Service Auction

[edenfalling]

Service Auctions are a common UU congregation fundraising method -- I am unsure if they are common among Protestant Christian denominations in general, but I would not be surprised. I know that my current church and the church I grew up in both hold service auctions each year.

The basic idea is that members (and sometimes community businesses) donate items or services which people then bid on. All proceeds go to the church.

The First Unitarian auction has three parts. First is the dinner (which you pay to attend) at 5:30pm. Then the silent auction at 6:30pm, where a whole bunch of smaller items are set up on tables with bidding sheets in front of them, and you write your bidder number, name, and offer. People can then choose whether to top your bid or not. Finally at 7:00pm the main auction starts in the sanctuary, with the big ticket items bid on in a traditional live auction style. Anything not sold on the night of the auction gets listed on the church website and newsletter for two weeks to see if anyone will take it.

I signed up to do cleanup this year, so I showed up at church around 6:45pm figuring that as long as I had to be there at all, I might as well sit through the live auction and see what it was like. I also got a booklet and a bidder number mostly for the heck of it... and then ended up spending over $100 on various items I had not initially meant to bid on at all. *headdesk*

That is what community enthusiasm will do to a person.

I ended up purchasing a dozen homemade muffins of my choice, two tickets to a spring Cayuga Chamber Orchestra concert of my choice (at my church!), two tickets to the NYS Baroque production of Fleurs De Lis (presumably also at my church; if it turns out to be elsewhere transportation may be an insurmountable obstacle and I will have to renege), two loaves of fresh home-baked bread of my choice, and a seat at a Mardi Gras brunch on Sunday, February 10, 2013. That last is my birthday present to myself for next year. *grin*

I also cleared a bunch of tableclothes and bidding sheets, gathered a gazillion pencils and pens, took down and put away a bunch of tables, cleared some dishes, and vacuumed part of the floor, because that is what cleanup crew means.

All in all, it was a successful evening. :-)

Comments

[lexicology]

I know many Protestant churches do regular Rummage Sales on similar principles. Considerably less interesting (or fresh-baked) offerings at those, though.

Glad you had a good evening!

[edenfalling]

We do a rummage/garage/yard sale too -- that happens in August and is a completely different thing. (My childhood church used to do a massive garage sale in May or June, but lately nobody has wanted to organize it so they've cut back to only doing a clothing sale.) The service auction is more about stuff like... oh, a weekend's use of a summer cabin in Cape Cod, or babysitting, or sailing lessons, or four hours of yardwork, or a guided hike through one of the local gorges plus lunch afterward, or a seat at a wine tasting and dinner. Actions, not things.

So I don't have my bread or muffins yet. What I have is an IOU for somebody to bake them for me at a time of my choosing. :-)

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

You got a lot for your money!! At our service auction that much would have cost me way > $200 -- probably because some people who are more affluent tend to bid the prices up. I never manage to buy anything that costs > $20.

[edenfalling]

I got the dozen muffins for only $10 -- an absolute steal! I have NO IDEA why nobody else bid on them. The bread was also absurdly cheap at only $20, though at least one other person bid on that. And while I don't understand why people wouldn't want to go to a concert of French Baroque music, hey, I will be a very appreciative audience member! (Baroque music is one of my favorite genres. *hums happily and anticipates the arrival of March*)