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[email protected]

How many Auctions can the BP community support?
Every year we see more and more auctions, and the totals are going to slide even more than they are now.
So I think we need to brain storm, How can we get outside money for the Clubs?
Other than the odd seed, each list of auction seeds is a repeat of all the auctions, You can only sell so many of one seed.

An idea
How about each club auction pumpkins on ebay or at the weigh offs, Grow one or 2 fruit for auction purposes,
List them and sell them with the winner picking the fruit up at a designated spot.
I think it would be worth the effort, and with the clubs doing this, we not only make some money, but we get exposure. This may take a year or 2 to peak interst.

Any other ideas out there?

Eddy

1/11/2009 11:37:05 AM

Atlantic Canada

How about creating an official grower's calendar???
...12 different seasonal appropriate pics,(not just the traditional grower standing next to his/her giant squash or pumpkin)+ grower tips included + some limited small ads and folks could also have someone's birthday or anniversary date added for reasonable fee....world-wide scenes (pumpkin-related)... All kinds of other possibilities too...most growers would certainly pay $10 or $15 each....a lot of growers would buy multiple copies as gifts too!......Bill

1/11/2009 11:58:40 AM

South Finland [email protected]

So you want to rase money...Make a poker card deck with TOP pumpkins, that sure would sell a lot. Nice pics and Aces are 898/1068/998,5/1385 (sorry but no 1041´s this time,lol)

Just ask permit to use growers pics and you will get nice set up.

Just my 0.02 € cents.

1/11/2009 12:31:04 PM

South Finland [email protected]

Just got US patent for my idea but will sell it first come first serve basis. Im only takin 95% of turnover,fair enaugh,lol

1/11/2009 12:33:03 PM

Western NY

I think what Eddy is getting at is that the pumpkin growing community as a whole will only spend a certain amount of money each year. This amount increases each year as more new growers are added to the pool, usually faster than the dropout rate but perhaps not as fast as the available auctions or other fundraisers have caught on in the last few years.

What we need to look at is bringing money into the system from non-pumpkin grower sources. Getting sponsors for events is one way. I'm sure there are much more creative ways to pull in money than asking companies outright.

1/11/2009 12:41:01 PM

[email protected]

As Andy has said, we need outside money's, A calender is a good idea, but how many outside people will buy it.
We can only go to the well so many times, and creative idea that bring in outside money is what we need.

Example Smoky Lake weigh off.
Not one penny of the prize money is from the growers. We don't hold auctions or sell seeds.( for now) This may change, to entise growers from farther away, we may need to boost our prize money's
Each and every prize is donated by a non pumpkin affiliated company.
Example Our first place prize of $1,400.00 is sponsored by the Local Esso bulk station.
This is what I was meaning, more than inhouse.
Eddy

1/11/2009 1:01:59 PM

Perhaps if the GPC was not competing with the clubs that support them for the $$ available from the auctions and seed promo's, even on a poor year for the economy this would not be an issue worth discussing. As the hobby grows so do the number of buyers at the auctions. In the 3 years I've been involved I see some dramatic changes to the "value" of seeds,higher value placed on unproven seeds seems to be the trend, but overall the cash still flows.

Most clubs do use alternate fundraising methods if they feel the need for more money in the coffers, but from what I see the seed auctions here on BP and silent auctions online are still a key for gaining revenues. We'll see how things fair at the end of the auction season. Has the average lot really slipped that much? I see more multiple lots and more lots offered to make up for lower prices. In all I would guess at this point the overall revenue isn't down as much as I thought it would be.

1/11/2009 1:08:50 PM

[email protected]

First of all, I'm not implicating this year's auctions are a bust, Their not, What I'm saying is their may be a better way to raise money's.
As far as the GPC's involvement in auctions, In order to produce the level of representation the clubs are demanding, ie: Speakers at Niagara, Prize awards, etc, We as a group also need to raise funds, And unfortunately we're in the same boat with the easiest and quickest means of raising money, is to hold an auction.
We as the GPC are actively searching for ideas and avenues to offset costs, and not compete with clubs.
The postage alone, that the GPC pays to have the ribbons and plaques sent out are more than anyone auction can bring in.
This is again the reason for this post, To collectively search out ideas to reduce internal competition

1/11/2009 1:23:55 PM

Annapolis Valley Nova Scotia

Haven't we been here before?

