There is much to consider when acim author an event for a community of home educating families – too much to document in just one article! That said, this article will present a basic time line for organising an event that is registered and insured with Home Education Australia (HEA).
Most home education events start with a need. That need is usually felt by the home educator organising the event or another family known to them. From there, the organiser needs to determine two major resource needs for the event – the venue and any specialists that are needed to run the event. Booking a venue also places them in a situation where a time, or potential times will need to be tentatively booked.
The next phase is publicity. But wait! What about the nitty gritty stuff? Yes, before sending emails to every relevant home education mailing list someone will need to sit down and work out the nitty gritty details. This may include floating the concept on the list to get a feel for demand if there are minimum numbers for a booking. It will then involve establishing the date and time of the event, confirming a venue, securing specialists and registering the event with Home Education Australia.
Home Education Australia (HEA) have a web page with all the specific details of registering an event so that you are insured. In a nutshell, there are three main considerations worth highlighting from the information provided by the association.
Firstly, you will want to register the event as soon as practicable so that insurance can be arranged. This allows sufficient time for a committee member to notify the insurer with enough time for them to get back to you if they require further information or cannot cover aspects of the event. It is also a requirement that you specifically include information that it is a ‘HEA event’ on all publicity materials.
You will also need to factor in an additional charge of 20% added to the cost for non-members of HEA, who do not elect to become members before attending the event, when determining pricing. This is a way to encourage families to join the HEA and create a fair funding arrangement for not just the work that is undertaken member or members organising the event but also those by the HEA committee and other members who arrange broader publicity and also liaise with policy makers within government agencies in respect to the specific needs of home education families amongst other administrative tasks.
The third thing to note is that HEA is a not-for-profit association and there is to be no profit derived for any home educator personally as a direct result of organising a HEA event. Within reason organisers can be provided with reasonable allowances for travel, phone calls, personal attendance of the event and like costs. Any proceeds from the event, including any HEA registration fees should be returned to the Home Education Association either directly through direct deposit or by applying the proceeds to funding a future HEA event.
