Mentoring E-Mail # 9

Hey Gang!

So, Happy New Year from your Artful Mentor! I hope it was a great start to a great year. One of my resolutions – lose those extra few pounds I so easily gained over the last month or so. Another resolution – help each of you hit your fund-raising goals! So let’s get started again, with resolve to reach those fundraising goals in 2009. We can do it, yes we can. We will do it.

Now, I know a couple of you getting this may be in a transitional status – one switching to the summer season to do a race in the Great Land, the Land of the Midnight Sun, another of you dealing with an injury and may need to switch events. Some people will do anything, even employ desperate measures, to stop getting weekly notes from their Artful Mentor. But I tell you, it will not work. It simply does not work. Nice try, though! Seriously, I will keep you on my list until Jen tells me “Hey, Art, let’s cut her a break, she has been through enough.”

Now on to this week’s topics:

Topic # 1 – Silent Auction items. I have heard from two of you about what incredible and wondrous prizes you have come up with. What about the rest of you? I want to let Nicki know so that she can let Big Al’s know so that they can plan space.

Topic # 2 – Silent Auction percentage. Big Al’s is going to donate 10% of the proceeds on food from 6PM to close to TNT. Better news – if you participate with even on single item, even if it doesn’t sell, you will get an equal share of that 10% directly towards your fund-raising. Now is that a no brainer or what? So come on, bring an item and get a share of that 10%. You will never have easier funds to raise, thanks to Nicki and Big Al’s.

Topic # 3 – Silent Auction advertising – I challenge each of you to let 10 local friends know about the silent auction. Did I say 10? 10 is for rookies! You can ask 20, can’t you? The more the merrier! Why? (a) more people buying food, thus that 10% goes up (b) more people bidding against our fantastic auction items thus maybe you get more for your items, and maybe all items sell – and – (c) it is more fun having a bigger crowd. It just is at something like this. So send out and email, include an ad in your next fund-raising note, or send an e-vite: http://www.evite.com/

Topic # 4 – I’ll be sending out my next email reminder / update to my contacts early next week. It is probably time for you to do the same, eh? If you want a good and easy one, use that “Gimme Five” format. Jen sent it out before, but if you need it just let me know. It is also out on my blog from last year, as is every note that I sent in my 2008 and 2009 campaigns.

Topic # 5 – Recommitment! For you superb and speedy Shamrockers, it is January 23rd and you must have raised at least $475 by that date. For you creative and capable Country Music folk, the recommitment date is February 23rd and the amount you need to raise by then is $900. So you know what needs to be done and by when, the task now is to make it so.

Who needs help? I, Jen, and Nicki will gladly meet with any of you who needs the help. Please, speak up if you are concerned, what to brainstorm, or want to share something.

What else? Well, don’t forget to have fun. You are doing a wonderful thing, for yourself and for others, and the cause is so worthy. But it is still OK, and preferred, to have a great time while doing Team in Training, and build some fantastic memories. Even your Artful Mentor has been known to crack a smile during all this when he thinks that no one is looking. It has never been captured on camera, though, not even the time a wily photographer put out brownies and hid in the brush for 3 hours with their camera waiting for me to smile. ;-)

As always, let one of the coaches (I am copying them this week on my note) know if you won’t be at training.

For a little mission moment this week, I will share something I wrote that I call “Relentless”. It expresses pretty well why I do TNT, and maybe it does for you as well:

http://racn4acure.blogspot.com/2008/11/relentless.html

Have a great rest of the week. I shall see you Saturday morning at the park, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
GO TEAM!
Art