Silent Auctions $ Hack by Ruth Paget
I have attended and worked at silent auctions since I was a teenager in Detroit, Michigan. Silent auctions are well attended for the good deals you can get on donated merchandise and gift certificates for services.
Silent auctions are also famous for waiting to pay for your items for an hour or two with volunteer staff working.
I finally had the opportunity to organize all the gathered bid sheets one year at a library silent auction and dinner and became an evil dictator. I took the winning bid sheets and put the winners’ names in alphabetical order and stapled all the multiple winners’ names together with their items, so they would not have to make multiple trips to the cashier.
This sorting took 15 minutes to do with help from a colleague who assured people they would get their winning bids delivered to them.
I noted the tables where the winners were seated and gave these to volunteers to deliver with the message that they could pay any time.
The result: All items claimed and paid for at dinner end with no line.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
