Mentoring E-Mail # 10

Surprise, my shocked mentees!

It is I, your Artful Mentor, with my regular weekly message, a day early. You are thinking “My Artful Mentor is a sly one! I thought checking my emails today would be safe, but he was one step ahead of me! Darn!” You have to get up pretty early to be ahead of your Artful mentor! No, you really do! I was awake at 3:30 today for some reason, and never did doze off again. Maybe it was the excitement of the Philadelphia Eagles moving on in the NFL playoffs. Maybe it was the excitement and anticipation of having the alarm set for 4:50 to get up and go out for four miles. Or maybe it was the thrill of another work week starting – hmmm, that is the least likely of the three possibilities. We shall never know for sure. But I sure am tired today!

I am writing you early this week because it is important to finalize the Silent Auction, and I wanted to give you – and therefore Nicki – the maximum time. I have heard from three of you about the Silent Auction. Each of you participating needs to email Nicki directly the following information for each item:

* The name of the item
* The person / company / organization who donated it
* The retail value
* The minimum bid that you will accept (generally about 50% of the value, but you can go higher or lower of course)
* The bid increment (usually in whole dollar increments, this amount is also up to you. Quite often, you can make this as 10% of the value, but you might want to make it smaller for really expensive items.

As an example, I have a hotel package worth $400 – 440 face value, but I think 50% is too high. So I am going to set the opening bid to $130 with increments of $5 or $10. I think a $40 increment is too high.

I have a restaurant certificate worth $25. I will probably set the minimum bid to $10 with increments of $1.00 or $2.00.

So please, no later than Thursday, email Nicki the above information for each item. Even if you have not contacted me about participating, it is not too late. And if a stray item comes in after Thursday, that is fine – we just want the bulk of them into Nicki so she can prepare bid sheets, which with so many items is a very big job!

Second, invite some friends to come. You should have all the particulars, but if not, I have the information here on my blog:

http://racn4acure.blogspot.com/2008/12/come-to-our-silent-auction.html

You can send an e-vite, as mentioned last week, or just email people. Heck, you can give them an engraved invitation with personalized calligraphy if you want – it is up to you. Just let’s get people coming to this.

We have a great selection of things to bid on, over 65 to date. You may want to publicize this to the people that you are inviting, so that they know there will be many great things for the bidding on. Here is the list to date:

Eat out at - Melting Pot, Melito's, Cheesecake Factory, Cupertino's NY Bagels and Deli, Grapevine, Awful Arthur's, TGI Fridays, Sam Millers, Penny Lane Pub, Cha Cha's Cantina, Paradise Diner or Stir Crazy

For a night out - tickets to The Richmond Funny Bone

For a weekend away - Wintergreen package, golf greens fees for Golden Horseshoe Golf course in Williamsburg, greens fees for Meadows Farms Golf course, Two night stay at the Linden Row Inn or One weekend night stay at the Omni in Shockoe Slip

For the Sports Collectors - Autographed hockey puck, An Authentic Capitals Jersey, Signed Washington Redskins Helmet or Yankees - Derek Jeter framed picture

For the Sports Fans - $1000 suite at Colonial Downs Track, tickets to Colonial Downs

For the athelete - Road ID, gym membership, Foot Locker gift certificate, 3 Sports - winter weather basket, Bogey’s Sports Park certificates or 1 month free Jazzercise

For the Music Fans - Several CDs and t-shirts from various musical performers or Richmond Symphony tickets

Pamper your car- Oil Changes, Tire Rotations, State Inspection or a Car Wash

Pamper yourself - Hair cuts, massage, Jewelry items or a Mary Kay Satin Hands kit

Organize with a - Creative Memories set or a Gift certificate from a local Professional Organizer

For the Kitchen - Pampered Chef item, Tupperware Set or a Hand carved knife

To decorate the house - Framed photographs - of animals and sites in Europe

What everyone could use - Gift certificate for tax and bookkeeping services

Just a quick couple of notes on other items. Lexi is the winner of my fund-raising competition, raising over $2,500 since I threw down the gauntlet in late November. Her prize is a TNT beach towel – hopefully, you can take a dip studying soils by a lake or beach this summer, Lexi. Congratulations to all of you for raising a bunch of money during the last seven weeks!

Recommitment is fast approaching for Shamrock – next Friday. What can I, Nicki, or Jen do to help if you are lagging? Then in about five more weeks, there is recommitment for Nashville. That sounds like a lot of time, but with a $900 minimum, it is not. How can I help?

Congratulations to Lexi, Kathy, Leslie, and Kristi for all passing their recommitment minimums! Way to go! Lexi is already a Virginia Rock Star – who will the next one be?

I won’t be at training this Saturday but will see you at the Silent Auction and at next training.

This is a long note with a lot of information, so I am going to end it now. Thanks for making a difference by doing Team in Training!

GO TEAM!
Art