1/11/2009 1:24:31 PM

Frankfort Ohio

In our area sponsors are just about down to nothing the only way to raise money is seed sales or auctions and that is hard in its own way most clubs do not have the great selling seeds then some clubs so it is up to the clubs and commites on raising money and in our area it is very below average income so it is very hard getting money. And the clubs are suppose to be non proffit that means you are suppose to use all money up year to year for tax reasons NON PROFIT organization you need to watch what you are doing closely or unckle sam will get you I know for sure.

1/11/2009 1:32:06 PM

[email protected]

Phil
Yes and until we can get some real forward momentum, we need to keep asking.
I'd rather get something in place now and refine it, than wait until we find clubs closing because they can't raise money. clubs closing, means weighs offs not being held.
In turn forces growers to travel farther to compete in other weigh offs.

1/11/2009 2:04:53 PM

Perhaps if the GPC provided annual "disclosure" to the members of the community that supports it as an organization none of us as members or club representatives would have questions reguarding the use or solicitation of funds.

The GPC website would be a perfect place for posting the "annual report" to those of us that are interested in such things.

It's only the last 2 years that these extra fundraisers that I referred to in the earlier post started. Let me state that I as president of a club do not think the mission statement of the GPC makes reference to prize money, only recognition for grower achievements.

I don't know the figures of revenues gererated from site fees, but I think that if that is getting eaten up with the mailing and purchase of the ribbons and plaques someone needs to "shop around" for a better deal.

As far as speakers and thier fees, this is something that really should only be justified if the presentations were to be available to the growing public (that can't attend) on cd or dvd and offered at as low a cost as possible with a small profit built in for some fundraising.

I'm not offering criticism here, just my thoughts on a few of the topics in your posts eddy and at least a couple ideas that might save and generate a few $$ for the GPC board.

1/11/2009 2:27:30 PM

[email protected]

We need all thoughts, and I in no way are taking them as critisism,
Trust me, we have shopped around, and have the beat deal we can get, as far as we're concerned. As far as postage, Not many options out there
I'm not looking to raise money's for the GPC or any one club, I'm concerned about the bigger picture,
Andy will be reading this and should be able to answer the GPC monetary questions better than I.

We are a totally internal funded Society, we need to break out of this shell.

1/11/2009 2:44:02 PM

[email protected]

I tried to get our club members to befriend our "dirty dozen" who are the area coal/electric generators. My logic thought they'd get the warm green fuzzies at the prospect of supporting our hobby. None of us was ever successful at getting a body on the phone.

I've hit Bayer, Dow, Syngenta & Monsanto but their chemical division heads are afraid of us. Sure we all use their products but 90% of us buy the Turf & Ornamental versions (illegal). That rare 10% who use the legal agriculture labeled chems probably have a commercial license (rarer still) or just "know somebody" who lifts the farm version by some other means.

Most of what we use is now off patent so the real cash is gone now anyway.

I got an email from a grower just last week. The guy wanted a bottle of Warrior. I emailed him the price of a gallon (smallest size packed today) & asked for his license holder. replied saying he thought I had priced a whole case. I never even replied.

No matter how sweet the deal I offer on wholesale ag-chemicals, people always freak when they see the price & sizes of real-deal chemicals. Little tiny watered down bottles from Home Depot cost 10 times as much to use but the real stuff treats so many acres our backyard wonders back right off.

Bottom line: The people who control the purse strings couldn't care less about a guy or a club that needs a couple hundred$ worth of insecticide or fungicide.

Last year our club scored with a retailer but after 5 years of running our own weigh-off, it wasn't easy having some college girl telling us how to run things.

We need sponsors who have cash AND realistic expectations.
GM & Chrysler are probably not interested. The local Ford truck dealer just sold the Ford division of his franchise.

I don't mean to sound negative. We (GPC) have sponsors lined up for Niagara but we still haven't found what I'd call a long term strategic partner. Not yet.

1/11/2009 5:34:00 PM

Annapolis Valley Nova Scotia

Again I will ask the same question that I asked on a previous thread that discussed the same subject. "What do you need the money for?"

1/11/2009 5:54:43 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

When our local Newspaper jumped on board as a sponsor and gave us $5000 worth of advertising to use, I used that to lure other sponsors.

Even your community government has small grants for these types of events....you just need to ask.

We then gave each sponsor exclusivity in their field of business, for example we had 1 real estate company that provided all the tents and prize money, 1 restaurant, 1 hotel, 1 supermarket chain, 1 kelp supplier, 1 garden centre, 1 contracting firm and so on....each gives cash or prizes. Each company the supplies advertising materials including banners and if lucky, get shown on the TV coverage and additional print materials during the weigh-off.

Just some ideas.

