CUs working together at Inter-chapter level

CU Factor in the

Northern Region

Update

CU Factor

CU Factor presentation at Best Practice Meeting for Youth Development last year in Athlone

Can be viewed on the CU4Youth on the League’s website under Youth Development, Best Practice Meeting 2009, Promoting to the Youth Market @ Chapter Level

Moving Forward

Following the Best Practice meeting in Athlone last year, a meeting of the 5 chapters in the Northern Region was called to explore the possibility of an inter-chapter event.

Representatives from all 5 chapters, as well as Marianne Cushley, the Marketing Officer for NI and Kieran McDonnell from the League office

Plan and structure for the event was unveiled All representatives returned to their respective

chapters to discuss. A further meeting was called to assess the

feedback from the 5 chapters and draw up a plan of action

All 5 chapters returned with a favourable response to the planned inter-chapter initiative and so the planning began

The Initial Plan

At first we decided that each chapter should try to emulate what chapter 2 had previously done

Each of the 5 chapters - identify their top 3 acts, who would go forward to represent their chapter at the Grand Final

Then it was down to the “nitty-gritty”

The Fine Detail

Needed the same set of competition rules for all Chapters

Centralise the application forms, posters and pop-ups

Helped to cut down costs and to make sure the everything remained uniform

The Buy-In

All chapters had agreed to get involved But not all credit unions within each

chapter supported the initiative Created some stumbling blocks along the

way Stuck with it believing in what Martin Luther

King said, “what does not destroy us shall make us stronger!”

Centralisation Centralised application forms and press

releases. Handled by a core group made up of

myself, Julie Ferguson from Chapter 2 and Marianne Cushley.

Julie and I attended organisational meetings and chapter meetings in the other chapters, when requested, in order to help them along

Funding

Each chapter covered their costs in different ways

Most asked each credit union within their chapter to contribute towards the running costs by donating between £100 - £200.

Some chapters also donated towards the chapter costs

Meetings

Held regular meetings with each chapter Ensure that things were running smoothly Help and advise given if needed Meetings were well attended in general Each chapter sending at least one person

from their organising committee

The Heats

Myself and Julie tried to attend the first heat that each chapter held,

On hand for support and to help with any problems

Some teething problems With a little help, all chapters successfully

made it through their heats

Chapter Finals Tried to keep each chapter final on a

different date to enable us to attend all 5 chapter finals.

2 chapters ended up with their finals on the same night, so I was able to go to 4 of the chapter finals

Each chapter final was different, although each produced the required 3 acts for the final

The Grand Final

The biggest problem - Funding. Each chapter had paid for their own events

up to chapter level, we didn’t know how to approach a joint grand final.

The organising of the grand final fell mainly with the core organising team, although each chapter was kept up to speed with the arrangements

Compere

Needed high profile Compere.Went with Connor Phillips, a DJ with the north’s CoolFM radio and a presenter on TTV on RTE

Judges

Decided on a panel of 5 judges Namely

- Malachi Cush (from BBC’s Fame Academy), - - - Muriel Day

(represented Ireland in the Eurovision),

- Tina Calder

(entertainments journalist with the Sunday World)

- Malcolm McDowell

(agent and organiser of Festival4stars competition)

- Meta Bell (vocal coach)

Rehearsals

Rehearsal on the Sunday before the final Photographer attended take a photo of

each of the act Used in the programme and the slide show Acts brought a copy of their backing track

so that the DJ could keep it and have it copied onto his laptop

On the Day

Arranged for each chapter to send their core organising committee (3/4 people) to help set up the venue

Decorated the place with helium balloons, CU banners and pop-ups and posters of the acts

Enjoyed a meal together - a thank-you to those who had been involved

The Grand Final Atmosphere was electric!! Show ran smoothly and everyone

thoroughly enjoyed all the acts, not just the one they were supporting!

When the judges were deliberating, we had a banner competition

Kept the audience entertained and brought another dimension to the evening

Winners!!!

Recalled the 6 acts with the highest scores to sing 1 ½ minutes of their song again

Judges were sent off to another room to make their final decision

The tension was really mounting in the hall as the winners were announced. It was a really close call, as all the acts were so good

Success??!!Personally I feel that this was a very successful

event. We achieved several things: - 5 chapters working together to deliver a bigger

and grander event than individually would have been possible

Reaching the youth market Targeting potential volunteers Free coverage in local press of the events

Endorsements! But don’t take my word for it!! Ask our

President, Mark Bailey, what he thought of the event!! He was in attendance and thoroughly enjoyed the evening

The judges all sent emails to congratulate all the acts taking part as well as the organising committee on the success of the event

An Invitation!! So, we in the Northern Region have set the

bar We would like to throw down the gauntlet to

the other regions and ask them to consider copying what we have done

If each region can get to this stage, then the next stage would be an All Ireland event!! – and why not??