Alongside the venue, early booking of an appropriate speaker is the other major priority in preparation for your weekend. The criteria that apply to booking a speaker for any CU meeting still apply, except their significance is greatly magnified for a houseparty since the person invited will probably be presenting several sessions and exercising influence over CU members in informal discussion throughout the weekend. The choice of speaker needs to be thought through in conjunction with the theme for the weekend; somebody who would be excellent at enthusing about world mission may not be the best choice for a weekend on campus evangelism, for example. Put the other way round, if the previous committee has arranged the speaker for you then make sure you are asking them to talk on an area in which they have some expertise. It would be of benefit to check the UCCF recommended speakers’ list and to pick your staffworker’s brain for suggestions.

If you are building towards a mission week in the Spring term then there is much to be said for having the missioner as your houseparty speaker - it gives the CU a chance to suss out the style and content of the speaker before inflicting him (or her) on their non-Christian friends. Equally, the houseparty gives a missioner a chance to get to know the CU that they will be working with the following term. Similarly, if you are going to be employing residential Assistant Missioners for your spring campaign the houseparty can be a time when they meet their respective groups.

It is a gracious jesture to ask the speaker if they would like to bring their spouse and children with them. Regardless of whether or not they choose to do this, you should bear in mind that if your venue is particularly spartan or only offers dormitory-style accommodation it may be appropriate to book the speaker into a nearby hotel or guest house.

In addition to the main speaker, you might want to invite others to lead seminars or workshops (your staffworker and/or relay worker could help with this and the AMs or caterers might be able to double up in this role). They need not be there for the whole weekend; if, for example, the seminars were all on Saturday then the seminar leaders could come down for the day. If, however, they are coming a long way to be with you then it would be courteous to at least give the option of staying over.

Regardless of whether or not you would like them to do a seminar, it is a good idea to invite your staffworker and/or relay worker to the houseparty - it is one of the times in the year when CU members can spend time getting to know their support team and grill them on any subject!