1/11/2009 6:04:11 PM

[email protected]

Phil: Trophies/ribbons, Cash Prizes, Equipment rental, incurance, Police/traffic control, advertising, etc.

Suffice to say if good honest people with this kind of talent go through this much trouble, then chances are the need is real.

1/11/2009 7:00:55 PM

Ohio

Just a question here, but how many clubs disclose their annual profit, pay out and other expenses to their members? Is there any clubs out there that disclose 'detail' information for this?
Or is it usually just one , maybe two growers from each club that know this information?

It would be nice to see for us members, to give us a rough idea what is spent and also what is needed. I might be wrong but I think most members(of most clubs) are in the dark as far as what funds thier clubs have for spending and also paying out,,, so for alot of us(just club memebers) its hard for us to answer your question Eddy,,lol

1/11/2009 7:20:53 PM

Roselle, IL [email protected]

I don't know the grower who said it, It was a long time ago, but the quote goes "99.9% of people don't give a dam about giant pumpkins". Remember this the next time you try to collect sponsorship dollars. How much money is needed?
We will have our seed auction and collect our meager sponsor dollars and have an great weigh-off come October.Hopefully every grower goes home with something.
What more are growers looking for? I'm more then happy to break even at the end of the season with what ever money or prizes I might win.

1/11/2009 7:32:37 PM

[email protected]

Brooks, all I'm asking for is a simple idea than can generate off pumpkin money, that's all.
George, I agree with that statement, but can we support our needs within the pumpkin community, in years to come, and even if we can, what would be wrong with adding extra prizes to your weighoff, If budgets allowed for it. Pay the top 15 growers instead of the top 10. That kind of idea.

Right now, the prize money gets recycled within our circles, It would sure be nice to generate new money's

1/11/2009 7:46:09 PM

Whidbey Island

Green Power, the calendar idea has been tried. PNWGPG put together a real nice one for 2008 with photos from across the continent, and we made perhaps a couple of hundred dollars after hours of coordinating, emailing, ordering, etc. I thought a lot of people would like to have one for work or home, but no luck. We may try again for 2010, but I doubt it.
WPM

1/11/2009 8:04:49 PM

Ohio

Oh ok, I see what your saying.

1/11/2009 8:14:31 PM

[email protected]

Full disclosure baby! The 501(c)(3) laws do require an annual (or more?) disclosure in the way of our treasurers report. John (our treasurer) doesn't play games.

If a NFP that someone belongs to doesn't offer an annual treasurer's repport, then ask for one.

http://nonprofitissues.com/

1/11/2009 10:04:45 PM

[email protected]

I'm finding it curious (& a little frightening) how little faith there is among the brotherhood when it comes to finances.

1/11/2009 10:19:35 PM

South East

auction off other stuff then seeds.
i would love to get my pesticide programm for a bargain, or my humic acid to spread on the patch. clubs can get bulk and use stuff on their auctions.
auction off a day in the patch with.....and get to spend a day with a hh, couple hours of talking pumpkins,,,every club has atleast one.
Bake offs baking the largest pumpkin pie,,let pillsbury sponsor and get press in.
National pumpkincontest. let clubs united all putt in 1000$ and choose a random seed. Get all press possible and link a charity to it for exposure. and on and on and on.
clubs non profit or not need to invest to keep growing going. because if no one talk about no one wants to do it.
exposure exposure exposure.
You cant expect money to flow in without investing.
garage sales, pumpkin trust fund, let people bet on it, heck if they bett on horses they might bet on pumpkins to.
with persistance and imagination everything is possible.

1/11/2009 10:41:56 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Any club I belong to, if it's fully organized, the treasurer ALWAYS brings the books to every meeting and will give the totals and have it there for any member to examine. That is the right of being a member, you can know where your money is going. And yeah, the law requires an annual disclosure that's in writing.

Finding money is getting harder as more of us grow, true, but as several of these threads point out, we do need to think outside the box as well as the tried and true methods...

