2010 Athletic Auction- How'd We Do???

I never thought I'd see the day that all of our hard work payed off and we actually saw the auction come together, but we did, and it was awesome. This past Saturday was the night that all the long hours and frustrations and commitment came together and we put on a night for our guests to remember. So how'd we do overall?

Strengths

-We had a committed team who has worked together on various projects in the past.

-We had different people with different skills that could bring their individual talents to the table.

-We had a sufficient amount of time to think the whole thing through and come up with some great ideas.

-We had the support of the athletic department and the school.

-We had many contacts that were able to help donate and help (easels, the mural, the singers, etc.)

-We had a large space to work with and room to have large, statement-making props such as the mural and the stage.

Weaknesses

-We only had a budget of $1,000 to work with.

-We had a limited amount of time for actual WORK DAYS, even though we had a lot of time to brainstorm ideas.

-It was our first big event and the whole thing was a learning process for all of us.

-Schedules were sometimes hard to mesh. The fact that this fell during Masters week (which I worked an excessive amount of hours for) and Greek Week meant that we all had to work our schedules and come up with times for all of us to meet outside of class. The crazy schedule also meant all of us were tired and stretched thinly, which can make it hard to be productive.

-Although we had a large space to work with, the space was, after all, an athletic gym, which took some thinking to transform it into a more elegant space.

Opportunities

-This gave us a great jumping off point for future events. I think we all really proved ourselves.

-This auction is a huge, high dollar event that will look great on our resumes, and hopefully open doors for us in the future.

-There were many people at the auction who sought the Dream Team out and complimented us on our work. Who knows what kind of contacts and networking can occur through the guests that were there?

Threats

-As I stated before, Greek Week and Masters week were during this same time. Conflicting schedules not only for us but for prospective guests to the event could be a huge threat.

-People could be unaware of what a great night the auction really is, and choose to do something they consider more fun instead.

-People may not want to spend the money to come to this event because of the tough economic times.

-People from other schools may feel competition with GC&SU and not feel compelled to donate money to our athletics programs.

These are just some of my thoughts on the whole experience, but I feel that overall, the event was a huge success. We worked so hard to pull this off and I appreciate every single person on our team! I can't think of a better group of people to work with. Great job guys!