It’s hard enough to plan large-scale, wide-reaching events for your ministry.
It’s even harder when you don’t know how many students are going to show up.
That’s why you include sign-up deadlines before your retreats and trips …
… and why it’s so frustrating when families routinely miss deadlines and beg to sign up late.
But the important thing I’ve learned is that deadline problems are absolutely something we can fix.
Seriously.
It’s an annoying problem when families can’t keep deadlines, but it’s a problem we can help to fix, and I’ll tell you how.
This is one of those problems that youth workers often complain about because it’s a huge frustration and we inherently KNOW that it’s not our fault.
And we’re absolutely right on that, by the way. It’s not your fault that a family misses a deadline. Our complaints are founded and valid, but that’s not really the important part.
It took me way too long to learn this:
fixing problems than merely assigning blame.
If there were steps you could take to make it more likely that families wouldn’t miss the deadline, you’d do it, right?
A little more work up front is a lot better than scrambling to make space later, right?
I thought so. Let’s fix up your deadline problem in four easy steps (and one more difficult step, if you’re willing to take it).
How to fix your deadline problem once and for all:
MAKE DEADLINES HEADLINES, NOT FINE PRINT.
I see this all the time. The deadline is at the end of the letter, sometimes even in a postscript. Why is this a problem? Two reasons:
1. We’re assuming people will read things in their entirety. They don’t.
2. If she’s aware of it, an imminent deadline might be the thing that gets a mom to open the email or letter NOW instead of putting it off until later.
Put deadlines in email subject lines, in the first paragraph of your brochure and on the exterior of the envelopes you use to mail things.
MAKE DEADLINES POLITELY FIRM, NOT WISHY-WASHY.
This is awfully common too. In our efforts to be perceived as polite and “not pushy,” we often get stuck making wishy-washy statements.
The problem with a deadline is that it’s not a deadline if it’s not presented firmly. Contrast these two deadline statements (I’ve written both of these in my career):
Please make an effort to turn in all forms by February 17.
Registration materials are absolutely due on February 17. Regrettably, we are unable to accept any late registrations due to space constraints.
Remarkably, both of these manage to keep a polite tone. The difference? The first one isn’t a deadline as much as it is a suggestion, and a suggestion as weak as that one is awfully difficult to enforce later.
ISSUE TWICE AS MANY REMINDERS AS YOU THINK YOU NEED.
I’d rather get an email from a parent who thinks I sent them too many reminders about the ski retreat …
… than have a parent in my office frustrated that I can’t make room for their student because they signed up late.
For deadlined events, I send out emails one week, three days, and 24 hours before the deadline actually hits. If a student has told me they’re coming, but hasn’t officially signed up yet, I don’t stop calling until I talk to someone.
IF THIS ISN’T YOUR CHURCH’S CULTURE, PREPARE TO EXPLAIN IT.
If your church or youth ministry hasn’t enforced deadlines in the past, you’re going to have to be ready to explain why you’re so hardcore about deadlines now …
… when no one ever seemed to care before if a few people registered late. At your next parent meeting, explain the difficulties that it causes you and your team, and be prepared to say something like this:
I’m telling you this now because I don’t want you to be surprised by it later. Starting today, we will start enforcing deadlines for all of our big events. I’ll do everything in my power to remind and remind you, but I need you to also be aware that we wouldn’t set a deadline unless we had a real good reason to do so.
Does it sound a little harsh? Yes.
But it’s way less harsh than unexpectedly dropping the deadline hammer for the first time ever on a bunch of unexpecting families.
ACTUALLY ENFORCE YOUR DEADLINES.
This is the hard step. From this point forward, don’t set a deadline unless you intend to enforce it.
You can leave room for extenuating circumstances, but I wouldn’t make that public, and I wouldn’t consider forgetfulness to be an extenuating circumstance.
When we don’t enforce deadlines, we train people to expect that our deadlines don’t matter; and when we train people that our deadlines don’t matter …
… we end up frustrated, needing to read an article like this one.
So here’s my question to you, and an action item that you can launch starting today:
Are you frustrated by families who miss your deadlines? If your answer is yes, leave a comment below and let me know which one of these five steps you’re going to start with today.
