To progress the idea you have form an event you will most likely need to form a committee or working group of people who can plan the festival and oversee its organisation. This usually starts off being an informal grouping but as soon as the group starts to handle money then a formal statement of roles and responsibilities and decision-making becomes necessary.

 A group can take the form of a committee set up for the purpose, or for a longer term approach you could consider developing a more formal company structure with a Board of Directors/Trustees. You should allocate clear roles to each individual within the team, so everyone knows what they are doing and what is expected of them. Having clarity about what your group is going to do and why you are planning a festival will help also with the planning.

Consider the following questions:

• Why are you proposing to set up a group?
• How are you going to organise yourselves?
• When will you need to be operational?
• What expertise and skills do you have and what might you need to bring in?
• What resources are you going to need?

Aim to choose committee members with a range of expertise, interests, skills and experience to share the work. The size of the group will depend on the size, duration and type of festival. It is usually better to keep the working group small, with one person having overall responsibility and knowledge of the whole event. You should appoint people to three key roles:

• Chairperson: someone who is good at managing time and prioritising work and who will organise and run meetings effectively;
• Secretary: to minute meetings, deal with paperwork and keep everyone up-to-date with information;
• Treasurer: to manage the finances.

As soon as you have developed a planning schedule you can start to outline responsibilities, duties and tasks and share these out among the organising group and prepare a schedule of meetings. It is a good idea to plan the dates of all meetings up to and beyond the event.

The key organisational areas to be covered are:

• Finance/funding;
• Artistic Programming
• Health & Safety;
• Marketing & PR;
• Venue organisation/site management;
• Legal/contracts/licensing; and
• Technical - equipment, staging, lighting, etc.

Before you allocate individuals to these functions, consider:

• Individual skills and qualifications;
• Time availability; and
• Individual preference.

Key points to consider:

• Keep the committee/working group to a manageable size;
• Share responsibilities and outline tasks clearly;
• Make sure that everyone understands the lines of communication; and
• Keep the team's morale positive.

For events or festivals that are already established with a committee in place the following are issues that may need to be considered:

• Is your legal structure appropriate - are you incorporated?
• Is your working structure appropriate - are you run solely by volunteers?
• Is it time to consider employing someone to undertake some of the work?
• What issues will the organisation have to face if it does so?
• Do you have a strategy for bringing new blood onto your committee/board, such as 3-year terms for board or committee members?

CONSTITUTION

Your organising committee does not initially need to have a constitution as you are just bringing people together to share an interest, but as soon as you start to handle money or apply for funding a formal statement of decision making practice, structure, responsibilities and rules for those participating in the groups activities is necessary. This will be done in the form of a constitution.

A constitution is a legal document setting out what your group does, its aims and how it intends to achieve them, how decisions are made and the systems that are in place to ensure your accountability. You will need a Constitution to open a bank account or to apply for funding.

Visit Tourism North East website to read more on this topic. 

Follow this link to see Somerset Art Works Constitution.

A constitution sets out the rules that you are going to use to run your group. These should include:

• The name of your group;
• The aims and objectives of your group (what your group wants to do and how it plans to do it);
• Details of how your governing body is chosen (usually this will be called the Management Committee);
• Details of how people can become members of your management/ governing group;
• Details of what will happen to any money, equipment or other items of value (assets) that your group owns if you ever decide to wind the group up;
• The date you agreed to accept your constitution/rules; and
• Signature of the officers of your committee (officers are committee members with special responsibilities, these are usually the Chair, the Treasurer and the Secretary).

GOVERNANCE

Once your group has a formal legal structure you may need to look at issues such as recruiting Trustees and servicing and managing Boards of Trustees. Visit the NCVO website for further information: http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/governanceandleadership.asp

The site provides extensive information on topics, such as generic information on governance, roles and responsibilities, recruiting Trustees and various guides, toolkits and publications, including a Trustee Recruitment Toolkit.