Benefit auction ideas don’t always need to be about items and games! Here are three productivity tools to help stressed out Auction Chairs more easily plan the auction.
1. Free conference calls – No Cost Conference
Your Auction Committee needs to regularly touch base. Use this free service to chat it up.
No Cost Conference has successfully managed my teleclasses with hundreds of people on the line, so I know it will work for your 5, 10, or 15 person committee.
One of the nice capabilities is the control the moderator has. When everyone starts speaking at the same time (easy to do on a conference call) or when Jane’s dogs go nuts barking in the backgroun, you – as moderator- have the capability to mute everyone, using either your computer or your phone. As each committee chair needs to give her status report, simply unmute her line, let her speak, and allow questions one-by-one.
2. Free phone number – Google Voice
If you’re managing multiple vendors (caterer, venue, auctioneer, event manager), this service is great for ensuring you don’t play phone tag.
When someone dials your number, it rings ALL your phones (cell, work, home). If that makes you feel a little too accessible, program the number to ring to a particular phone. Perhaps a call from your procurement chair rings all three phones, but a call from the production company only rings your work and cell.
Or take it one step further. Have messages go straight to voicemail on your computer, where they will then be transcribed for you.
3. Free direct-to-voicemail connection – SlyDial
Assume you need to leave the chatty Decorations Chair an an important message, but you have no time to waste talking with her about her weekend plans with the family. You can avoid talking with her — but still share the information she needs — by using this voice mail service.
After you listen to a short advertisement, the system will directly connect you to your Chair’s mobile voicemail. She thinks she missed your call, but you know better.
With these three tools, staying in touch with your auction team has never been so convenient.
Phylliss says
January 13, 2011 at 1:41 PMI think the most important phone resource is a free conference call service. Instantconference.com is a great one too, but the most important point is to make a weekly or biweekly meeting accessible to all volunteers!
Sherry Truhlar says
January 13, 2011 at 2:04 PMAgreed! Thanks for weighing in, Phylliss.
As a side, I don’t know if you get my every-other-week e-zine, but in a recent issue, I talked about another free resource that makes it SUPER-easy to schedule face-to-face meetings. You can sign-up for the ezine, and read the article.