Everyday Disasters

Month: May 2007

  • Time for Auction Item Reminder Letter

    You’re having a school auction but you’ve decided to take it easy now that you’ve booked the place and the band? Not quite yet.  Before everyone scatters to the four winds send out a gentle announcement – Let people know the date. Remind people you will be asking for item donations and that summer travels…

  • Physics and the School Play

    Taking Pictures at School I attended a school play a few days ago to take pictures for a friend. Conditions were perfect. I’d gotten there early enough to get a slightly off-center shot of the stage, far enough back to get everything in my wide screen shots and close enough to zoom. The stage was…

  • Telemarketers, Scammers or Political Operatives?

    Since March hordes of people have been getting calls recorded in Spanish on their cell phones. Those that played along were either told that they reached a wrong number or that they’d won a contest. One caller reportedly was able to keep an operator on the line for 20 minutes feeding her phony credit card numbers…

  • Toyota Dashboard Safety – Maintenance Icons

    Quick and Cheap Oil Change didn’t reset the maintenance required light on the dashboard – causing me to discover that in Toyota cars it overrides the door open icon. (Quick – what is more important – knowing that your child might fall out or that you’re overdue for an oil change? Who makes these decisions?)

  • Mad Cow Disease Safeguards

    I can not tell you how pleased I am that in 2003 the FDA was able to find the one cow in the US with Mad Cow disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)). (Actually they found all three, but who’s counting?) I am only a tad nervous that our friends to the north have recently found…

  • Happy Anniversary Carnival of Family Life

    I somehow forgot to hit the send on my submission this week (I meant to submit the silly story of how an auction took over not only my life but almost lost all my cousin’s possessions).  Even so, it’s such a nice carnival I wanted to wish The Canival of Family Life happy birthday.

  • Auctions & Your Family Life

    If you commit to running an auction you can say good bye to your family life outside of the auction preparation for a while.  My family always was involved – in nursery school my children would put the labels on the envelopes for the gift certificates, as they got older they helped wrap baskets and…

  • The Year Before The Auction – Location & Theme

    There are several elements that must be covered with any fund-raising event but several specific items must be kept in mind to ensure a good auction. Volunteer chairs, location and theme should be set as early as possible.

  • Running A Great Auction

    I love auctions for schools, churches and charities. (I’ve run over 20 of them for various schools and charities.) They are the most painless way of supporting your favorite cause. Volunteers get to have guilt-free coffee klatches with their friends (“I don’t have time to clean my house – I’m working on the auction.”) A…

  • Carnival of Family Life

    Sorry I checked out for so long – School auctions can be totally consuming – we raised over $140,000 but we left the bodies of volunteers strewn over beds all over town. (Actually it wasn’t that bad – we’ve all worked together before and were able to do a great job with a lot less time…