East Shore Auction 2022

East Shore Auction 2022

We are excited to begin planning East Shore’s annual auction again.  The East Shore Auction, usually held in November each year, is a big fund-raising opportunity for the church, and a wonderful way to build community, since the auction is all about offering social events and services to each other.

This year, the date will be Saturday, November 5.  Put the date in your calendars now!

We have already chosen a theme, Embracing the Future, and our amazing graphic designer, Wenda Collins, is hard at work coming up with some wonderful graphics for the website and communications.

18-month Auction

This year’s auction will be unique since it will be an 18-month auction.  Since we voted to shift the church’s financial year to a calendar year, it is necessary to move around our big fund raising events.  The Mission Fund Drive will be moving to the Fall, and the Auction to the Spring.  This means that after this year’s auction, we will not have another auction until the Spring of 2024.  So we need to make this year’s auction an extra-special 18-month auction.

This means that we’ll be asking for more contributions.  If you typically offer an item or event around the holidays or in the early Spring, please consider offering two this year – one for 2022/23 and one for 2023/24.  We will split the Silent Auction portion into sections, so that it’s clear which year the item you’re bidding on will be for.  Of course you can offer two of any item, not just those that are date specific!

Fund a Need project

One aspect of the auction that always raises a lot of money is the Fund a Need project.  This year, we’re looking to identify a community project that will inspire members to share their time and talents as well as their treasure (money)!  We will need someone to spearhead this project and make a proposal in August, so please start talking to external organizations, if you have connections and ideas.

Volunteering

Our team, Rachel Herbert, Mike Stunes, Jim Shuman, Beth Wilson, Bob Weiss and myself, have been running the auction (with the assistance of others) for 3 years now, and we would love to have some fresh faces bring in new ideas to help run it, and to learn the ropes for future auctions.  We meet via zoom on the 2nd Tuesdays of the month.

The roles that we currently fill and would like assistance with are:

  • Chair and communications – Amanda Strombom
  • Webmaster – Mike Stunes
  • Catalog coordinator – Rachel Herbert
  • Training, tech support and finances – Jim Shuman
  • Auction expert – Beth Wilson
  • Catering coordinators – Bob Weiss and Steve Denison
  • Master of Ceremonies – Craig Nelsen

We also need people to help with contacting members to gather their contributions.  This role is split out between several people.  Assuming we can have an in-person event this year, we will need a volunteer coordinator and lots of volunteers for the day of the auction.

Please let me know if you’re interested in helping run the auction this year, in any capacity.

We’re looking forward to holding another fabulous auction!

by Amanda Strombom, Auction Team Chair

East Shore’s Auction 2021 is Almost Here!

East Shore’s Auction 2021 is Almost Here!

November 6-13

We’re so excited to be bringing you East Shore’s 2021 Auction! The Auction team have been hard at work preparing everything, and we’ve been overwhelmed with the generosity and creativity of East Shore members in contributing items for you to bid on.

Check out the catalog now with no commitment, and start to plan which items you will bid on. Once registered, you can “star” the items you plan to bid on to keep track of them. We have almost 120 items for you to bid on in this year’s auction!

Register to participate now if you are ready to get started. It’s free to participate, although you will need to provide a credit card number upfront if you want to bid. Your credit card won’t be charged until Sunday, November 14, so If you prefer to pay by a different method, be sure to let us know.

Once registered, you’ll be able to track the items you plan to bid on. There’s even an Auctria app for Android phones/tablets and iPhones that you can download, so that you can bid more easily while you’re out and about, or during a Zoom session. Log on using the same email and password you registered with. It’s a good idea to have this ready for the Live event.

The auction will be available for you to start bidding on Saturday, November 6 at 9:00 am!

Live Auction: Saturday, November 13, 6:30-8:30 pm

Bidding on all items will continue through until the evening of Saturday, November 13, when we’ll be holding a unique Virtual Live Auction event. At this event, we will offer the opportunity to bid on a few specially selected “live” items, and close out the bidding on the rest. You’ll also be able to meet friends, new and old, in break-out rooms, chat with friends about your bids, and enjoy musical interludes.

We encourage you to get together in small groups in your own homes during the live auction, so you can bid together and have some fun. Be sure to keep the evening of November 13 from 6:30 pm onward clear for this event. It’s free and all are welcome, even if you’re not bidding, so come join in the fun! Here’s how to access the Zoom event: Log into room 851 5004 5080, Passcode: Auction

Orientation

The software, Auctria, we are using for this auction is very simple to use, and most of you won’t need any special guidance. For those who would like some extra hand holding, you can either email Jim Shuman, Beth Wilson, Rachel Herbert (iPhone expert) or Amanda Strombom and request a time to talk with them by phone or Zoom, or if you’re stuck right now, call Jim Schuman (206-850-6021) or Amanda Strombom (425-351-6171) and we’ll do our best to help!

