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Second yearly NASC fundraiser?

seedjar

Let's positive thinking!
Hello all! Joe here on behalf of the NASC. We here on the board of directors need some help with brainstorming. We're considering doing a second yearly fundraiser in the fall, and would like to hear your suggestions. Thus far, we're thinking it would be nice to distinguish this new event from the auction by using a slightly different format. Ideas we've come up with include a raffle, another auction with varied rules, or some sort of contest.
One concern that we have is that fall is a time when temperate plants are winding down, so prizes/auction items may be more limited or less immediately rewarding in some respects. Another is that we may end up just dividing the number of donated items between the spring and fall events. My own reservation is that if the events are too similar, people may get confused about the rules. Also - and this one seems the least likely - but if the events are too frequent, they may become boring. Finally, note that simplicity is preferred. It's our pleasure to put on the auction each year, but a lot of work goes into it. The more streamlined and straightforward this new fundraiser is, the better.
We very much want to keep the auction - and whatever this new event may be - exciting and fun, in addition to bringing in funds for NASC initiatives. So, please share your thoughts and tell us what kinds of things you'd like to see. We haven't yet determined how we'll make our final decision on what this new event will be, but I'll say now that I'll send a fabulous prize to the author(s) of the winning suggestion(s). ;)
On behalf of the NASC board, thanks much! We look forward to hearing from you!
~Joe Granville
Head of Public Relations and Education, NASC
 
NOT BORING!! I'm so up for another one..
 
Let's do it! I'm ready! :) The last one was a blast.
 
I put a thought down over here...

http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126457&page=4

Just had a thought here. I seem to give alot of seed away every fall. Why not have a NASC seed auction in the fall in order to further raise money? Again just a thought.

I like the thought of a fall seed auction. I usually end up giving a good deal of my seed away, I'm sure people wouldn't mind throwing out a few bucks for it. Plants could be put up for auction too I guess, but general focus being on fall seed.

Not sure how many people actually have seed, but again just a thought.

Or....
Instead of an auction, how about people donate seed and send them to NASC. Then during the period of a week or two, lots will be released at a set price maybe or first come first serve for some, cake walk/random number winners on others, silent auction on others, that might be fun.
 
How about we do a CP Bingo/Scavenger hunt?

I have three ideas for how we/you could do this, make a table of squares and:

1. Fill each square with a picture from diferent members, some could be really easy, and some really obscure.

2. We could fill the squares with a phrase taken from various websites and threads and people would have to find them

3. a combination of the above.

Whoever wants to give something away would make one, and they get to decide what to put on and how much spaces to include.

Once someone gets and X amount of spaces in a row, they can submit the answers of who/where the photo/phrase comes from... the first one to get them correct wins!

If someone got an X amount in a row, but one of the spaces was incorrect, they would be disqualified.

Of course if more than one person submits a completed row, the first person with the correct answers wins.

Thats my rough idea...
 
I'd like a raffle for Adrian Slack or something else very special.
 
Great suggestions guys! Please, keep them coming!
~Joe
 
Sorry for the huge post

Truth be told, anything would work for the Fall auction.

I'm not much of an idea man, but once I get going it's hard to stop (feel free to stop reading at any time) -- I bet I would make a good conspiracy theorist, maybe in another life. :crazy: I did have one thought that had to do with a raffle -- for 2 weeks (more or less) you could do a daily raffle:

1. Start simple - VFTs first day, etc and work your way up through the food chain to a Grand Final Drawing - Some rare specimen/division (within reasonable means of the one providing the plant.)

2. The best way to do this would be to ask for submissions for 1 month (or more, I like to give flexible ideas) prior to the raffle. After the submission period, the NASC committee will decide what will happen each day for the 2 weeks (more or less, depending on how many submissions) For example, there are 21 submissions, that's about 3 a day for a week.

3. This thought is huge, nobody gets a number/ticket until they have paid for it, otherwise the raffle wouldn’t raise money (three possible ways to do tickets):

A) People buy tickets up until the last drawing (could be hectic for everybody)
B) People buy tickets in advance of first drawing (nice option, little effort)
C) People buy tickets in advance for specific drawings they want to participate in
(medium effort, best way to cater to everyone’s tastes, it would, however, require a complete schedule published in advance -- as early a month -- this however is not one raffle like the aforementioned, but many -- see how that can be complicated.)

The first two options allow some leeway with the schedule, but the last option would require a very rigid schedule and a submission period much earlier. The longer the ticket purchase period, the better - more funds for NASC. The following are some initial thoughts about each of the 3 ticket options:

A) Those who want to participate in the raffle could buy their tickets/numbers (however it works online) up to the last day of drawings. (In case someone wants to put all his or her eggs in one basket in the hope to strike green gold).

B) It would save you a lot of trouble if all tickets were sold in advance of the first drawing (after all it's the purpose, not the prizes, that matters) - then you wouldn't have such a firestorm during the raffle itself and you can sit back and only have to send messages to the winners.

C) A third option would be to have people buy tickets for the specific day that they want to participate in. Although many would like to have Helis, Cephs, or HL neps, they may not feel ready for it (in which case, it could be disastrous for someone to win a heli and then lose it because they weren’t ready, that’s a big investment that each of us must decide to make on our own rather than having it thrust upon us.
Also, those that aren’t interested in VFTs etc, could choose to put their tickets toward other drawings. *Personally I like this idea most, but it could be annoying for NASC to keep track of Who’s On First - classic pop culture reference

*I'm sure you could find a random number generator online that you can put custom numbers into (if not, then I have supremely underestimated the technological prowess of the human race). If not, get a roll of tickets at office depot and write the username for each donation, then you get to have a real drawing.

4. Since this would be a NASC raffle, you guys would decide on the price for each ticket and collect payment (I would recommend a standard method like PayPal - obviously those on this forum have some knowledge of the Internet and PayPal is a great option. I don't know anything about how you run your show, but I'm just helping the brainstorm to build to hurricane proportions.)

5. Above all, the important thing to remember would be that the raffle be true to traditional raffle format: buy as many tickets as you want and then let fate control what you get, no sorry sports for not getting the S. 'Adrian Slack' that they wanted, however everyone should be at least recognized for their donations somehow, (whether through a small token gift or just an immortalizing certificate, thread, post, pat on the digital back, etc.) You’ll be surprised the high that some people get from service/charity.

I may have written a lot, but I had nothing else to do, I would do more to conserve CPs, but we don’t have many in Utah, some native Utric Aquatics but that’s it.
 
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