I have been the Associational VBX leader for four years now and have seen a steady decline in attendance in all classes. Is this happening in other associations or just ours? Any ideas on making Clinics more interesting or convenient?

Our clinic is this week so I don't know what this year will look like, but previous years have been disappointing. It's difficult to motivate yourself to put in the time for decorations and planning when the attendance is so low. Last year we had 2 clinics and I only had one person in my class. This year we're just having one clinic. We're considering creating a team who will be available to lead individual church conferences rather than having one large clinic.

This is my first year as Association Director, and our clinic is this weekend, I'll update you on attendance after....
What are you doing to promote clinic in your association?
I formed a team of about 10 people from my home church and asked 2 other churches to be involved (hind-sight says I shoulda asked more-but got started later--in January instead of October '07). A couple months into it, I got in contact with a neighboring the Assoc. VBS director for support, information and she is leading a session at our clinic (NEAT-O)

The 10 people I recruited recruited people to help them! I took 10 to the previe4w event in Nashville for the preview event. Then most of us went to state training.

I began visiting/calling all churches in our association to introduce myself, invite to training, encourage, have a question-answer session. I brought a gift, some a pineapple and some a lei. We have 43 churches in our association, it has been time consuming but the ones I was able to visit are flabbergasted at the gift/time spent....but it lets them know how fun (and eternally serious) this ministry is!

I met with my DOM (who loves the ministry) and set goals, he has been very encouraging (a plus!).
I attended an associational-wide evangealism rally and brought table cloths, curriculum samples, and 2 dedicated VBS groupies to hand out leis to the attendees. The leis had a little card attached with the clinic dates/times/location. Some people were a bit stand-offish, but we were visible! It shows dedication to the ministry, I hope we made an impact.

Last week I attended the weekly pastors conference and presented "Adapting VBS material for smaller membership churches". It was great! Some of the churches represented do not have VBS....one at least is looking into doing it. I hope to promote VBS link-up in the association.

Every month since the beginning of the year, I have had something in the association newsletter promoting the clinic.

The association office provided me with a directory, I began a direct mail and e-mail campaign inviting people to the clinic.

I also mailed out a pre-vbs survey to all the churches. The purpose being to find out what dates, and curriculum material people were chosing. How volunteer recruitment, promotion, and follow-up were being done...and any questions we could answer at the clinic. I got a fair response (I plan to give door prizes away at the clinic to the ones who returned them!!!)

I welcome any other suggestions to getting churches involved. We had 99 people in attendance to the clinic last year (under different leadership). I hope to increase it to at least 150!

Sorry to ramble....hope it helps

I am not the associational director. I am the associational VBX leader but I volunteered to help our director next year. Thanks for responding. Y'all have given me lots to think about.

Lovin'
I have really enjoyed reading your posts, and I share your enthusiasm for VBS. I'm in an association where we aren't even having a training (at least not one that has been promoted yet) and from what our pastor has told us, a lot of churches are choosing not to even do VBS this year. I want to be an association VBS director next year, but I don't know how to motivate our DOM or the other churches for the need to do VBS. What's the best advice you can give me to get the churches motivated, if I get to be the associational director next year?

In my opinion, using statistics that show how effective VBS is in bringing the gospel to kids, but also in bringing people into the local churches is the best motivation for most churches. I'd be surprised if your DOM doesn't jump on the chance to get you involved. My experience shows that most pastors and DOM's are very supportive of VBS. I think it's harder to get church members motivated because most of them think only of the work and finances involved.

Attendance wasn't as high as I would have liked to see it, we fell short of our goal--but more than last year's attendance. God was still glorified!! AMEN!

As this was the first year conducting a training of this magnitude, I hope we will see the fruits of our labor in coming years.

Our follow-up meeting to get feedback from the team is Thursday evening. I will not apologize for low attendance, but praise God for the ones that were there. I will pray for the ones who chose not to come! Hopefully that enthusiasm will be contagious to the team and then to the churches in our association.

One of the team members suggested we break up by 2s and go to the churches and plead to the congregation to 1. conduct VBS 2. attend training 3. link-up with other churches in our association to provide help/materials/etc.

I will continue to pray for you guys too!