Auction Ideas and improvements

[sskruzr]

For those of you that attended auction, any thoughts or ideas on how we can improve the next one?

One thought was to have a greeter. That way those first-time-auctionees can get some help and direction.

I think we will definitely need a bigger room also.

Oh yes, and to keep the HAAS members coming, regular Dr Pepper on hand.

[Herpchat]

You all did very well on this one;

We do a few things differently, like allowing people to check out at any time, however our auctions go 6 to 10 hours, however we go through a lot of stuff.

Your pace was good and from the outside looking in the glitches were very minor and to the untrained eye non existent.

You all did a fantastic job;

Can't wait for the next one.

One thing we do different is that one of us types in what the next 10 items up for bid are and we display that on a screen in the front of the auction.

[Ramswin]

The fish that were on the viewing tables were kind of hard to see...

I've never been to an auction before, so I can't give any real critisism on how it went.

[pinkrblu]

People could have checked out at any time, I believe.

[mewickham]

The fish that were on the viewing tables were kind of hard to see...

I thought that, too. Of course, the fish are always a little hard to judge because they tend to fade in the bag, but the issue here was that we had more items to sell than we expected for our first auction. So we didn't have enough table space and bags were piled all up against each other, instead of spread out flat. We'll know to get more tables next time.

Corey, did anyone take a count of how many tables we had this time, so that we could request more next time?

[dennysfishroom]

We should probably have one person working on the Bidder Sheets full-time. Another could be entering info on the auction sheets, although that's not causing any bottleneck at check-out. Also, a form to record as buyers pay for what they have bid on, and someone other than the person working the bidder sheets to take the money. Not a serious problem at this point, but it would make things easier in the future if we get bigger. Denny

[mewickham]

We do a few things differently, like allowing people to check out at any time...

Wow. I didn't realize that we weren't allowing that. I suspect it was an oversight rather than a policy decision. People should be allowed to check out when they are ready.

One thing we do different is that one of us types in what the next 10 items up for bid are and we display that on a screen in the front of the auction.

That sounds cool. I haven't been to an OKAA auction yet. It sounds like we need to make the trip to see how you guys do it for some tips.

One thought was to have a greeter. That way those first-time-auctionees can get some help and direction...

I actually did greet many of the sellers as they arrived early on, and as many attendees as I saw show up throughout the auction, including several who were just passersby looking to see what we were up to. And Corey beat me to at least one as I was heading that way. So at least not all fell through the cracks. But I'm not sure we specifically need to have a greeter. Since buyers show up throughout the auction, I think it would normally be the buyer registrar's job to sit there and greet all arrivals. (And call others to help, if necessary.) I think our error here was that we assigned Gail to enter everything into the computer at the last minute-- and, man, did she have her mojo going and do an awesome job at that-- but she was also the buyer registrar. So Gail was otherwise occupied. It's not a greeter that we need, so much as a separate person from the buyer registrar to do data entry.

I think we will definitely need a bigger room also.

I agree that we need a bigger room. At least, we need more tables. The livestock bags were piled on top of each other for lack of space. The refreshment stand seemed crowded out. I barely even remember the raffle table-- and don't at all remember seeing any jars of tickets anywhere. (I'm not saying they weren't there and visible, only that they didn't catch my eye.) Since someone said that the raffles earned a large chunk of our money-- and we get a 100% cut-- we should probably add more raffle items next time. We should do more to make them stand out, and plug the raffle items now and then from the podium.

Donations: We had a lot of items donated by manufacturers. I do not believe that we did a good enough job of noting that when the items came up for bid. Sometimes I heard "this is a donated item," but rarely mention of who donated it. We should be taking at least a few seconds to mention the company, to thank them, and to praise their products. Give them a reason to keep donating. When items are donated by members, it wouldn't hurt to take time to thank them, too-- especially when they have traveled from distant clubs. Again, donated items give us a 100% return. So we want to do everything we can to encourage more.

Yes, we can make a few improvements, but overall, I've gotta say that this did not feel like a first auction for us. We've got to be happy about that.

[dennysfishroom]

We did have people check out before the end of the auction. There never was a rule that said we couldn't. The only problem was that most people did wait until the end to check out, and it just took time to work through everyone. As long as we don't load up the computer entry person in the future, it should get better. We probably need to work on getting the bid tags filled out more completely, too. We had to guess on a few of them, and that took some time to make sure we got it right, and there were some questions on donations and how to handle them.. Denny

[Herpchat]

How our checkout system works is that as soon as the runner signs off on the slip it goes to the treasurer for input into our system and as soon as someone checks out she hits a few buttons on the computer and its done.

We also pay the sellers at the auction. I don't know why we do but we always have and I don't know of another place that does.

[dennysfishroom]

Right now our computer entry is done using an Excell spreadsheet. I suspect it data entry might be sped up if it was put into a data base, but neither of us is at all proficient at using or creating a DB. If anyone is, and would like to work with us on that, we'd be willing. Maybe someone from other clubs has already done that, and would be willing to share their program with us. Denny

[mewickham]

Denny, Gerald had sent us an auction database program a while back, but I could not get it to open, and when I was in OKC he had trouble opening it on his laptop, too. (I believe I sent you a copy a long time ago.) However, I have played with it some more, including installing a newer version of Open Office (3.2) and the Sun Report Builder add-in, and I have gotten it to open. So I'll forward the program to you via e-mail and you can play with it some more.

[mewickham]

Actually, I just realized that I would have sent the database, not to Denny, but to either Michael as then-president, or Corey as auction chair. And rather than e-mail it, I'll put it in the File Cabinet for BOD access.

[sskruzr]

I don't wanna use a process where we have to have dedicated software or pc. I think we can get the Excel to work for single entry.

[pinkrblu]

I think one thing that could help a little would be if we had someone to help Gail sort the bid slips as they came in. Another possibility would be to have a couple door prize drawings at the very end to give a little more of a chance to catch up on entering the bid slips.

[Herpchat]

As your auctions become larger you will need to streamline how you do things.

[pinkrblu]

With practice, that will occur naturally.

[Herpchat]

You can also visit other auctions and see what others do and see if you like it.

[Herpchat]

I don't know if you all have seen the 4 color dot system. Basically when a person shows up they are given 1 dot per bag or item, and they are evenly distributed between all of the colors. The bags are placed by color dot. Once the auction starts the starting color is drawn and all of the bags with that color dot are auctioned first and so on until all of the colors have been auctioned.

The other thing that if anyone noticed was that fish sell for higher earlier in the auction.

[mewickham]

I like the idea of putting colored dots on the bags that should go first. Since fish prices are higher earlier in the auction, it would give sellers the ability to select the species they want to get most for, and might maximize dollars for both sellers and the club.

[pinkrblu]

I have seen the color dot system and it works.