Red Flag Fund Auction - YOUR INPUT!

[Jeff]

If you attended the 2nd annual RFF auction, please let us know how we did!  We'd love comments on:

Registration:
Was it quick/easy enough?
Did you have to wait in line too long?

Auction flow:
Did we have enough items?
Did we have too many items?
Did we go too slow/fast?

Checkout:
How was the checkout process?
Anything we should do different?

Meal:
Was the food good?
Did you get enough?
Was it a good value?

Drinks:
Comments on the $2 minimum donation?
Does restricting carry-ins bother you?

Any other suggestions???

[x mud slinger]

Jeff I am sure you all had a good time. just a thought here why not set up an online auction also so those of us who are not able to attend in person can bid

[Jeff]

Jeff I am sure you all had a good time. just a thought here why not set up an online auction also so those of us who are not able to attend in person can bid

That would be super cool to do, it's just  challenging to implement...  The 2 biggest challenges would be reliable high-speed internet connectivity (which many tracks lack), and the programming to allow this capability.

I had a few people ask about this before, and it just didn't seem financially or technically feasible for us to do.

An option to real-time bidding would be for us to publish an item list ahead of time and you could proxy bid on items (i.e., email us your bids beforehand and we place those bids for you).  The one caveat in that is that we get many items on the day of the auction so you'd miss out on a percentage of what we have.

[weggieman]

If this was a larges scale auction with huge income, on-line would make sense but it's just not realistic for this size event.

I think everything went well except the beer sales. I know that the folks in charge of refrshments want to put the blame for all bad things on the "open" bar we had in the past but that is simply not true. There has never been a problem during an auction that was directly contributable to our alcohol sales. Having the donation jug only and no minimum always produced a lot of income for the Wegman Fund. the bar was packed and people donated well. I couldn't help but notice how little beer was sold at the bar and meanwhile everyone was drinking carry ins. So much for that rule. Which by the way is not a rule enforcable by the refreshment stand owners. The track manager explained to them that it is a public pavilion that they have no control over.

[weggieman]

Oops, hit a wrong button before I was finished.

Just want to say thanks for a good event. I'm glad to see it back at BHF. 

[Xian_13]

Needs more Cow Bell.


Or Sock Monkeys! :)

XIII

[dylanfan53]

Okay, since you asked...

I'll throw in that I thought registration and checkout were handled well and congrats and thanks to your helpers for the work they put into it. I'm sure they spent days sorting and organizing and it showed.

The food was most excellent.  I would have eaten more but I was a little intimidated that Key only ate half of his sandwich so figured I should restrain myself and choose between finishing his sandwich or his brownie so, of course, I ate his brownie...anyway, the food was excellent!

I wasn't aware of the issue about carryins and wasn't taking score but I can't believe there would have been much lost revenue from a few people bringing their own brand.

I would have liked to have seen more new and used motorcycle parts and motorcycling paraphernalia that could be used by us.  On the other hand, I noticed that when they came up for sale the focus was on whether or not it was a good deal, rather than thinking of it as a benefit to the Red Flag Fund, but maybe it's worth considering. 

If the sock monkey umbrella person (I dunno who was under that thing) is willing, I suggest he/she could be auctioned off to assist at lightweight, middleweight, heavyweight and Team challenge races, thus increasing contributions times four.

I think it's worth noting that one of the items that fetched the highest price was the Czecher T-shirt which shows how willing many racers are to open the wallet for a good cause.  

Thanks to all the RFF peeps and their families for the fun evening.

and thanks, Ed, for the brownie....(I think it tasted a little like titanium though)  

[Jeff]

Thanks for all the feedback.

A little insight on a couple of things.

Beer/Soda/Wine "sales/donations" made about $700.  I think it was a little more, but in any event, that was PURE PROFIT because everything had been donated.  I do think that the previous Wegman auctions did substantially more, but I don't know exactly.

Turnout at the track was very light this weekend for whatever reason.  Not sure if that contributed (as well as the piss poor economy).

On the Carry-Ins, the track did NOT set any rule on carry-ins.  Collectively (and the concession stand was not part of that collective) we decided to announce no carry-ins in order to encourage people to drink & donate.  There was one group that drank their own beer (which oddly enough was what we had on tap), but that group spent a TON of money at the auction, so I couldn't really complain. 

The pricing thing?  Well, I wasn't a huge fan of it as I thought we'd get more $$$ by donation, but for relationship purposes, meeting the track half-way on that one seemed a good move.

On the donated items, it was a tough year.  There were a lot of people that didn't or couldn't donate just due to their economic situation, or having donated to our previous golf event.  It was difficult & odd to have so much apparel.

The push for charity vs value.  That's an interesting one and shows up when the "sock monkey" comes out or people battle back/forth and spend $150 on a $5 t-shirt.  Unfortunately we can't do that with every item, it just doesn't work.  So, in that case, I did bring up value a few times (probably a few times too many).  I will make note of that in the future.

Thanks again everyone for the feedback.  We can't make things better without your input!

[StumpysWife]

Congratulations!  Wish we could have been there, too!

Heather

[Super Dave]

Similar to olympians doing their event every four years, I should be able to return in 2009 following my 2006 and 2003 "appearances", I have three year cycles...

We tried to get Kevin Elliott to "fill in" for me, but he was already obligated...

[spyderchick]

Similar to olympians doing their event every four years, I should be able to return in 2009 following my 2006 and 2003 "appearances", I have three year cycles...

We tried to get Kevin Elliott to "fill in" for me, but he was already obligated...

KE has more sense than you. 

See (most of) you in '09!

[Super Dave]

LOL!  I'll give you an applaud for that.