2015 Racketboy Auction - DONATION SENT 2.17.16

[Ziggy]

Hey all!
Who's running the auction this year?
I'd be glad to differ it to a more experienced host, but if nobody comes forward I can do it.
I most-definetlymost definitely have the time this year.

I started a thread in June asking if the auction would happened this year, then steered the conversation into "planning", then dsh came in and killed the thread because 6 months is apparently way too much time to plan for an event.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=50438

To be frank, I had a really cool project in the works that would be about 6 unique item donations. My concern was the time I would need to finalize the project, plus the lead time I would need for ordering and assembly. That's mainly why I created the above linked thread, I wanted to know if the auction was gonna happen at all before I invested the money and a great deal of time in creating the items. Well, the "I don't know, man, stuff" and "Shut up until Oct or Nov" attitude I got from that thread made my decision easy. Since I have other things going on in my life outside of Racketboy, I decided to stall work on my project, at least until I heard something concrete about the auction.

Well, it's November 21st. That's not enough lead time for my project, plain and simple. If there's an auction this year, my donations will just be whatever crap I have lying around. But, in my opinion, November 21st is way too late to start planning the auction. If it happens at all this year, I'll be surprised (and kinda impressed).

If it happens, I will donate and bid.

[dsheinem]

I started a thread in June asking if the auction would happened this year, then steered the conversation into "planning", then dsh came in and killed the thread because 6 months is apparently way too much time to plan for an event.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=50438

I still think that June would have been too soon to start planning in the manner that I thought you wanted to, but I am sorry if I ended up botching something you had planned. I guess I missed whatever that would have been. I do know that Mike (who has also run the auction, if I recall correctly) was of a similar mindset in terms of raising a number of things to carefully consider before moving ahead. I also know I offered some alternative ideas for fundraising in that thread.

If anyone wants to run with a standard auction this year I am happy to privately offer them any advice I have, pass on templates for spreadsheets and for emails and letters to outside organizations, etc. I just think that most of us who have run it in the past have gotten increasingly burnt out on the process as the forum itself has shrunk over time. I think that's why many of us feel that we really should do something different than a forum-based auction going forward if we are to continue to do some community philanthropy (which I certainly think we should!).

[Ziggy]

I mean, hey, it is what it is. No hard feelings or anything like that. We're just at a disagreement, either over the process or at least the verbiage used. I'm just of a mindset that "too soon" should never be in front of "to start planning". While I totally agree that the actual work shouldn't start until October or November, I see no reason why we can't give ourselves a 6 month period to hammer out details. And that's what I meant by "planning," just that we get the game plan down on paper. That way, once Oct/Nov rolls around, it hopefully wouldn't be so hectic. I always felt like the time constraint was one of the auction's biggest problems.

Getting "burnt out" is exactly why I suggested the earlier planning. If the work load is spread out over a greater period, it's less stressful.

And don't worry, you didn't botch anything. I had something I wanted to do for donations, but I don't want to reveal what it is until it's a real thing, so I was intentionally being vague about it. I explained that that's the reason why I created that thread, and when I read between the lines I got my answer. There's always next year.

If an auction happens this year, great! I just don't think there's enough time to set it up and have it run smoothly. What I suggest now is pretty much what I suggested before. We should get a group of members, preferably a smaller group, to form a committee. The committee should discuss the auction (or whatever it turns into) details out of public view (either group email or a hidden forum). Positions / functions of each member should be decided. The planning / spit balling should start earlier than Q4, but yeah, the trigger isn't pulled until late Oct / Nov or whatever.

[Anapan]

A few too many vodka screwdrivers put me in candidacy. I totally want another auction this year - it's like a hallmark of the forum since I joined in '09. Sorry for flaking out - I realized when I woke up that I actually had way too many things I had to do by the end of the month (too bad nobody ran against me).

I have finished the stuff that can be done through long hours of doing nothing but sit in front of 3 computers with 5 screens and drink way too many caffeinated drinks. Ever see Letterkenny (if not, go watch!)? I felt like one of the skids - no amount of toothbrush is enough - Yeah I can do that.
In any case. Being unopposed and now in charge I'm going to run a slightly time-compressed schedule of what we've done all along - 1 week donation time. I will not be promoting it at all (I hate ads and I'm unknown outside of this forum - if anyone is networked, please do promote this!). I know I cannot accomplish what has been done in the past - I will simply make sure that the tradition does not end. Anyone that wishes to donate will have an opportunity. No planning has been done and I think that's not OK, but manageable. I will direct donations and any other inquiries to my PM when the donation topic goes live to my phone. I appreciate Dave's offer for support. I hope I don't need help, but if I can't find a solution to something that comes up I have always trusted your judgement and am happy to have some backup if necessary.

I've got some cool old gadgets I have been regularly charging but not using - I only hope they find a new home that actually uses them when I donate (or makes a good profit at least; Make sure you make the sale count!)

I will make a call for donations topic on Dec 1st. I will continue to accept donations until two days before the auction ends.

Having not actually checked how these things were scheduled before, I hope my decisions that I just made are workable. I was usually at work during the preliminaries and struggled to take pictures of my junk before donations were cut off.

I also have to ask "what's the charity?!"

I'll do that now.

[Ziggy]

I know I cannot accomplish what has been done in the past - I will simply make sure that the tradition does not end.

Thank you, and bravo. I agree, the charity auction is now a staple of the community. I'm very glad we will not miss a year. Please let me know if you need any help with grunt work, counting updated bids or something. I can also make a banner for the auction thread.

I will definitely donate items.

Can a mod sticky the appropriate threads for Anapan? Or put them in the announcement section?

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=50894