How to Organize an Anipal Party

• Purpose – Know your party’s purpose, such as a birthday or to raise funds for a particular shelter or just for fun.
• Host and Organizer – Who is hosting? Is the same person also organizing the party? If not, who is the Organizer?
• Date and Time - Decide the date and time in coordination with other major organizers and with volunteers and other anipal events in mind. You can check The Anipal Times event calendar for help with this. Be sure to include timezone information.
• Theme – Determine a theme if any. Examples are Sci Fi, 80′s, Roaring Twenties, etc.
• Location- Decide whether party will be held in a particular place virtually  that relates to the theme (Hawaiian luau, etc.) or at a party venue such as #Pawpawty.
  • If you want to have it in a venue (hashtag) such as #Pawpawty, you will need to ask the organizers there for permission and work out the schedule with them. Skipping that step can cause hard feelings and confuse anipals.
• Blog or Web Page- There should be a blog or web page with information on the party.
  • Set it up on your blog or where ever you want it. Know the exact link (ex: http://georgetheduck.com/2010/06/thank-you-my-friends/ instead of just http://georgetheduck.com)
  • Be sure to include date and time, purpose, and theme, along with other things pertaining to the party like any twtvite or charity.
• Avatar Costumes – Are they suggested? If so, everyone involved needs to know what the attire should be. Examples: Dude attire, Costume Ball, NY Chic, High Fashion, Holiday, etc.
  
• Twtvite / Other RSVP- Will there be an RSVP via Twtvite.com or some similar thing?
  • Go to twtvite.com and set it up.
  • Be sure to set a location (online, usually) and timezone that will be used for the main party timezone.
  • In the twtvite description be sure to put basic info about the party including the link to the party info blog/page.
  • Be sure to RSVP to the party you are organizing!
• Anipal Events Calendar – 2 weeks prior to party time if possible
  • Contact @mattiedog with the following information so he can enter it on the Anipal Events Calendar.
    1. Hosts Twitter name/account info
    2. Hashtag
    3. URLs (twtvite/blog, etc.) (even if it’s an ongoing on I always include it so new attendees have info)
    4. Times (and time zone)
    5. Theme
    6.Other info
• Volunteers – You can ask one or many anipals to help with different parts of the party organizing and event tasks. Ask them politely of course and communicate with them along the way to and at the party.
• DJing – Get a Head DJ to schedule all the DJs and inform DJs of things related to the party.
• Barktending - Get a Head Barktender who will schedule Barktenders and inform Barktenders of things related to the party.
• Sekurity - Get a Head of Sekurity  to organize and schedule and schedules party Sekurity and give Sekurity Officers needed information.
• Menu- Get an anipal or more to be Menu Artist and Chef(s) to creates menu items and a graphical menu.
  • This can be one anipal in charge of both or one in charge of each. If there is both a Menu Artist and Chef, they should be able to work together.
  • Menu items are more fun if they are related to the party theme and possibly have creative names to match the theme.
• Quizzes & Prizes- Get a Head Quizmaster to organize all aspects of quizzes and prizes. This is a big job and the head Quizmaster may want to delegate parts to others. Head Quizmaster arranges the following things:
  • Pwize donations
    • They can ask specific people or groups for donations or put out a general call to anipals for prizes.
    • Gather links to prize sites or photos, and collect photos as needed.
    • For prize photos not on the web, put them on a photo service such as twitpic or yfrog without tweeting them at the time, to create links to give to quizmasters.
  • Recruit and schedule quizmasters
  • Instruct quizmasters
    • Quizmasters must follow all who wish to play during the party in order for them to play. They can unfollow afterwards if they wish.
    • Instruct quizmasters on what number of DMs is the winner. Ex: 3rd DM wins.
    • Instruct quizmasters how to tweet quiz questions.
    • Quizmasters must get names of each winner and their addresses or emails (as appropriate) and inform Head Quizmaster.
    • Tell quizmasters how to inform Head Quizmaster of winner information, via DM or email or spreadsheet.
  • Create quiz questions.
    • Quiz questions are usually related to either the prize donor, charity, or special theme such as the birthday anipal’s blog.
  • Coordinae quiz questions with prizes and quizmasters. – A spreadsheet is recommended.
• Pawswall - Get a Pawswall Artist to get avatars of all attendees and possibly honorees that can not attend. Puts all on a graphic.
• Graphics - Get a volunteer Graphic Artist or several to do logos or fun graphics for the party theme or party avatars.
• Other Entertainment – Get a volunteer to plan and schedule any other entertainment as needed in cooperation with other party organizers. Examples of other entertainment might be jumping out of a cake, potato sack races, or Shibbering Cheetos concert.
• Charity
  • Choose a charity. If you’re throwing the party in conjunction with other anipals or an established group, be sure that all concerned are able to work for that particular charity.
  • Contact the chosen charity to confirm if they would like to be the party charity and if they wish to attend.
  • Set up a method for taking donations.
    • FirstGiving or similar service for that country – Preferred when possible by many anipals. These vet the charity for 501(c)(3) or Registered Charity status to make sure the charity is legitimate.
      • Ask the charity to register via the appropriate service for their country.
      • Create a donation page and widget via that service.
      • Put the donation page link on the party blog/page and give the direct link to all party volunteers.
    • Chip In for donations via PayPal.  These are used for donations to charities in countries that do not have services such as FirstGiving and for anipals who prefer to use PayPal.
      • Get charity to set up a PayPal donation button and get the button code.
      • Put the PayPal donation button on the party blog/page and give the information to all party volunteers.
  • If no charity for this particular party, have one in mind regardless, such as the current #Pawparty charity, or any other that is already exists. This is suggested because often people ask at pawties.
• Twibbon – Set up a Twibbon at Twibbon.com using the instructions here.
• The week before the party:
  • Check in with everyone involved to make sure things are going ok and if there are problems that need solving.
  • Ask friends to tweet about the party and invite people and mention  the twtvite RSVP.
  • Tweet about the party yourself  and mention  the twtvite RSVP.
• The day before the party:
  • Remind anipals about the party via tweets and mention  the twtvite RSVP.
• The day of the party:
  • Check in with everyone periodically to make sure things are going okay and help out with any last minute issues.
  • Party!

This is an example of things you can do for and at an anipal party. If you know of other not listed, let me know. I’d love to add them.