Getting involved in YRes

The world is your oyster as far as events go. Events can be split into two types - educational and social. It’s important to get a good balance of each depending on your region and what your local membership want.

Examples of events held by different YRes groups in the last year include:

• Summer/Winter/Halloween/Springtime balls/drinks/parties. These can work very well as launch events to help get you started.
• Quizzes
• Seminars - tax/pensions/time management/stress management/mock hearings/Q&A sessions with Judges/enforcement traps and procedures/top tips for junior lawyers/talks to local students.

We’re sure you can think of other events which would work in your region.

You may want to consider events based around recent legal updates or cases, for example.

Alternatively, you could simply consider hosting an event aimed at providing networking opportunities for YRes members in your region.

Don’t feel that every event has to follow the same format. A mixture of more informal and formal events will help attract more attendees.

Do consider joining up with one or more nearby YRes groups so you can pool your resources together.

Also speak to your regional committee about whether you can run some joint events.

Venues

Think about where your event can be held. Firms and chambers are good at offering their space for free, though some may charge for refreshments, so do budget this into the cost of the event.

Funding and sponsorship

For some events, you may need some additional sponsorship or funding.

Cost of Events

There is no set price for events. Your committee will need to budget for each event, working out how much the event will cost to run (e.g. speaker costs, travel costs, food costs, venue hire), what sponsorship you have, and what deficit there will be, if any. Ticket prices can then be decided.

Sponsors

You may find approaching some of the organisations below helpful for funding. They may ask that their logo is on any literature or that you circulate literature or giveaways at the event. It’s courteous to thank any sponsors for their help at your event, so they’ll be more likely to offer again!

Remember that you are already volunteering for an organisation and you represent it, so if you are in doubt as to how far you can go with sponsorship, call Resolution and talk to one of the team.

Try:

• Accountants
• Financial advisers
• Barristers’ chambers
• Litigation lenders
• Law firms
• Your regional Resolution Committee
• Mediators
• Local businesses

Some sponsors may ask for the attendance list at the event. Unless your members have given their permission for their details to be released, you shouldn’t give their information out.

Charity

Hosting a charity event is another great way of raising the profile of YRes in your region, as well as contributing to a worthy cause.

You could consider having a charity of the year, to which profits (or a proportion of profits) from events could go. If so, think about whether you wish to support a national charity or a local charity, and whether you want to support a charity which has a link to family law (such as Relate, Reunite, local contact centres, etc.)

Alternatively, you may prefer to decide to support a variety of charities in your region with different events throughout the year.

When choosing which charity to support, make sure that you choose something whose aims and objectives are is in line with Resolution's. If you are unsure whether it is suitable to support a particular charity, please contact Resolution.