Dinner & Discussion
A Higher Purpose
Engage your campus with unique ideas that promote faith and community. Dinner & Discussion events should focus on group discussion and incorporate meals shared in community.
Overview
Councils use a variety of formats to host events that address perspectives not typically found on campus, centered broadly on themes of faith and community. Lectures and book studies are two of the most common activities. Each year, councils should host at minimum two to four Dinner & Discussion events. Before hosting the first Dinner & Discussion, councils should decide on a common discussion theme for the year, with topics that range from religious liberty to the lives of the saints to engaging with the council’s local town or city. The dinner can be prepared by members of the council as a fraternal activity and a way of sharing in one of the most common service activities performed by Knights of Columbus: providing meals for their community.
Program Requirements
To satisfy program requirements, councils should hold at minimum two to four Dinner & Discussion events on the same theme during the fraternal year.
Action Steps
- Working with your chaplain, obtain his recommendations and choose a theme for your Dinner & Discussion series.
- Ensure that the events are fully approved by your chaplain and campus student activities office.
- Order supplies for the event through Supplies Online and at no cost by the council Grand Knight and Financial Secretary.
- If your Dinner & Discussion program has a lecture component, be sure to book your speaker far in advance and secure a large enough space so that many members of the campus community can attend.
- Build public interest! Promote the Dinner & Discussion events in your council and larger community through a variety of efforts:
- Posting on your council website / social media pages
- Prominently display promotional posters (which can be ordered through Supplies Online and at no cost by the council Grand Knight and Financial Secretary)
- Pulpit announcements
- Bulletin announcements
- On the day of each event, provide a meal for attendees. Preferably, this meal will be home-cooked, as resources allow.
- Be sure to wear Knights of Columbus-branded apparel and have the council membership director set up a table with brochures and membership documents (including Prospect Cards (#921A) and Online Membership ‘Why Join?’ Brochures (#10537)). Do not forget that this event is a recruiting opportunity!
- Enlist a fellow Knight or community member to photograph the events.
- To gain credit for your program, complete the associated reporting forms and submit them to the Supreme Council Department of Fraternal Mission and College Councils Department. Remember to retain copies for your council records.
