2016 Charity Auction - Spitballing

[mjmjr25]

Makes sense to me. A Zig/Barnes led auction works - what say you, fellers?

[Ziggy]

I'm not sure if I would be the best person to lead, although I'm not flat out refusing.

I know it's a big deal to run the auction every year, and to that point, I never understood why multiple people don't help run it each year as opposed to just one person doing all the work. We should offload some of the more remedial (and time consuming) tasks to designated helpers. The workflow should be clearly defined (who does what) so it doesn't turn into a mess.

I would feel more comfortable if someone leads that has already done a good job at it in the past. The leader would take care of the more important tasks, such as collecting the money and making the actual donation, and whatever else (I'm not pretending to know all of the details behind organizing the auction). The designated helpers can help with practically everything else.

So, item donations for example. Let's say the leader and 2 helpers split the task, or 3 helpers without the leader, or whatever. If your user name starts with the letter A-M, then you PM your donation to jmbarnes101. If your user name starts with the letter N-Z, you PM Ziggy587. Barnes and Ziggy compile their lists, complete with tags in a predetermined format so it can be easily copy and pasted, and PM them to the team lead who will create the auction thread. The helpers can also help chase down people to donate items.

Maintaining/updating the bids, this can be done on a rotating schedule between multiple people. There's no reason the team lead should have to do this.

The more helpers the better, but not necessarily. The helpers should be kept to a minimum to avoid a cluster fuck. A small group of trusted members that can all get on the same page. The point is having a streamlined process with clearly defined responsibilities, and not more confusion which ends up making it more trouble then it's worth.

All of the above, of course, just being examples.

[Ziggy]

Ziggy seems to be really amped up about it this year.

Not any more than previous years. I've created mid-year threads about the auction for a couple of years now.

I mainly wanted to gauge the status of the auction since I got the impression that some people feel doom and gloom after last year. I have plans for 3 or 4 items that I want to donate this year, but they will all take time and money. I want to make sure that the auction will definitely happen this year before I commit to these items.

[alienjesus]

The timing f the auction always seemed odd to me. Any reason for it?

Being around Christmas means people have less money to spend, less time to spend organising, posting, bidding, etc

[mjmjr25]

The timing f the auction always seemed odd to me. Any reason for it?

Being around Christmas means people have less money to spend, less time to spend organising, posting, bidding, et

As far back as it's been studied - the holiday season is when people feel most charitable.

From NCCS:

The last few months of the year make up what is commonly called the Giving Season for the nonprofit community. As the holidays near, people may feel encouraged to give more generously than during the rest of the year.

The Center on Philanthropy (COP) at Indiana University found that their respondents reported giving about 24 percent of their annual total between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. A more recent COP study focused on high–net worth donors (defined as households with income greater than $200,000 and net worth over $1,000,000) found that 42.7 percent of those surveyed gave more during the holidays than the rest of the year; 44.4 percent reported giving “about the same.”

From the nonprofit’s perspective, many organizations report similar conclusions. According to the Winter 2011 issue of the Nonprofit Fundraising Survey, over half of the nonprofit organizations queried reported that they received over a quarter of their contributions between October and December, with 16 percent of all organizations receiving over half their year’s total contributions during those same months.

I think people either want to give or not give. It's that simple. People will always find justification to support whichever decision they make.

People are "busy" year-round. Finals coming up, summer projects / travel, this is when we do budget at work, fishing season, that's hunting season, that's yard-sale season, it's the holidays, spring is when we do our gardening every weekend, etc and etc.

[8bit]

People are "busy" year-round. Finals coming up, summer projects / travel, this is when we do budget at work, fishing season, that's hunting season, that's yard-sale season, it's the holidays, spring is when we do our gardening every weekend, etc and etc.

lol @ the person who asks you to do something you don't want to... excuses at the ready.

[mjmjr25]

You're getting married? Oh man - I wish i'd known. We have a silverware salesman coming out that day. I'd cancel, but it's my wife's cousin's step-kid and he's really struggling to get his business going - it's a favor to her that were having him come out. Next time, maybe?

The best is when they give you an excuse not fully thought out.

Hey, can you help me build a deck this weekend?
This weekend? I'd like to, but I told the wife we'd rearrange the living room furniture this weekend.
Oh - ok. So that's like 15 minutes, so maybe after?
...Yeah. I guess...

[Ziggy]

I hate when people do that to me in text messages. I'll give someone a reason why I can't or don't want to do something, then they'll come back at me with the "Oh - ok. So that's like 15 minutes, so maybe after?" thing, now I look like I'm lying when I give another reason. BUT! It's not that I'm making up more excuses, I just don't feel like explaining my life story in a text message.

[jmbarnes101]

I'm on board!!!

[jmbarnes101]

So I had a thought on how to raise extra funds this year for the charity event and that's through a raffle. I was thinking we could charge $5-20 a ticket and then pick up a decent prize like the new HDMI NES and the remainder would get sent to charity. Alternately we could have a smaller prize where for every $5 your auction items bring in you get entered for a chance to win said prize. Just trying to think outside the box folks.