This will be my 4th year doing the silent auction, and I learn something(s) new every time.
I like the idea of different colored tables to indicate the sections being closed. It's easier to say "red table will close in 5 minutes" than "Items #1 - #72 will now close). I actually stole that idea from the PTO message boards!
With some larger items (such as teacher-donated special experiences) I'm going to advertise those to our school community via email ahead of time. That way groups of parents can get together and plan to bid as a group on an item.
Also, I'm pretty happy with our checkout. Here's what we do. I collect bid sheets section by section. For each section, I circle the winner on the bid sheet and then write the winner's last name on a specially-prepared "winner's sheet". This sheet looks identical to the bid sheet, except all the lines for people to write their bids on in gone. Attached to this winner's sheet is a post-it with the item # written on (all this is prepared before the auction). The winner's are instructed to take the post-it(s) and proceed to the checkout when they are totally done with their bidding.
The only other thing I know I want to do different is that I will email the school community a few days ahead of time to explain how the auction will work. I just always seem to assume that people love silent auctions as much as I do and know how they work. It's easier to let people know ahead of time the procedures than try to explain them to a crowded, hot room 5 minutes before the auctions start shutting down.
My first Auction was a Silent Auction.. Some items went great.. Other's not so great. Need to go with Gender neutral, not to specific... A tool shed worth $500 may not go so good, Unless you have 2 people that wants it. The Second one we didnt diffently. Smaller items.. Baskets... All donated... sold 20 tickets for $5 each guaranteed $50 for each item...
this site is very helpful. I am running my first silent and live auction on my own without a committee, but with strong backing from our Board of Directors and our administration. having a committee definitely would have made my life easier! also like other people who have written about this subject, I will start much earlier next year to procure items. I won't assume that previous donors will donate again. I also won't assume that venues where we've held events or vendors that we've worked with will donate to an event when they are not involved - so much for good customer service and loyalty! I've learned that there are a lot of nice people out there and others who just don't care what they say or who they say it to. I've learned that I have a tough exterior and will pretty much do anything for my organization. I've learned not to take 'no' personally and learned to recognize that the economy impacts a lot of decisions. I am a paid staff member and not a volunteer. Next year I will recruit volunteers to help me. all in all this has been a great experience. Now we'll wait until the night of to see what else I've learned in the past months! Good luck everyone with your events!
I attended one last week which went very well, but I saw the following areas that could have been improved.
Signage for rules, tables closings needed to be larger and at eye level. They had it taped to the table cloth and people couldn't see as they crowded around.
Group was determined to type winners into Excel and post results with a projector. Good idea, but they couldn't input it fast enough so one set of winners was posted before the next set of tables closed (3 waves, 15 minute intervals). People need to know what they won/didn't win so they can decide how much money to spend on other parts of the auction.
Sets of tables closing at the same time need to be clearly identifiable. Easiest way is different color table cloths for each section.
At checkout, they organized bid sheets by item number. So you as the guest were supposed to know that before approaching the table. Very few bidders notice the item number on the bid sheet.
That being said, they did a million things right and it was very successful.
As I read through the lists, I see that many people are working on their school's auction for the first time. I'm in that same category. I was curious as to what you will do differently next time. For me, I have it on my list to start earlier for national companies and to make sure that whoever contacts local businesses is a known customer. What did you learn?
