Invitations and announcements should be made three times

This isn't a strictly set policy, but I realized this morning that I tend to do things this way, so I'm writing an article about it.

I often plan and host meetings, events, and other situations that require multiple people to gather.

When doing so, you have to call out to, invite, and notify the participating members, right?

The kind of message that says, 'On this date, at this time, at this place, we're doing this.'

How do you usually send out those invitations?

Sometimes people don't show up even though you told them. They forget. They didn't see the announcement or didn't understand it... these things happen, don't they?

It's something I've been doing intuitively. I generally try to contact people 'three times'.

1. When the schedule is still quite far off.
Letting them know that something is coming up and asking for their consideration. This might be close to a 'heads-up'.

2. When the schedule is getting closer.
This is when you formally ask about their attendance. If you ask at stage 1, they might not be able to give you an answer yet. At this stage, both sides can respond with a confirmed schedule.

3. Just before the event.
This is at the level of saying, 'I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.' It's a reminder. It also serves to prevent people from forgetting. Nowadays, social media makes it easy to send notifications. For important meetings or if the person is important, I might call them directly to say, 'I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.'

It might seem very obvious, but I've felt that it's important to follow these three steps. I'm glad I was able to put it into words today.

To go a bit deeper,
If you skip 1 and go straight to 2, it's already too late.
That is, the pattern of inviting people when the schedule is already close.
Sometimes they don't have the time, and as the person being invited, it feels like I was an afterthought.
Most of the answers will be, 'I'll come if I can.'

Skipping 2 and only doing 1 is actually quite common.
The kind of thing where you say, 'I told you, didn't I?' or 'I reached out to you.'
As mentioned before, there's also the 'Huh? I can't make plans even if you ask me now' response.
This often leads to an increase in last-minute cancellations.
Or it's a pattern where you don't get any attendance responses at all.

Stage 3 is actually quite important.
It gives the feeling that they are valued.
Like, 'Yeah! I've got it on my schedule!'
I've written an article about this before. Please take a look.

It's not just something I've learned through experience; I actually have an episode where I felt this strongly.
In a certain school district in Kitakyushu City.
As local communities become more diluted, the challenge of having fewer and fewer people involved in local activities is something found everywhere.

However!
Whenever I attend a meeting in that school district, it is always packed.
An incredible number of people attend their meetings.

When I asked the chairperson, 'Why do so many people attend meetings in this school district?',
to summarize, the answer was, 'We contact them three times!'

The first time is when we announce the date of the next meeting, either verbally or during another gathering.

And the crucial second time is that they go out of their way to send a postcard to every single attendee.
Saying, 'Please come to the meeting on such-and-such a date.'
I was surprised by this.

And the third time is right before the meeting.
Not only do they mention it when they see people in person, but they also call key individuals directly to say, 'Please make sure to come to the meeting on this day!' Alternatively, they contact people whose attendance is uncertain to confirm.

When the organizers of a local meeting go to such lengths to send reminders and confirm attendance, it makes you feel like you should respond properly, doesn't it?
I was truly impressed.

If you are struggling with getting people to gather,
or dealing with many last-minute cancellations,
or worrying that sending too many reminders might be 'annoying',
I hope this serves as a helpful reference.

Thank you for reading today as well.
The illustration at the beginning is a work byNyakopan | note. Thank you very much.

<Article from 'today' one year ago★>

Cultivating tidying skills!!!
Hmm... I don't seem to have grown much since a year ago...