Meowch Madness–Staff Pet Brackets

I modeled this program a little bit after my Kids Voting program I’ve been doing for forever. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Battle of the Books or things like that. There’s definitely merits to programs like that, but there’s some drawbacks too. Since you can really only participate if you know the book or the characters. So that everyone can participate, including adults, we do Meowch Madness. The Battle of Staff Pets!

I left this video pretty generic, so you can link to it for your own program if you want.

My rationale for this program is that it’s a great way for patrons to get to know the staff a little bit better. But it’s also a great way for staff to get to know each other better. Staff LOVES talking about their pets and who they think is going to win. So it was a bit of a bonding experience.

So to start off I sent out a general email to staff to send in a pet picture–taken vertically, because that’s going to help later with formatting. If they didn’t have a pet that’s okay. Stuffed animals are okay, staplers and office supplies are good to, since the whole thing is lighthearted and funny anyway. This year, I had a staff member submit “Mocha,” which is a mixed breed pet–50% coffee bean and 50% cocoa.

From their I seeded it randomly, letting staff know that part of the process. Transparency is going to be important. I then just reminded staff that this was just for fun and pets would get knocked out right away. It’s important to note that because I had a staff member at a previous library get upset that their cat got eliminated. So set expectations.

From there it was up the patrons. Every pair got to get voted on for 2 days, so to get thru all the matchups it took 30 days, so all of March basically. Whoever won would go on to the next round until there was an ultimate winner. I set up a sign that had the big bracket and a separate sign that said who the matchup was for today with their stats.

I then got some cheap basketball hoops from the Dollar Store, and patrons would put a pom-pom in the basket they thought should move on. So it’s easy patron engagement and a way for patrons to get to know you all.

So everything you need should be below. They are Word files–no, I can’t send you a different format. Right click on the picture on click “Change Picture” to swap it out easy. If you need more help than that, you can look at my Scavenger Hunt post, where I talk a bit more in-depth about changing out photos.

From there you just need to add the names, and change the stats.

All blog entries are for educational or personal use.  Please credit the original author if reblogging or posting ideas originally found on this site.  LEGO^® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this site.