INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 36)

 Over the years I have attended, worked with and organized hundreds of festivals and events. With this new series, "INSIDE with the Festival Nomad", I want to give you an "inside" look at some of the festivals and events that I have been involved with or that I have visited. Along the way, I have had a lot of fun and sometimes frustration, but I have never been bored!

The Biggies and More...

Judi and I have attended and volunteered at a number of fundraising auction dinners. These are a lot of fun and, of course, raise money for worthwhile causes. In the next few articles, I am going to tell you about two of the larger and more interesting fundraising dinners we have visited and about some of the funny things that we have seen at other fundraising auctions we have attended!

The Warren Michigan Banquet (The Clean-Up) ...

Clean-up was very interesting! The challenge was to get everyone, first to pay for the goods they purchased (silent and live auctions) and then to get then to leave. There were many who wanted to continue the “party”, while the RGS Staff were tired and just wanted to clean-up. While accounting was doing their work (see previous blog), the rest us started the arduous task of cleaning up and putting equipment away. We also needed to guard the prize area until all the prizes were paid for and then picked up. As I have said in other articles, it is amazing how you seem to have more equipment going out then when coming in! The challenge, of course, is finding the right box, for the right piece of equipment. Fortunately, the RGS Staff were very practiced, and everything was eventually packed and made ready to take back to head office. The whole ordeal was very tiring, but, in the end, extremely rewarding!

INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 36)

 Over the years I have attended, worked with and organized hundreds of festivals and events. With this new series, "INSIDE with the Festival Nomad", I want to give you an "inside" look at some of the festivals and events that I have been involved with or that I have visited. Along the way, I have had a lot of fun and sometimes frustration, but I have never been bored!

The Biggies and More...

Judi and I have attended and volunteered at a number of fundraising auction dinners. These are a lot of fun and, of course, raise money for worthwhile causes. In the next few articles, I am going to tell you about two of the larger and more interesting fundraising dinners we have visited and about some of the funny things that we have seen at other fundraising auctions we have attended!

The Warren Michigan Banquet (Accounting)...

As I mentioned previously, Judi was assigned, by Sam, to the accounting table. Although keeping everyone until the end of the evening is beneficial for financial reasons, (bidders stay and bid), checking out is another story. Here is where Judi tells a tale!

“A quick story actually. As the banquet closed, a swarm of people anxious to “cash out” came to the check out table, ALL AT ONCE! To my surprise, most of the folks paid for their purchases with CASH! United States paper money cash! To me, all the money looked the same. I had been in the financial industry in downtown Toronto for 10 years, so I would have liked to think I had some skills with handling money. However, as folks pulled out their wads of money, I was painfully slow at counting it for them. As I mentioned, the $10 looked like the $20’s and so on. I was grateful for the few folks who paid by credit cards, as I was able to assist more quickly”!

INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 36)

 Over the years I have attended, worked with and organized hundreds of festivals and events. With this new series, "INSIDE with the Festival Nomad", I want to give you an "inside" look at some of the festivals and events that I have been involved with or that I have visited. Along the way, I have had a lot of fun and sometimes frustration, but I have never been bored!

The Biggies and More...

Judi and I have attended and volunteered at a number of fundraising auction dinners. These are a lot of fun and, of course, raise money for worthwhile causes. In the next few articles, I am going to tell you about two of the larger and more interesting fundraising dinners we have visited and about some of the funny things that we have seen at other fundraising auctions we have attended!

The Warren Michigan Banquet (Banquet)...

Once everyone had found their seat and the opening ceremonies were completed, an army of servers took the stage! Try imagining over 1000 people being served a four or five course meal, with the meal in perfect condition, crisp salad, hot veggies, prime rib hot and properly cooked, desserts looking perfect and coffee piping hot and delicious. This is how it was and it was completed with precision and in record time! It seemed to me that most everyone was very satisfied with their meal. Meanwhile, while the meal was being served, "commerce" continued to take place! Now it was in the form of raffle winners being announced, the silent auction continuing and the high bidders eventually being announced. The highlight of most fund-raising banquets is the live auction, and the Warren Michigan banquet was no different! The items chosen for the live auction by Sam and his staff were spectacular! I can’t tell you how many framed prints, sculptures, and guns were offered, but there were a LOT! Most had numerous bidders competing against one another, so the price for each was significant and, in some cases, very significant! The last auction item brought the most excitement! It was a brand-new automobile, donated by General Motors. Again, I can’t remember how much the car sold for, but it was substantial. I think both the new owner of the vehicle and RGS were satisfied. As you may know, Americans love their guns, so the last item of business for the banquet was the “gun” table raffle. The idea was, one table would be chosen out of the 100 or more tables and that each member of that table would be awarded a special shotgun. The catch was simple, that you had to be sitting at that table at the time the winning table was chosen! If you weren’t there, then you didn’t win the shotgun! This was a great method of keeping banquet attendees there for the whole evening. Once this raffle was over, so was the banquet.

The Biggies and More...

 Judi and I have attended and volunteered at a number of fundraising auction dinners. These are a lot of fun and, of course, raise money for worthwhile causes. In the next few articles, I am going to tell you about two of the larger and more interesting fundraising dinners we have visited and about some of the funny things that we have seen at other fundraising auctions we have attended!

The Warren Michigan Banquet (Pre-Banquet Continued) ...

Inside the hall, commerce was taking place! This was in the form of RGS staff and Delta flight attendants selling special raffle tickets and manning booths where specialized games took place. The games consisted of various tried and true tests of skills or luck. The excitement of these games was reflected at the long line-ups to participate. The girls, who were mainly selling the special raffle tickets were also very popular. Guests were given a long “string” of theatre tickets. The number of tickets given were determined by the ticket sellers taking one end of the tickets in one hand and then stretched across their chest with the other hand. Participants gravitated to the girls that could provide the most tickets! This spectacle lasted for a few hours. As the dinner hour approached, Sam asked everyone to find their pre-assigned seats. The pandemonium turned to chaos as guests scrambled to find their seats.