The first thing that I can suggest and your first stepping stone...contact your states gaming commission. I live in NJ, and thee are quite a few regulations that need to be gone by. After you know the cans and can not's, then come up with a date. You need the who's, what's, where's and when's before you can solicite or secure any permits that are needed. Plus, you generally need a tax exempt id number. A lot of buisness' require this before they will donate.
Second- get help. Lots of it. If you divide and conquer, it is a much easier task. Put one person in charge of all letter writing for donations, have four or five (or as many as you need) persons doing the around town solicitations. And no matter what, just ask.. The worst they could say is no. Ask some rather unlikly places too. We asked at a funeral home, and they donated a casket. Sounds gross, but these things can be really expensive. We have had Lasik surgery, teeth whitening, laser peels....all donated. You just never know.
Lastly, stay organized. Keep track of all donations and rejections. Put an approximate value on everything. You are going to ned it when you file you returns or paperwork.
Good Luck.
With 400 prizes, you'll have a lot of details to consider. You'll have to be very organized on soliciting the prizes, keeping the data of what's been donated by whom, and then keeping track of everything.
For one that big, you may want to organize your prizes into category areas and number your tables or areas (so people can find their way back to add more tickets.)
You'll also need a good supply of volunteers monitoring the area and need to decide if easy-to-carry-off items like gift certificates will be on display or will it be copies, with the orginal held back.
One of my pet peeves is unclear signage. In a Bag Auction, most items speak for themselves, no signage needed unless you are listing the donor name and/or value. (Tent cards are good, or else list the donors in the program.)
But when it's some sort of package or gift certificate, have something people can read at a glance. If it's a hotel stay, specify how many nights and what hotel/city. Trying to read through a letter or certificate with graphics and italics fonts takes too long and bogs down your line. Have a quick - easy to read sign.
Other tips - view your space (in advance) at the same time of day as you'll be holding the event to see where the dark corners. Also, consider the people flow. Don't create dead ends or spaces people can't pass each other. Restricting movement also restricts your bottom line.
JHB thanks for the info. Where I live tricky trays are very popular. They seem to be springing up all over. Here they are done in banquet halls along with a full course dinner. They tend to have about 400 or more prizes. They are so organized that I thought if there was a detailed guide line from start to finish, a somewhat dummies book, we would purchase it in a heart beat. We did purchase the one on PTO "auctions" but it was not detailed and it was not what we were looking for. They are on a grander scale in my area and a lot more involved. They make $20,000.00 or more for the evening.
I am going to do more research for something. Hopefully I can find one.
Hmmm...lots of work?? I'm not sure what you mean, I think they are really easy logistically. Much less work than a silent auction. Of course, soliciting donated items is always a fair amount of work, regardless of how you are using them.
There are some older threads on this so you may want search the forums.
This type of event goes by many names - the orginal being "Chinese Auctuion" which many consider derogatory. Ours tend to be called a "Bag Auction" (when the ticket container is a colorful lunch size bag) or "Chance Auction" (because you each ticket is a chance to win).
I've been involved in ones where this is simply an "extra" - maybe 4-6 items - that are profiled with a silent auction to ones where there are tables and tables (80+) of items.
But the principle is fairly simple. You display each item with a container (jar, lunch bag, box). People buy tickets and place them in the containers in which they have the most interest. The more tickets they put in any one container, the more chance they have to win. For elementary PTO, we create our own paper tickets with name, phone, and teacher lines using a business card template (so 10 per page). For another group I'm in, they sell the double rolls of carnival tickets. Half the ticket is placed in the bag, you keep the other, and they call out numbers.
Personally, I prefer writing the name on the tickets.
Bag Auctions are pretty simple to close out. No bid sheets, no payment lines. You close the auction, shoo everyone away from the tables and just start going down the line. Pickup up a bag (container), draw a name, call out the winner, and hand the person their prize.
If it's an event where lots of other things are going on and not everyone is right there listening, you may need a place to post winners who don't pick up their prize immediately.
Does anyone know if there are any published guidelines out there with intructions how to run a tricky tray. We have heard a lot about them and our school would like to do one. I understand they are a lot of work and we don't know were or how to start. I thought if there was something we would be glad to purchase one. Please let me know if anyone knows of any.
Thanks.
