In our most recent discussion, we came up with some Pros and Cons of the auction. Here is a brief list of what we came up with:
Pros
- Raises money
- Fun
- We get to make fun things, offer services, etc.
- Auctions do better with larger groups
- People don't bid on things they aren't interested in
- Not everyone brings items to auction
- Not everyone bids
- Possibility for hurt feelings
- No Money=No Fun (not everyone has disposable funds)
We came up with a different way of doing things that might reduce the number of cons.
- Have a Family Raffle instead of an Auction
- People can still bring crafts and items they may have been preparing for the auction and we will do a raffle instead.
- Each person will have 1 ticket in the drawing and there will be an equal number of prizes and participants.
- There is no financial tie to the raffle. Everyone gets to participate for free.
- Everyone will be entered into a "Grand Prize" drawing.
- Kids Raffle with kid items (so kids don't get adult times and vice versa). If we plan right we can just alternate 1 adult item then 1 kid item and have to jars to draw from.
- Fundraising will be done separately through anonymous donations
- Everyone will receive a blank envelope and can donate whatever they can/want.
- There can be a donation box to collect the funds.
- People can discreetly drop their envelopes/donations
- Possibly conserve funds and have a larger reunion every few years
- Maybe have smaller, less expensive reunions for 2-3 years.
- Activities that are more expensive can be done every few years.
Last year I suggested eating an elephant one bite at a time. If each family put aside $5.00/week each family would bring $260.00 to the table (so to speak). Then, being wise stewards, we could save 20% and count on spending 80% for that year. This way there would be a known and constant budget and, over time, we'd have a slush fund to do a bigger activity using the savings. The key to this is physically setting aside the $5/week. Otherwise it's a challenge to come up with a sudden $260 out of our daily operating budget. The $5 is, of course, an arbitrary number. Even a dollar a week would give $52/family/year. Super activities would take a little longer, but there would much less financial stress.
ReplyDeleteI really like this idea. I think the easiest way for me to do something like this is to have it automatically transferred from my checking account to a separate savings account. I don't have to think about it and I hardly notice a small amount like that.
DeleteOK. Ryan seems to like the idea. Anyone else? What about suggested weekly amount? $1? $5? $2.87?
ReplyDeleteIf there was an account I could transfer money into but not back out, that would work better for me. Out of sight, out of reach.
ReplyDeleteWhere finances vary so much over time and across different families, I wouldn't want to suggest a particular amount.
Where would the raffle prizes come from? Are these the things previously intended for the auction? What happens to the extra items, or if there is a shortfall, or more kid items than kids? I think a raffle can work, I'm just not sure how to work out the details of one ticket & one item each.
We have a separate Steed Reunion Fund account set up at UCCU. You could probably set up an online bill pay. I also looked into setting up a PayPal account for the reunion fund. You can sign up for "subscriptions" which will automatically draft a pre-determined amount from your bank account. The problem with this is that they charge a processing fee.
DeleteThis year we were thinking that the raffle prizes would be the items people were planning to auction. In coming years we could just have each family bring an item for each attending member. We had talked about having the kids auction be for those under 12. We talked about buying 1 or 2 dollar store items (combine a couple together maybe) and have those be the kids items. We also talked about what to do if we had too many/too few items. If there are too many items we could combine them into a "Package item." Jayna was planning on bringing home made salsa and gourmet popcorn for the auction. We talked about making extra of those to fill in if there are too few items.
Mom had mentioned the idea of a grand prize. I would guess that it would either be donated by someone or we could plan on a certain amount of the previous years funds to go toward something. If we did it that way, the grand prize wouldn't be extremely grand this year, but might get better each year.
online banking fees are not cool. I wouldn't go that way. If people are already wondering where money will come from it will not be helpful to have a fee on top of it.
DeletePerhaps we should determine the purpose of the reunion fund. It doesn't make much sense to me to spend money to store money to then spend it on the original people. Seems like a losing proposition. What about just planning and pay as we go? With notice and some planning it could work. Might even avoid some pitfalls of a general fund. For example, Mike and his family will not be down on Friday for Lake Mead, so doesn't make much sense to have them help pay for the boat. I'll have my boat so it doesn't make much sense for me to pay for a rental boat as I'm already paying for gas, etc for it.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what the best answer will be, but in the boat example if we knew who was going to participate, what the costs would be, divided among participants . . . viola, now you have a cost for the activity and people could decide if it's worth doing or not.
(Has the boat cost been discussed?)
I think those are great ideas, and having a raffle instead of an auction relieves pressure to spend to make others happy our out of responsibility to the family.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be tricky to split cost for activities that we do or don't go to. Unfortunately this year we had no funds to rent the pontoon boat because no one had paid dues up to that point from the last auction. The funds were covered by Dave. We need to just put in our money this year to build up funds for next years reunion with out expectation of reimbursement if we can't/don't attend certain parts of the reunion. Would it help if we do the same weekend every year or the same location every year so we all know exactly what the cost will be for the reunion and when it will be? I know stuff comes up but I really want the reunion to happen every year. So I say we donate what's comfortable for ourselves/family and if we get to attend the next year great if not keep the funds and I'll come next time!
ReplyDeleteJust so everyone is aware, the reunion fund currently has $252.28. I'll leave it up to the planners this year to determine how to use the funds.
ReplyDelete