A Scroll Saw Picnic in your Community is possible

1. Find and rent a place well in advance (up to a year).  We rent a building for two days so we can set up the day before, the vendors will need up to several hours to set up their booths.
2. Make sure it has plenty of electrical outlets and restrooms, enough room for several hundred scrollers and the vendors.  Make sure you have ample parking available.
3. Invite your vendors.   Determine the cost for a vendor booth by adding building rent expense, cost of providing tables/chairs, electric, security, insurance and any other incidental expense, also charge more for a corner booth .  When you have a price set, then write the vendors a letter asking them to rent a booth and show their products.  Follow this up with phone calls as the picnic date draws close.  Be careful to avoid overbooking of vendor booths, it happened to me before.
   The vendors may need up to a year notice as they attend many shows each year.
   IMPORTANT: Plan where you assign the vendors, don’t put manufactures side by side, they won’t like that.
4. Advertising is a must.  Call all the Scroll Sawing Magazines well in advance as most magazines go to the printers 3-6 months before you see them in your mailbox.  Placing ads in your local newspapers will help draw a better crowd.  Put flyers up anywhere you can and don’t forget any local tole paint stores, woodworking association or clubs.
5. Make a flyer giving details about your picnic.  Include start times, dates, driving directions, vendors that will be attending, any seminars scheduled with who, what and when, local hotels, (also if they will give a picnic discount) campgrounds.  Include the proximity of airport, picnic entrance fee, food availability.  Create a mailing list for your flyers and send out as many as you can.
   Note: we charge an entrance fee to help offset the cost of the picnic.
6. Decide if this will be a pot luck or food vendor picnic.  They will need plenty of notice. 
7. Be prepared for information requests.  Make sure you have an e-mail address and phone number so people can contact you about your picnic.  An information contact committee is not a bad idea as we get a lot of inquires each year.
8. Purchase Insurance for the event, better safe than sorry !
9. Make Signs to place on the local roads so people can find it easily
10. Get door prizes to give away, everyone loves to win something.
11. Acquire the use of a Public Address System.  You may need to make announcements during the day.
12. Make sure everyone knows that it’s a picnic for Scrollers, not a craft show to sell crafts.