In the local chapter of Pheasants Forever that I' m involved with, we try to have a semi-famous speaker come to our banquet and give a little talk. Over the years we have had Bud Grant, Tony Dean and others. They charge some for appearing, but you usually make up for it by having a larger turnout. I' d ask Rob Keck or Walter Parrott or some of those Mossy Oak or Realtree guys to speak at an NWTF banquet in Missouri, offer them a hunt as part of their fee. (I' ll come speak for a hunt/land access, though I' m a " nobody." )

There are other things we do, too, like have an " early bird special" where people who are coming can get a chance to win a prize if they buy their tickets before a certain date. We also sell " packages," which are comprised in a ticket to the banquet plus " Turkey Bucks" (ours are called Rooster Bucks) used/redeemed the night of the fundraiser to buy raffle tickets/chances on prizes. If the banquet ticket costs $40 (including NWTF menbership), for example, then you sell a package for $80 including $50 worth of Turkey Bucks. Sponsor packages get more stuff. $300 for $100 seems steep, IMHO.

We pay attention to the $ raised per attendee. We have many different activities at the banquet--penny pot, live auction items, silent auction items, general raffle items, special raffle items, goat auction, raffles during the auction, numbered hats as part of the auction, ladies raffle, jakes raffle, raffles during the meal, a " big" gun with limited, $100 each tickets (and yes, you sell those in advance if you are worried about not breaking even). We don' t restrict ourselves to giving away prizes that are just pheasant (in your case turkey) stuff, either, we have a varmit hunting package, a fisherman' s package, for example.

We use the banquet to promote the benefits/activities of NWTF membership/local chapter to the attendees--put up displays, for example.

I' d imagine a turkey calling contest with prizes/plaque/traveling trophy would be a part of an NWTF banquet.

Pay attention to your meal and to your facilities. If you get a lousy piece of meat and are elbow-to-elbow in a blue-hazed, smoke filled room, I can guarantee people will not come back. Make darn sure you have a public address system that works, that works well, that can be heard over the din and the noise of the crowd, that has many speakers scattered throughout the banquet room.

Try to recognize a local (typically a farmer) for his efforts on behalf of the turkeys.

Keep things moving, no long drawn out delays.

Get the kids to hand out the prizes.

Tell them what you' re going to do with the funds raised.

Prebanquet publicity is imperative. Use all the free avenues you can--local newspaper " press releases" , cable television advertisement, local radio show talk, flyers in all the right places--supermarkets, banks, etc. Pay for some commercial advertising, too. And do a mailer to the known past attendees plus people you want to see this year. (All this should be maintained in a computer database for from year to year.)

Post banquet, that night or the next day/week, run a debriefing--what worked, what failed. Analyze things. Then memorialize it to the banquet file, so that anecdotal information doesn' t overcome the facts by the next year.

Some activities--e.g. a goat raffle, can only work once or twice. Some will be highly successful every year.

Thank the donors. In the press as well as at the banquet.