Rallies NI

Rally Programme

Pray like there’s no such thing as organising; organise like there’s no such thing as praying

Someone once said, “Pray like there’s no such thing as organising; organise like there’s no such thing as praying”. Prayer must go hand in hand with all the comprehensive planning and running of programmes (Ephesians 6 v 18, Philippians 4 v 6).

Planning for Rally should happen at a number of levels and on a regular basis.

Annual Plan
At the start of the year, the leaders of a Rally should consider the following tasks:

Promoting the start of the Rally year
Getting the year off to a good start is important and you should consider advertising your Rally with announcements in the church, distributing leaflets in the area and local schools - as well as contacting your existing members directly.

A Balanced Programme
The aim of Rally is four-fold, meeting the educational; physical; social; spiritual needs of children and young people. The programme across the year should include events and activities that provide for all these aims.

Outings and Weekends
Depending on the age and stage of the children and young people, you may wish to consider including some outings and weekend residential camps in your programme. These need to be booked well in advance, including accommodation and transport and conform to the requirements of your church’s Child Protection Policies.

Special Nights
Consider having special events, such as Christmas and themed events, and as well as end of year Displays/Parents’ Nights. They are a great opportunity to meet with the parents and grandparents of your Rally members and to make your Rally members feel valued. Discuss the timings and arrangements for these events with other Rallies in your area/church.

Spiritual Themes
Consider a topic or syllabus for the spiritual aspects during the year and a method for conducting your programme. This may include externally produced materials, Bible-study notes, audio visuals, small group discussions, invited speakers.

Sharing Responsibilities
A useful activity on an annual basis as a leadership group is to delegate various tasks of running a Rally to as many as possible. These responsibilities could include finance, uniform ordering, keeping the attendance records, running badgework, booking speakers, hiring transport, sending letters and communicating on social media, etc.

A Yearly Planner
Don’t forget to write down what you decide. Putting together a plan of your activities week-in-week-out and finding ways to best share it with the team is invaluable. Keep a list of Rally members and their details – ensure it is in a secure place in electronic or paper form. You may want to follow up on those members who miss a few weeks at Rally.

Regular Planning
Meeting together as a team through-out the year is important too. This provides an opportunity to review your plans, pray about the current issues at Rally and fine-tune the activities for the weekly programme.

Weekly Programme
Each night you meet, there will be a range of items you will want to include, emphasising balance and variety. A Rally night can feel very short when there is so much to pack in, so keeping to a timed programme is helpful.

A typical Rally night will include the following elements:

PARADE
This is most formal part of the night but provides a good opportunity to make everyone feel welcome, to mark attendance and to make any announcements. Parade usually involves the rally members standing in groups/teams. You might also wish to share a thought from the Bible, open with prayer, sing a chorus and repeat the Rally Motto or Code.
During the inspection of each group/team, marks may be allocated to everyone for attendance, uniform and bringing a Bible.

ACTIVITIES
The main part of the night will vary depending on the nature of the Rally and the age of the members.
The following is purely an example of the type of items you may wish to include:

Badgework - appoint leaders to spend an allocated time working on the various available badges. See section in Badgework.

Sports, games and fitness – introduce different games to balance activities and consider mini-competitions between teams. Be aware of the suitability of the venue for the type of sports and activities you wish to play. Utilising experts in alternative sports can be very worthwhile. See section below

Hobbies / Craft / Arts (if not part of the Badgework) - these can range from jewellery- making, building models, film making to baking.

Visiting speakers – there are an abundance of experts and specialists in a variety of fields that could be invited to come along to a Rally night e.g. the fire service, police drug awareness unit, wildlife experts or someone with a specialist career.

Freetime – it is sometimes useful, particularly for the older ages, to build into the programme a short time when Rally members are free to chat, play sports or buy something from a tuck shop.

TALK / DISCUSSION 
See next section

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