[GSAS-board] auction system mod suggestions...

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

Hi folks,

Last night's meeting reminded me that the plant auction is next month. 
Yes, I will still take responsibility for it this year.

At last November's AGA convention, I ended up being auction chair.  I made 
some upgrades on my computerized auction system to enable it to work with 
a wider variety of auction styles, including the one that is used by 
virtually every other club out there.  It worked incredibly well!  So 
good, that I wanted to try some of the changes out back home to see if we 
could eliminate some of our own bottlenecks:

   * items put in someone else's bag by mistake
   * the big run on the runners at the end
   * the need for three stressed-out computer ops at the same time
   * no easy way to do silent auction items or multi-item auctions
     alongside usual single live items
   * late sellers trying to pre-register their items

So here is my proposal:

(You can see more info, including pictures here..)
http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/Auction/system.html
http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/Auction/seller.html
http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/Auction/bidder.html

1. Items are delivered directly to the bidder as they are won, instead of 
kept behind the scenes until checkout.

   * Instead of a sticker, we have a "tag" associated with each item.  The
     bidder signs off on the tag, on which the runner writes also the
     bidder number and amount.  The bidder keeps the bag.  The runner takes
     the tag back to the computers.

   * If we are concerned with theft, we require each participant surrender
     a drivers license or similar collateral for their bidder card.  It is
     returned when they check out.


2. Tags are delivered to an 'inbox' next to the computers where they can 
be scanned at the leisure of the operators and moved into the 'scanned 
box'.

   * Computer ops no longer need to be watching the auctioneers like a
     hawk.

   * Only two people need to be running computers, possibly only one.  Easy
     to take breaks. :)  I found I can go through a stack of tags very
     quickly.  Computer ops can more easily switch between check-in,
     entering bids, and checkout.

   * The box of scanned tags effectively replaces the extra person writing
     down each bid.  It becomes our paper trail!

   * Weak link: Checkout people need to insure there are no tags in the
     inbox corresponding to bidders that are checking out!  Otherwise, they
     end up not paying for all their items!

3. Runners become the critical step!

   * Bring item to auctioneer (optional -- we could still have auctioneers
     pick out items, something I prefer)
   * Record bidder and bid amount on the tag
   * Take item to the winner, have them sign off on the tag
   * Drop off tag to the inbox
   * Repeat

   * Should have a surplus, because we no longer need the extra computer
     person, the two "back runners", and the extra recorder.  Kids like
     being runners!

4. We can still keep our multiple-auctioneer system!

Though every other club has a single auctioneer up there for 30 minutes at 
a time, I really prefer the GSAS approach of multiple auctioneers.  In 
fact, we actually can have hybrid auctioneer/runners: pick an item off the 
table, auction it off, and bring it to the winner.  I think we would need 
to have four auctioneers if we want to keep things running fast, so maybe 
it's not doable.  But the point is, we could actually run the whole thing 
with, say, only five volunteers, down from the nine we usually have.

5. Silent auctions, Fixed-price auctions, Multi-item auctions

Because of the magic inbox and tags, it's easy to do fixed-price.  Just 
grab a tag, write down how much it went for and to whom, and send it to 
the inbox.

Multi-item auction?  Just fill out several tags!

Silent auctions have a special bigger tag with spaces for people to write 
their bidder number and amount (see weblinks above for a picture of this).

I'm not saying we'll actually do any of these, but you never know...it 
would have been cool last year with the bogwood sales.  It's good to have 
the option available.

6. Sellers & splits

   * Red tags, similar to the red labels we've been using
   * Space on the red tags to write the seller number.
   * Can be pre-registered like we do now, or the seller number entered
     as it's pulled out of the inbox (NEW behavior for computer!)
   * Need to have lots of scotch tape

The idea here is that there are two chances to enter the seller items. 
One chance is the one we do now, pre-registration.  That makes it nice for 
the people running the computers later as they just enter the bidder 
number and amount, not the description of the item or seller number.  But 
we have this problem where someone brings in a box late, and one of the 
computer people is tied up entering stuff for them.  Now, we can say "OK, 
here's your bidder number.  Take these tags, write down your number and a 
description on each, tape them to you twenty things, and then just leave 
them on the table."

I also can now use a wider range of printers.  If anyone can volunteer to 
bring a printer, it'd really be nice!  I might actually be able to bring 
plants this year instead of just tech gear.

   - Erik

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com
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