1/11/2009 10:46:33 PM

Clinton, Iowa

generally I am a lurker here and rarely respond. If I do I generally do it thru a personal message . I have had my hand or bottom slapped a few times for those rare times where I wrote before I thought ..hence i took a different approach.
This topic has peaked some serious interest in a hobby/sport I truely love. Why do we do it? Simple question. WHY? How many of you growers out there would show up to your local weigh-off or weigh -off that you have loyally attended the past years whether there was a prize or cash or simply ANYTHING there for you to tote back home when the day was done.
I remember attending the Iowa state fair back in 2003 I think at the request of my father to show the fair just what a giant pumpkin was all about. the fair record stood at 446 pounds and had been that for some 8 years or so. there was no money waved infront of my face. It was simply to show off a fruit to new faces who maybe had no clue to what it could be. After all 1 million people attend the fair thru the 10 day event. Name one other weigh off that has access to that many people. Other state fairs I imagine are the only other ones. I think I got 15 bucks for first place that first year for the 500 # effort.. and the next year we set another record at 872# where we truely showed the people at the fair a big one looks like. Again..15 buck give or take was the prize.
I do believe Mike Frantz threw his hat into the event the following year and broke that record. which also had a small monetary cash prize or maybe 40 bucks.
Since then the Young's had secured a sponser (Casey's)for the following 2 years and prizes jumped dramatically.
I have no idea if that funding still holds true and it really makes no difference. marc and I will be planting 2 plants early for the fair. Prize structure is not an issue. support and state fair fame is the name of the game!!!

Dan CARLSON

1/11/2009 11:13:39 PM

Clinton, Iowa

I guess my point is this. If you lose funding and you lose your weigh off because growers go where the money is. MAybe they were in it for something it was never intended to be used for. yes marc and I have won more money than we ever thought we would or could. But we all know anyone could make a heck of alot more at doing something else with all the time one uses and spends on such a hobby.
So ....do you grow these things for profit or for the love of it.We all know why we grew when we all started out. I think as a group we need to step back and refocus on just what the cause is all about.setting records, having fun, meeting people, putting smiles on faces come that first weekend in October!
DAN CARLSON

1/11/2009 11:13:54 PM

Gold Hill, Oregon

i like the cooks suggestion of auctioning fertilizers, humic acids, mycorrrhizae, etc. as a green horn this kind of appeals to me because i'm still trying to find a lot of this stuff locally. i went to the local grage co-op and bought 2 lbs of mycorrhizae. my thoughts were that myc. was myc. after talking with some you, i found out that wasn't the case, now i have to find some that are more tailored to pumpkins. how about auctioning off vermicomposters , worms , or brewers. maybe some venders would donate for the cause. buyer pays shipping costs.

1/12/2009 12:40:54 AM

[email protected]

Dan, I also grow for the same reasons, BUT, when you pay $300.00 for a seed, I would suspect the buyer has the intention of winning a weigh off and receiving money, It's a human thing.
Also agree with the statement, we could make more money doing something else, but it's still nice to get a bonus reward after a season.
All that being said, since I've been involved in pumpkins, I've seen the auction's start, the club seed packs, seed sales, etc start, with the intent to raise money, and if and when this dry's up we need another avenue.

Some good ideas cooks, and yes EXPOSURE is the key.

On a point of the auctions, we have seen the 700 or 800 dollar seeds in years past, Todays seed are bringing $300.00. As we keep increasing our weights, the seeds that produce these record breakers will get fewer and fewer, thus restricting the amount of top notch seeds available for the auctions, This is evident in today's auctions, The 3 top money drawers are the 1385, 985, and a few 1041's The 1041 was in every auction last year, but few this year, The 1385 and 985 are in every auction this year, so their numbers will be down next year, and if we have an other mediocre year, there will be no top seeds to sell. only repeats.

1/12/2009 11:05:04 AM

Owensboro, Ky.

1st, congrats to the IceMAN, for having the courage and forethought to bring up this topic, AND have the tenacity to stick with it, and try and keep all on the same train of thought..."outside $'s".
2nd, Thanks to Mr. Dan Carlson, for bringing us all back to our roots!!! Pride of accomplishment!!!
3rd, NSB...how in God's Green (or Orange) Acres, did you con the local paper into giving away $5K worth of ad's??? LOL
Peace, Wayne

1/12/2009 4:21:02 PM

[email protected]

Tina/Frank might be onto something here if folks don't mind spending little bit more than rock bottom wholesale. I would gladly sell (to a club) for my cost minus the inbound freight if the club handled the outbound shipping. We would donate the inbound freight. The club would need to auction the goods at higher than cost & then pocket the profit.

My industry suffers from "BIG/HEAVY/CHEAP" syndrome. Bagged fertilizer is hard to ship UPS. Indeed kelp (for instance) costs more to ship than it does to buy.

Better still would be a high value small item that was donated. (like seeds)

The beauty of seeds is they are our own products. Growers donate the seeds to the clubs which then have no expense other than postage.

Irrigation compenents might work & some distributors might donate.

Ideally would be items of broad universal appeal that could draw non-grower cash into the fold.

1/12/2009 6:22:16 PM