Ademom-
I was actually wondering how to do the seating since most people do request reserved tables. Thank you for that idea and for all of your help,I *really* appreciate it!

You are on the right track. Getting key people in position early is critical.
Check back to this site regularly for more information as you need it. There are many donation lists posted that you can use. Always have a copy of your solicitation letter handy when you shop. When you make a purchase, hit up the merchant for a donation as well. Ditto for local contractors that you may use at home as well as your dr/dentist/lawyer etc. Encourage your school families to pool their resources and put together family baskets. Same for neighborhoods. Get the word out early and often. Send home a 'Save the Date' flyer via backpack. Too much info is better than not enough.

Oh, and one more important thing to remember. Since you are having a sit down affair, you MUST put together tables similiar to what is done at weddings. This way you are assured that everyone has a seat. We ran into this problem 2 years ago when we sold out the room and did not assign seats. Some tables had single empty seats. It caused huge headaches and left attendees angry.

Best of luck.

Ademom- Thank you so much for all of the information! I was definitely thinking of the color coding, as it seemed it would make things much easier. I am going to do a presentation before the board in September and planned on having a meeting with the core committee also in September to make sure we're all on the same page and to give everyone a chance to get their ideas out there and see what we think will work best for us. I was then thinking of maybe meeting once a month until it got closer to the event, then meeting once a week, if possible.

Brooke- The idea of having it at our bingo hall was turned down by the principal - he definitely wants it out at a hall. I don't know if the hall will sponsor the dinner for the school... I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask though. Thanks for the ideas!

Why not have it in the Bingo Hall and have it catered and then decorate it nicely?

Also, have you thought about going to some restaurants and seeing if they will sponsor the dinner for the school?

Shula's is known in our area for donating the dinner and cooks to certain schools and then the attendees pay the school for admission / per plate.

Have you thought of contacting an event planner and seeing if she can or will donate her time? She may have valuable contacts for you.

Also, you might be able to get away with charging $30 per person if you made it a Black-Tie Optional Event, the children did a show, or there was on-site babysitting at no charge.

We do a formal dinner/dance arond the holidays. Last year we charged $22 per person and it was very highly attended. But we also couldn't rely on school families ti attend nad had to market to the community at large. They came- in droves!

I hope it all goes well! I'm sure it will be wonderful!

This year was unusual regarding size. We changed venues, had it at a church hall and were able to increase the number of attendees substantially. In years prior, we would have about 300 attend. We always sell out and have people on wait lists for tickets. Our township is large with 6 grammar schools that all run auctions, so competition for donations is fierce.

We do a mass mailing in the fall and in January start following it up with phone calls. I coordinate the solicitors so I can tell you that it's a huge, huge, HUGE amount of work amassing the donations. We work it like this: We put like items together to form baskets, they are all themed and named. We define catagories of baskets using color: white for baskets that are worth under $75, purple for baskets worth between $76 and $200, yellow for grand prizes and red for classroom baskets. Each type of basket has a different ticket price, all tickets are sold in sheets and all coordinate. Table cloth, ribbon, ticket, labels, bags all will be either white, purple, yellow or red.
This year we had 146 white baskets, 182 purple, 34 grand and 24 classroom. We started calling at 8:30 (should have started at 8 pm but got a late start) and the evening finished at 11 pm.

It's good that you have the volunteering hours requirement. That should help you. You need to encourage people to volunteer their time and NOT keep track of their hours. The last thing you need is for someone to get half way done with a function and then say, 'That's it, my 50 hours are up, I'm outta here'. I literally spend hundreds of hours on our auction this year, on top of working full time.

If I were you, I would have a start up meeting in the fall to get your different sub committees lined up. You need to know how many people you can count on. I would also look for a co-chair, someone you can count on, bounce ideas off of, share the stress and alike. It helps.

We're hoping that if they can receive a decent amount of hours for volunteering for such a big event, that they will find a way to help. At our school, each family needs to meet 50 hours of volunteering time, anyone in the family can volunteer and it will go towards their hours... so if the mother or father cannot volunteer a total of 50 hours, but an uncle or cousin can help out, they will get hours for that. I have friends and family members who have said they will help me if I cannot get enough help from the school families. We're also going to try to get the teachers involved in any way that they are able to. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about too little volunteers, but I'm hoping that since so many people are worried every year about getting to their 50 hours, maybe they'll see this as a great opportunity to do so.
Wow! You have *alot* of attendees! On average, how many baskets do you have for auction?