“Auction With A Twist III” Is Coming! Will You Put Something on the Table?
by Scott A. Meyers, ICHP Pharmacy Action Fund Treasurer
May 23, 2012
“Auction With A Twist III” Is Coming! Will You Put Something on the Table?
In 2010 the ICHP Pharmacy Action Fund (ICHP’s political action committee) conducted the inaugural “Auction With A Twist” fund-raiser which raised over $3700 and provided some great prizes to many of the participants. In 2011 the 2nd Annual “Auction With A Twist” raised $4610 with a wider selection of prizes and even more participants. Participants are our attendees from ICHP’s Annual Meeting and our members from the online “Pre-Auction” which runs for two weeks prior to the ICHP Annual Meeting. This event is so big we don’t want anyone to miss out on the fun!In case you’re not familiar with the “Auction With A Twist”, it is technically a Chinese auction or a combination of auction and raffle featuring great prizes donated by ICHP members, pharmacy departments, colleges of pharmacy and other friends of ICHP. The difference between a standard raffle and a Chinese auction is that with a standard raffle with multiple prizes, there is one “hat” from which names are drawn, but in a Chinese auction each prize has its own “hat” (or mason jar in the case of the “Auction With A Twist”). This allows ticket buyers to focus their bids on the prizes they want, as opposed to having a first, second, third prize, etc. and a “take what you win” outcome.
The 2011 “Auction With A Twist” featured 49 prizes that included an iPad, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, Kindle, Nook, Wii Console and Mario Kart, Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board, Xbox Kinect, full set of golf clubs and bag (ladies were selected by winner), tickets to a Chicago Bulls game, lawn chairs, college logo gear, ICHP logo gear, handmade jewelry, golf club, a round of golf, a variety of gift baskets and gift cards, and even a $225 bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label Scotch! The online “Pre-Auction” provided winners of several prizes including the iPad and Kindle. So you don’t have to attend the Annual Meeting to win! We would love to have you attend the Saturday Awards Luncheon of the Annual Meeting to hear your name called in person, but the past two year’s online winners can verify that it’s just as fun to win online, too!
Again this year, ICHP is asking members to consider teaming up to donate even bigger prizes by pooling contributions with their pharmacy department colleagues. A donation of $25 from you and 15 co-workers could purchase another iPad (and the iPad 3 is now available!). Fifty dollar donations from you and 9 of your colleagues could purchase a nicely sized flat screen TV if you’re a savvy shopper! Providing a contribution from your pharmacy department will earn recognition and appreciation from your pharmacy colleagues and at the same time create some good-natured competition with other pharmacy departments around the state. Contributing as a group still provides each individual contributor with recognition as an ICHP Pharmacy Action Fund donor. Individual contributors are certainly welcomed, too! Whether the prize is a gift you’d like to win yourself or one that is the fruit of a special talent, hobby or skill, donate them to be auctioned off to help the ICHP Pharmacy Action Fund and the pharmacy profession. Spa visits, theater tickets, CDs, DVDs, designer purses, sports memorabilia, and much more are reasonable individual gifts that will draw a lot of attention and tickets from prospective prize winners. Your imagination is the only limit on which prizes will raise the most excitement at this year’s “Auction With A Twist”!
With the ICHP Annual Meeting held on September 13-15, the prizes should be received by ICHP no later than August 17th so that we can photograph each prize and place it and a description on the ICHP website for “Pre-Auction” bidding that takes begins two weeks prior to the Annual Meeting. If you plan to provide a special prize and have logistical concerns, please contact the ICHP office for guidance. If you have a unique prize but aren’t sure it will draw the bids worthy of its value, give us a call too. We’ll be happy to tell you what was hot and what was not in 2010 and 2011!
Tickets for the “Auction With A Twist” may be purchased online beginning on August 27th and ending on September 10th. Tickets may be purchased in person at the Annual Meeting all day Thursday and Friday, September 13th and 14th and until 11:00AM on Saturday September 15th. Tickets purchased online will be placed in the mason jars of your choice before the Annual Meeting, and the jars will be thoroughly shaken each day of the Annual Meeting and just before the drawing is made. Prize winners will be announced at the Saturday Awards Luncheon, but you need not be present to win.
Help us make the third annual “Auction With A Twist” an even greater success than the first two and hopefully win a prize or two of your own! The ICHP Pharmacy Action Fund “Auction With A Twist” is a fun and exciting way to get into advocacy for the pharmacy profession!