May 2014 Pinning Ceremony: Ideas

[topaz1100, BSN, MSN]

My class pinning is in May. I am on the committee (it's 8 of us). We have been fundraising since January 2013. It's been a struggle to get people involved & to participate in a lot of our events. However, we currently have all but $675 of our money for pinning.

Considering how hard it has been to put this whole thing together from scratch, I wonder what other student's views and experiences have been.

Getting people to pay dues is almost like pulling teeth. People constantly complain and then do not show up to fundraisers.

I joined because I wanted to be involved & I enjoy it. I have enjoyed it & yes I would do it again. For me it's been a great learning experience and I've been able to meet a lot of the other students I never have classes with.

What are your experiences regarding pinning?

I would also like to know what are the plans for your pinning such as:

1. Are you serving food or not

2. Professional or amateur photographer

3. Does an RN have to pin you or can any one do it?

4. Do your meetings run smoothly?

5. How have you decided which fundraisers to do?

6. Which fundraisers have been succesful?

7. What is the process you use for choosing a speaker?

8. How much do you spend on speaker and teacher gifts?

9. How do you inform the class of what's going on/ money raised etc?

10. Are you ordering lamps?

Thanks so much!!

Anything else you want to add feel free! GRADUATION 2014 YAY

[scarlett 42]

Congratulations! There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I was on my class' pinning ceremony planning group. We went to a small community college and there was all of 50 students. Our school gave us $200 to work with and if we wanted more we needed to raise it ourselves. I feel your anxiety. We did not have lamps. We used vigil candles donated from a classmates church. We had one large candle I decorated with ribbon that matched the school color and we lighted that at the beginning of the ceremony and our instructors used the candle to light their taper candle and they in turn lit ours. We said the nightingale pledge with our candles lit. We did not have money to buy all the instructors gifts, the students in my clinical group bought one gift for our individual instructor. Instead of a caterer, we had a student who very generously donated a lot o'd her time and money to make a lot of the food. We did buy a full sheet cake and another student made a large cake. We used our budget for napkins plates plastic ware and corsages for the instructors. I bought the candle, ribbon, and made ribbons shaped like awareness ribbons. We had the students pin their nursing pins to the ribbon and used safety pins to attach them at pinning time. It saved a lot of time and prevented fumbles when we were pinned. We also had a student donate favors . They were candies in a Baggie that looked like "pills with a Rx" attached and pretzels decorated like thermometers. We did have some complaints from plan members about not being reimbursed. But overall we donated because we wanted it to be how we wanted it. And it was a glorious day, full of tears and laughter. We did ask people to help but we didn't get too far. We should have started planning further in advance than we did. It is a lot of work to plan something like this and I wish you luck. But if people are willing to help out and donate money, you can put on a nice ceremony. Even if you fall shy of your goal, there are ways to squeeze every bit of juice from your pennies. Good luck!!!!

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

my opinion, or my 2 cents worth----buy what you can with the money you have and let the chips fall where they may. If no one wants to assist with time or money it means the ceremony is not a priority to them, so why fret over it? If it is important to you, then invite your friends and family to a cook-out after the ceremony and party the way YOU want to