I think that you would be safe doing a "fall" auction instead of a spring auction if it is well planned.
True, most auctions happen in the spring but that could be a negative factor instead of a beneficial factor.
Our school hosts its annual auction sale every May. This is an extremely busy time of the year for everyone and it is getting more difficult to obtain items through local merchants for the auction. There are so many auctions in the winter and spring and so many merchants giving out free merchandise it is getting to be a real struggle. We profit $25,000 which is a good amount for such a small school. Maybe in the future we will move ours to the fall. It would have less competition!
We have done 4 auctions over the years, and have settled on early November as our favorite time of year. We hold them on Friday nights off campus. True, working parents have to hustle a bit, but we haven't had trouble attracting guests. We started planning our November 2001 auction in May of 2001, and netted $34,000 with over 300 donations and 200 guests. Not bad for a PK-1 school!
I think I would "ditto" the above post...I think Fridays, a lot of working parents just want to rest from the past workweek, and I agree that the Saturday daytime give you better setup time, and even Sunday to finish any cleanup.
As an auctioneer, I think that October is just as good a time as having one in the spring. Main times to avoid is too close to Christmas, as well as the bad weather months of Jan/Feb. One other point, I think it might be a bit harder to get donations from local businesses in Jan/Feb (which is usually a much slower economic time for stores and businesses), which you would wind up doing to have a spring auction.
Althoug I have no real facts to support this, i tend to think that the PTA's enthusiasm might be higher in the fall than in the spring. Perhaps others can offer comments on this thought.
let us know if we can help answer any other questions you may have...we all want to help each other on this forum.
Why is she opposed to a spring over a fall auction? Is it her schedule or does she think a spring auction does better?
As for dates, I prefer Saturdays just because the working parents have a break before they come, as long as it's not a late night. Plus you can set up without interfering with school activities during the day. If it's going to be a late night event, some people prefer Friday so the kids aren't too tired for church activities on Sunday.
Hi guys, ok here is the current situation. We are going to do an auction in october. This is our first one. One of the people on the committee has a friend who is "an auction coordinator". We had asked her if she wanted to help us with our auction and she did. The problem is that she is very opposed to an october auction. She would prefer a spring one. That isn't going to work, the school has so much planned already besides pta stuff. Anyhow right now it is scheduled for a friday night. Would saturday be better? Please advise! [img]smile.gif[/img]
maggie
