1. Know thy audience—the general public should get general questions and movie geeks should get nigh-on impossible movie questions.
2. 10 rounds of 10 questions each—Three easy, four medium and three hard; ideally the average combined score should be about 80%.
3. Keep categories general—“Sports” are better than “The Chicago Bulls from 1984-1988”—unless you know your audience
4. Stick to one topic or category per round—Don’t make the first question of every round “birds”, the second “the 80s”, etc.
5. Keep it moving—Have enough people on hand to score the questions and don’t read the questions in full when giving the answers
6. Be creative, up to a point—Name that tune and picture rounds are fine; “I’ll tell you how a person died and you tell me who they were” is very, very bad (I’ve seen this firsthand)
7. Only have one possible right answer—Write and rewrite until you get all of your questions worded just right
8. Trivia above all—One or two additional fundraising activities, like 50/50s or Heads/Tails, in between rounds can be fun; a live half-hour auction is not (I’ve seen this firsthand as well)
9. Have fun—Create an entertaining night out and people will come back year after year
