One of the most common questions asked is how many weeks should my Awana club meet?
There is no set number of weeks. I have heard of clubs that meet from 24 weeks to 40 weeks even a few that go year round. There are two methods to planning the length of your Awana year.
First – Total nights required and
Second – Start and end date parameters
Let’s take a brief look at the total nights required method.
For reference we will use the T&T handbook. There are 32 sections/weeks required to complete the handbook. Add one week as an introduction and one week for a closing program and you have a total of 34 weeks. Next, you may opt to add in a snow day or to if you are in an area that may not meet due to weather. Then look at what weeks you will miss due to holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring break, etc.) From that you will have your total weeks required. From there you will look at what date you should start and end your Awana club year.
The second method is if you know the date parameters that your club will meet.
With this method, there are three things that you need to assess as you plan your Awana calendar year.
- What date will you start?
- What date will you end?
- How many weeks will you miss due to holidays, etc?
For me, my first club was the school year so we met from the Wednesday after Labor Day to mid-June. I later changed that to the Wednesday after Labor day to the Wednesday before Memorial Day (i.e Sept – May). Currently I plan for September thru April with our closing the first Wednesday in May.
I plan out those weeks, then look at what holidays fall in those weeks and plan my schedule accordingly. My club year is approximately 30 weeks.
Those are the two main methods to decide the length of your Awana club year.
We will talk about filling in the calendar for the club year in another ministry moment.