We want everyone to be able to enjoy the live auction and feel comfortable bidding, so we’re offering special support events during the live auction. If you’d like to have some support, please contact Jim to join him in Spring Hall or Beth at Silver Glen that evening and bid together.

We hope to raise lots of money for the church and to have a lot of fun!

by Amanda Strombom, Auction Chair

How is East Shore’s Auction Going to Work this Year?

How is East Shore’s Auction Going to Work this Year?

I know many of you look forward to East Shore’s Auction every year, so I expect you’ve been wondering how the Auction will be run this year, given the current Covid situation.  The good news is that we will be using the same Auctria software as last year, so you can participate from anywhere using a smart phone, tablet or computer.  Just like last year, we will also host a zoom event on the Saturday evening, November 13th, to highlight some of the top items to bid on, along with music and fun.

The other good news is that we can now get together in small groups, so you don’t need to bid alone!  We are always looking for ways to build community, so this year, we propose that members host bidding parties in their own homes (masks and food decisions are up to the host) or in a community room or at church (masked, eat before you come).  This will also enable those who find technology a little challenging to be with others who can support them while bidding.  Hosts can have the zoom event on a large screen for everyone to watch while they are bidding.

To help us figure out how to best meet everyone’s needs, we ask that you complete this Auction Live Event Survey as soon as possible.  This will tell us who can host, who wants to be with others, who needs technical support and who can help them.  As soon as we have sufficient responses, we’ll start grouping people, with the aim of building community and ensuring that everyone’s needs are met.

In the meantime, we are busy gathering auction contributions, and the October 3rd deadline is fast approaching!  We have some wonderful items but we still need more!  Please think about what you can offer, and submit your contributions as soon as possible using this form – Auction Contribution FormIf you have trouble using the Contribution Form, please read the instructions here – How to Contribute Items.”

We’re excited to bring you together to bid in a new way this year.  We know you’re going to love it!  Please contact me, Amanda Strombom, if you have any questions.

by Amanda Strombom, 2021 Auction Chair

How is East Shore’s Auction Going to Work this Year?

East Shore Reunited: Auction 2021

East Shore holds an auction every year in November to build community and raise money for the church. This year we are aiming to REUNITE EAST SHORE with a live event, if Covid numbers allow! We will still be managing the auction online, including the catalog and the bidding, so that everyone can participate, but we are also planning a free live event in the church for the evening of Saturday November 13th, to help us all REUNITE! Be sure to keep that date free!  A parallel zoom event will be held online for those who are unable or uncomfortable to be there in person.

We’d love to bring the East Shore community together by having every member or friend involved in some way, so now is the time to start thinking about what YOU can contribute.  Traditionally many of us fill our social calendars with events we bid on at East Shore’s auction, and we’re hoping that you can offer an event or service to other members and friends of East Shore as part of this.

Themed dinners and other food-focused events are always popular as they help us to build community by sharing a meal together, but activities such as group bike rides and hikes, family friendly events such as picnics, visits to farms, zoos or other outdoor locations, and online events which enable everyone to participate, can all contribute to the church and the community.

In addition to events, services such as gardening, handyman assistance, and offering rides to the airport are always popular, and physical items such as artwork, food, crafts, gift baskets and gift cards or certificates are particularly welcome.  Here’s a list of Auction Contribution ideas 2021 to help you come up with what you can do.

The Auction Team will be contacting you to see what ideas you have, so start contacting your friends if you’d like to team up with someone, and start planning.  You can complete this Contribution Form when you’re ready, or contact any of the following members of the Auction Team to discuss your ideas.

Jim Shuman, Amanda Strombom, Caroline Haessly, Nancy Bissell

Please enter your donation to East Shore’s Auction here: Contribution Form

 

East Shore Auction 2022

Auction Fund-A-Need 2021: Ideas Needed

At our annual East Shore auction we always have one item called the “Fund-A-Need”.  For the past few years, this has been to raise funds for various projects around the East Shore campus, but this last year, we raised money for a Covid Food Relief project.  We raised over $20,000 for the Fund-A-Need project in the auction, and this money was used to fund food deliveries to Jubilee Reach, donations to Backpack Meals for Kids, and to support the Food Bank Farm in significant ways.  A small temporary team was formed to oversee this project, and many members and young people were able to help out.

