the battle of the deadline

This is an illustration that I’m using for a talk tonight. I thought it deserved it’s own post.

The Battle of the Deadline

A few years ago I had some students who decided they were going to go to war with me about deadlines.Every year, the youth group put on a huge gala banquet to honor the seniors as the graduated from high school. We rented out a banquet hall, had a catered dinner, had a fun presentation time where the seniors received gifts and “handed down their legacy” to the next year’s seniors, and spent the night in a really nice **** hotel. Everyone dressed up in their prom clothes and it was a big party that everyone wanted to be a part of.

Sounds like a lot of fun, right? And it was!

For me though, this thing was a logistical nightmare. I had to negotiate with the hotel for the rooms… we needed an entire floor of rooms and we needed to be away from the others guest since we made noise all night long. I had to take care of the caterer. I had to take care of transportation from the church to the hotel and back. I had to make sure gifts were bought for all the seniors and that they were funny but not inappropriate. I had to put together a presentation with pictures of them from 7-12 grade. I had to arrange for entertainment for them before the banquet… on and one and on.

All of these little details required that I know exactly who was going to be coming at least 2 weeks in advance. How else could I book the rooms? Arrange for transportation? Order food? Make sure gifts were funny? Get pictures together? Book entertainment?

So about 8 weeks before the event we started promoting this thing. I did for them what I do for you. I announced it up front. I sent home a postcard. I put it in the church bulletin. I put it on the youth group calendar. We had all of our leaders call and remind students to sign-up. And every time we talked about it we said… you must sign up for this by May 1st!

May 1st comes, 60 students sign up. I finalize numbers with the hotel, with the caterer… on and on.Then about a week later I start to get these phone calls. “I want to go.” “I didn’t know there was a deadline.” “I went last year and I want to go again, please!” So I was left with some choices. “How was I going to deal with those who ignored the deadline and still want to go when everything is booked? Should I lie to the hotel and just put these people in a room? Should I break my contracts and up my numbers? Should I have a waiting list?”I met with a couple of the other pastors at the church. Together we decided that those who ignored the deadline couldn’t go. They would be put on a waiting list and be allowed to go if someone else dropped out.Sounds good right? To those that were late in signing up I communicated what we had decided to do. We had about 20 adults who helped out with the youth group and we explained it to all of them… they all nodded their heads in agreement. So this took care of the problem, right? Wrong! This is when the whole thing blew up in our faces.

Little did I know that some leaders nodded their heads yes but said no in their hearts.

This is what happened. A student would come to me and say they wanted to go. I put them on the waiting list and told them it didn’t look good. Then they would complain to one of my leaders… who would tell them they could go!Within about 3 days this leader had guaranteed 15 students that they could go when in fact there was no way that they could attend. The hotel was full and that was final.Talk about a tough battle to fight! This was a no-win situation. This put me in a place where I lose no matter how I look at it. If I tell these new 15 students that they can go… I’ve just told the rest of the group that deadlines don’t matter. If I tell them they can’t go… my phone will light up like a Christmas tree. Parents will hate me, students will hate me, and this leader… who I love… will hate me. Mix in all of these contracts that I have a moral obligation to fulfill and I have a HUGE problem.But, this was a battle I chose to fight. I was determined to not bow to the pressure of parents, this leader, or the political storm that this erupted in the church. We had made the right decision and we were going to stick to our guns.

In the end, about half of the students who were on the waiting list got to go. Some people were mad at me… but it was the right decision. This was a battle I chose to fight, and I won.