.P deadline has passed, and I've decided to go-ahead with a Macmillan Coffee Morning!
Enough family, friends and residents expressed interest in coming, so there was only going to be one decision..

I headed to the Macmillan Coffee Morning website to official register the fundraiser and pick-up a coffee morning 'starter kit'. Both are free. The kit is packed-full of fun and practical useful items to help you have a successful day.

Coffee Morning Kit

So what's inside the kit?

- A guide to a great coffee morning

- Cake flags and cards

- Table cover and balloons

- Money box

- Gift aid forms

- Two competitions

- Showstopper recipe's  

The kit arrived 3/4 days after registering and comes in a sturdy folder. Now been packed away until Coffee Morning day!

You can opt to shout even louder about your event through Macmillan's online coffee morning mapping service. It is recommended this is done as early as possible. Visitors to the site can put in their postcode, and coffee morning's most local to that postcode will show-up. You can even add clues as to what your coffee morning will entail, a good way of enticing more people in. Personally, I was a bit worried about letting the world know about the event, opening up the chance for millions to descend on our house for coffee and cake! But let's be realistic, I'm only expecting a few more visitors through the service, and went ahead and pinned-on our coffee morning! Can you find it..?

Next step, raffle prizes! You'll see how I've been getting on in next weeks blog..

Gaining Interest

Living in a large village in North Kent, you can imagine the place is peaceful and quiet with a good community spirit. And you are right to picture such an atmosphere. Here in my village the foundations are there for a community to thrive; four churches, scout groups, twenty four eateries, two parks, sports clubs and good schools. Under these facts and impressions of the village and its people, I was confident the local folk would be keen to take part in Macmillan's World's Biggest Coffee Morning!

That doesn't mean to say you won't have a decent turnout if you live in a very urban place, or in the middle of nowhere. So long as you shout loud enough, you'll be fine. I'm just very lucky to be living here.

Twelve weeks before 'C-Day' (Coffee Day), fifty initial invites were written, printed (thank you Sarah) and posted to residents on our close. As you can see from one of them below, the purpose of the notes were to gain initial interest in the event. Invites included ways to respond, as well as a time-limit. A healthy response would give me the confidence to commit to putting in the hours and effort needed to properly run one.

An initial interest invite sent out to local residents.

On the way to work I'd stop to chat about the event to residents and to answer any of their questions - to ease some of the anxiousness that comes with waiting. I wouldn't recommend getting too attached to the idea of hosting a World Coffee Morning at this stage, as waiting for emails or notes through the door was a bad distraction from daily life! 

In three weeks which have followed the invite delivery, me and Sarah have received eighteen replies, around forty people. With a 50/50 divide between email and letters, it proves that even in this digital age, you can't solely rely on one medium for communication. Some of the responses were amazing, with people making the effort to write a full letter including lots of positive comments. In another response I had a long email from a mum in which she asked lots of questions and volunteered to get involved with baking and kids games. Over the coming weeks I'll be doing my best to create a decent dialogue with her, as her enthusiasm and experience will definitely help.

So will forty people give me enough confidence to commit to hosting a Macmillan World Coffee morning? Find out in the next post..

Your Coffee Morning Starts Here

Thirteen years has passed since my wonderful Grandma died of cancer, and since then I've never really done anything to help cancer charities. With the circumstances just about right, it was time for me to support the amazing work these organisations do.

A few weeks ago I decided to join the Macmillan community and be part of their 'World's Biggest Coffee Morning' fundraiser on September 26th, 2014. 

This is my journey as a host of one such event in Kent, England. You may find this blog useful if you have signed up as a fellow host, or are thinking of doing so in the future. I'm sure to make mistakes or even uncover some amazing tips, so you can guarantee yours will be a much bigger success!

Front cover of the free Coffee Morning kit sent by Macmillan.