So the big question is “What should the Auction Fund-A-Need raise money for this year?” and “Should it be for the church, or for a Social Justice cause?”

Here are some ideas, both for Social Justice causes and for church projects, that are floating out there, to get you thinking:

Social Justice options:

  1. We could establish a regular project to fund important projects in the local community. Like last year, this could benefit local organizations, strengthening relationships with them, and could provide worthwhile volunteer opportunities for members of all ages.  A dedicated project team would be needed to oversee this project.
  2. If we don’t have a dedicated project team, we could decide to give all the money, as a single lump sum, to a particular organization such as Congregations for the Homeless or Sophia Way.

Church options:

  1. During Covid, East Shore’s old children’s playground was dismantled as it had become unsafe. We urgently need to design and build a new play area, which could potentially be expanded to include a kids p-patch, a seating area for parents or supervisors, and fencing around the area, to prevent young children running off.  Having a good quality play area would be helpful not only for our own children but also for the children participating in summer camps (bringing us more rental income) and potentially for the children of the new homes to be built on the Holly House property.
  2. For East Shore Live and other theatrical events, better lighting is needed in the Sanctuary.
  3. There is a proposal to make the Education Buildings gender neutral, by removing urinals and installing more stalls in the current men’s bathroom.

If you feel excited about one or more of these projects, and would be willing to help, please let Nicole or myself know as soon as possible. Or perhaps you have other ideas? We need to put the recommended decision to the Board for approval in September.  At the Auction Team meeting on August 9th, we will be discussing the options, so we need to know what energy people have to drive these projects forward as soon as possible.  Please send me your thoughts and ideas on this!

Amanda Strombom, Auction Chair

Auction 2021

Auction 2021

We’re excited to start planning for East Shore’s auction this year, since this year we’ll actually be able to hold an in-person event.  It will be on Saturday November 13 – hooray! Put it in your calendars now!!  The East Shore Auction, usually held in November each year, is a big fund-raising opportunity for the church, and a wonderful way to build community, since the auction is all about offering social events and services to each other.

Last year, of course, the whole thing had to be held online. That gave us challenges but also some new opportunities:

  • Members of the church rose to the challenge of learning some new software, and for the most part, people were happy to use the online catalog and do all the bidding online.
  • Members living further away, having young children or not able to drive at night enjoyed the fact that they could participate along with everyone else.
  • Contributors were creative in the events they offered, with some offering online events while others delayed their events until this summer so that winners could meet in person.
  • Auction team members were thrilled with how easy it was to administer the auction online, with no need for error-prone data entry of winning bids and time consuming audits to try to catch our errors.
  • And we still managed to raise a decent amount of money for the church, plus a significant amount for the Fund-a-need which was for Covid relief.

Of course, most of us missed the opportunity to get together and socialize while bidding, so we will be holding a live event this year.  Here’s how we’re thinking it’s going to look:

  1. The auction items, catalog and bidding will still all be done online. This will enable those members not able to be there in person to participate as they did last year.  It will also keep the administration of the auction much simpler. A few printed catalogs will be available for those who feel they have to have a paper version.
  2. Bidding will be open from November 5 – 13 to allow time for everyone to participate, though we expect most bidding will take place in the final few hours!
  3. On Saturday November 13, we will hold a FREE evening event in the Sanctuary, open to everyone. There will be a food buffet, wine and soft drinks, available to all.  Childcare will be provided.
  4. Participants can bring their own smartphones or tablets to use for bidding at the event. Additional tablets and lots of volunteers will be available to help those who struggle with technology. Of course, there’s no need to bid.  You can also just come and enjoy this East Shore community event.
  5. Volunteers will prepare the food in the North Room kitchen and serve drinks. Youth and other volunteers will be needed to help with greeting guests, serving up the food, clearing the dishes, and providing technical support to those needing help with bidding.
  6. We can also offer a parallel zoom event for those who are not able to participate in person to be able to watch the proceedings.

Now is a great time to start planning what you will contribute to the auction.  We anticipate that there will no longer be any Covid restrictions, so that opens up a world of possibilities for events and services for members, gift certificates to restaurants, theaters and other events.  We will start gathering your contributions in August.

We have a core team of volunteers already in place, but there are always opportunities for more people to get involved with soliciting contributions, managing physical items offered, and event support.  We meet monthly on 2nd Mondays via zoom. Let me ([email protected]) know if you’d like to help.

We’re confident that we’ll be able to come together for a fantastic auction this year.

Amanda Strombom, Auction chair