The Summer Olympics are taking place across the pond in London, but you can experience the thrill and excitement of the games in your very own office! Enter the Baudville Games for a chance to win $200 Baudville credit! This week’s challenge is the Rubber Band Archery event.

Rubber Band Archery is easy to play, and most likely you have all the supplies at your finger tips already! Download our free archery target from Baudville.com and follow these three easy instructions to play:

How to Play Rubber Band Archery:
1. Download and print our free target, and collect enough rubber bands for each player.
2. Assemble your players at the firing line and have them alternate shooting at the target.
3. The player with the highest points after three shots is the winner!

Picnics and summer go together like vanilla and ice cream!  Hosting a picnic for your team or organization is a great opportunity to show your appreciation and boost camaraderie. At Baudville, we have a summer picnic every year where employees and their families enjoy a local attraction. This year, we’re heading to the minor league baseball park for an evening game, dinner, and fireworks!

Are you celebrating summer with a team picnic or event? Here are four theme ideas and activities to spark your creativity for this year’s memorable event!

1. Company Carnival. You can put on a full carnival right at your facility! Rent games from a local event company for both kids and adults, and order prizes for the winners like Twist Top Tumblers and lunch bags.

As the Human Resources Manager at Baudville, I have the privilege of leading our Spirit Team which is a group of employees from different departments who plan our company events. And we have a lot of events! Our annual picnic is what employees really look forward to in the summer. We hold it in the evening at a local venue, like the zoo or baseball park, and employees can bring their families. We provide dinner, entertainment, games, and prizes – of course we have to have prizes! But an event like this doesn’t come together over night! Our Spirit Team puts in lots of hours planning and preparing to make the event success. We want your event to be great, too, so I’m going to share six my tips for planning a summer event that you can use in your organization. 

#1 Work with a Team
When it comes to planning events, the most important tip is to work with a team! An event requires a lot of work - it can be overwhelming for one person! Recruit a team of employees who are enthusiastic about events. You can share the workload, generate more ideas, and have more fun in the planning process, too! Remember to recognize your team throughout the event planning process. Express your appreciation by writing a thank you note and leaving it at their desk, or posting a Shout Out in their honor.

#2 Encourage Early Registration
In order to have a good turnout at your event, be sure to share the date, time, and place far in advance.  Mention the date of the event at a meeting and follow up with an email to everyone so they have a record of the information. Then, it’s never too early to start taking RSVPs. We send out an email to the entire company more than a month in advance that clearly states the details of the event and extends an invitation to their family. Be sure to give a deadline for your RSVP. Having a clear idea of how many people are attending will make it easier for you to plan for food, seating, and prizes. 

It’s Employee Appreciation Day, and instead of whooping it up with my team, I’m in Seattle preparing to wow attendees of the NAIS Annual Conference with our favorite IDville products. As I get set up, I can’t help but think about the whole Baudville office abuzz with energy. 

If you’re a follower of the goings on here at Baudville, then you know that we always have a theme for Employee Appreciation Day. This year we’re harnessing the essence of the Summer Olympics, and with the help of our Spirit Team, it promises to be a memorable day filled with team building, medal-achieving activities for everyone. 

Love at the office? Under normal circumstances, this is probably not recommended. But the kind of love I’m talking about is mutual respect, admiration, and appreciation for the people we work with—and I’ve sure seen a lot of it around the ‘ville lately!

Like when I walk past our lunchroom and see the tables filled with people from all departments breaking bread together. Or pause at the Shout Out Wall to read all the sincere accolades Baudvillians are giving their peers. Or when I see people get truly enthusiastic when they give thanks and compliments to their co-workers.