sounds absolutely wonderful: I'm looking forward to it. 'may need to strech out my bidding arm and build up my delts, Meredith
From: Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>
Reply-To: Greater Seattle Aquarium Society board members<gsas-board@thekrib.com>
To: gsas-board@thekrib.com
Subject: [GSAS-board] auction system mod suggestions...
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 09:55:34 -0800 (PST)
>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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