In preparation:

• Have the Treasurer give you the amount of funds budgeted for the banquet and create a detailed budget for the expenses
• Identify a date, speaker and potential locations
  1. Restaurants with a private room large enough for the intended number of guests are good options.
  2. A speaker should be able to present a topic that engages members and their families. As an example, you might have someone from a local aquarium talk about the engineering behind keeping the water cool for the penguins and filtered for all the animals.  You could also have someone speak about robotics from a local university.
• Finalize location and determine menu
• Identify winners of awards
  1. Award selection is up to your section. Some sections have the four core officers choose the awards with or without an open nomination process.
  2. https://ieee.secure-platform.com is an option for hosting your awards nomination process.
• Contact winners and identify if they will be attending
• Order awards at least two weeks in advance
  1. You can find a local plaque and trophy shop in your area or use an online vendor of choice.
• Generate registration and meeting on vTools, which includes food selection and payment options
  1. https://events.vtools.ieee.org/ (Manage Events -> Schedule a New Event)
• Create and send announcements
  1. Utilize enotice – Go to https://enotice.vtools.ieee.org/ and sign in (top right)
• Send email announcement and reminders
• One week in advance provide food count to caterer
• Purchase decorations and speaker gift
• Purchase and print name tags
• Pick-up awards
• Arrange for someone to take pictures

On day of event:

• Send a final reminder to people who are registered
• 1-2 hours before: Setup decorations, registration table and presentation equipment
  1. If you have an IEEE tablecloth and/or Section banner in your Section, this is a good time to use them.
• 30 minutes before: Perform final food count and check setup
• When attendees arrive: Greet, confirm payment and provide name tags for attendees
• At meeting time: Welcome attendees
• After Dinner and before dessert: Present awards
• After awards: Introduce speaker
• After talk: Thank speaker and give the speaker the gift
• After talk: Thank attendees
• Clean up and pay bill
  1. If you expect the bill to exceed the limit on a single transaction for your Section’s IEEE credit card (if applicable), make sure the treasurer brings the Section check book and that the venue accepts checks!
  2. Could also email [email protected] with a justification for a temporary credit limit increase, but need to allow about a month for the process.
  3. The treasurer cannot reimburse him/herself. If a credit card is necessary to pay and the bill exceeds the IEEE credit card limit, the treasurer must submit a reimbursement form to be approved by the chair in NextGen.

Later – after talk:

• Send a thank you note to speaker, share comments from attendees.
• Report attendance in vTools (https://events.vtools.ieee.org -> Manage this event)
• Submit any reimbursement forms necessary using NextGen Expense Reimbursement at https://corporate.ieee.org/resources/travel-medical-and-insurance/ieee-expense-report
• Post pictures to Section website