Does your bank have an employee committee which organizes outings, events, volunteer opportunities for employees in the company? If so, how often do you meet and how many people are involved? I'm just wondering if we could set ours up differently. If you figure out the cost of the meeting (combined salaries & food) we are spending about as much on that as our entire budget. The committee has something going on probably 9-10 months of the year and events are well attended. Around 15 people meet monthly (we represent about 260 total employees).

We have a similar committee but only about 65 employees. The committee has 5-6 people on it and rotate new members every year. 2-3 will stay on for next year and then they will be replaced. They meet a couple of times a month or as needed.

we had one at a prior bank, 6 people met about every 6 weeks, we did not buy lunch or anything else, it was scheduled as a normal meeting during the course of business, and limited to 1-hour

Was on a committee at a previous company and we started with a committee of about 12 and determined that we had too many opinions. We drilled down to a steering committee of 3, went through the submissions and ideas and presented to the rest of the group. We found that we were able to move through meetings much quicker and make decisions quicker. Then we would let different people within the group be the "leads" for events. Worked out well, we tried to bring in new people once a year and encourage people to support events. People loved our events and they usually involved traveling from department to department and included food, so people got up from their desks and got to meet new people.