Next Pedal Compo = How should we do it?

monquixote

Lot's of you got involved in the competition we ran a little while ago to win Rik's excellent Metal Zen. We were pleased so many of you entered and we definitely raised more than if we'd just auctioned it off (which was our original plan)

One of our other brilliant and generous members @thorpy6 has kindly donated us a pedal to use for the purposes of raising forum funds.

So I thought I'd throw it open to the floor:

When Should we run it?

Do you think the previous set up (pay what you like to be entered in a raffle) was the right one or could another approach?

Whatever we do I think we can all agree that choosing the winner by puppy is the correct approach.

guitarfishbay

Christmas is coming up, seems a good time?

DesVegas

Sell the puppy??

TTony

DesVegas said:

Sell the puppy??

Oi !!!!!

 

She's actually doing rather well for a puppy ... house-trained by 8 weeks old, will reliably sit/down/give on command, generally comes when called, and is now learning some proper tricks (she's got a working life ahead of her - not a pet!).  Not bad for 12 weeks.

TTony

FWIW, I think a raffle is still better than an auction.

 

Maybe we should set a "ticket price" though, and let people buy more than one ticket for the raffle (which means they'd have the appropriate number of balls in the box) if they wanted to ???

meltedbuzzbox

50p a ticket raffle style?

TTony

meltedbuzzbox said:

50p a ticket raffle style?

Exactly.  

But only sold in bundles of 20.

meltedbuzzbox

to make it more appealing I would throw a pedal in for auction too. 

Perhaps a few others might be willing to make a similar offer?

Perhaps if there is enough loot we can have a 1st place, 2nd place and third place prize etc

holnrew

Pull a name out of a hat. As long as the name is holnrew.

DesVegas

I was only joking about the puppy ... i sure it's a wonderful bundle of joy to have around the house

winner should get all the pedals .. ABBA style

PolarityMan

If you would like to maximise fund raising return you could rob a bank with it.

TTony

DesVegas said:

I was only joking about the puppy ... i sure it's a wonderful bundle of joy to have around the house

I wasn't taking offence 

littlegreenman

I vote for a trial by combat - Winner takes all!

http://cdn-static.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeek/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/9/03//got_oberyn_death.jpg?itok=cOCRTWlX

PolarityMan

How about a "most imaginative noise produced with a distortion pedal" competition? 

ThorpyFX

FWIW i liked the raffle idea, maybe set a minimum ticket price to generate more cash.

ThePrettyDamned

I can donate a pedal, though it'll just be a standard second hand pedal - not a nice boutique hardwired monster

If there is a runners up prize, it's perfectly reasonable to charge a wee bit more for each ticket, if you did it that way.

Alternatively, if the pedals were very different (say, overdrive and a chorus or wah or something), you could run two separate raffles. Not sure if that would be a success, but some may only want one, some may enter both.

I like the raffle - and if it was a success last time, it'll be a success this time.

And Christmas. Christmas is the correct answer.

Edit: not sure if I'd want tickets or just a donation gets one entry thing. The selfish, poor prat in me wants the latter but it might work better for the forum to try the former.

TTony

What do you reckon then @monquixote

And I have something else (pickup shaped, pickup sized, pickup looking, called a set of pickups) to run as the next compo ....

Nomad

Don't know how it worked before (or even if it's been done before), but I was fine with the last one. To be more exact, I liked the bit where we get to see the puppy pick the winner.

No objection to a fixed price per ticket and the option to buy more than one. If anything, it might work better than the idea of it being a donation with the possibility of winning something.

To put it in perspective, a photography forum that I used in the past cost 10 quid per year for enhanced membership and the warm fuzzy feeling of having donated towards the running costs. That probably has many more donating members than here, but also higher hosting/bandwidth costs due to traffic and hosting thousands of images. Given that, there might be a limit to how much someone is willing to put in as a straight donation to a forum that undoubtedly has lower running costs. I felt my fiver in the last one was about right as a donation, but I'm not sure I'd want to put that in every month. (I wasn't especially bothered about winning the pedal last time, so I saw it more as a donation.)

Maybe it's a bit ambiguous having it as both a raffle and a donation. Might be worth trying it as a straight raffle with a set, low, ticket price with the option to buy more than one ticket. At 2 quid, say, I'd probably buy a ticket regardless, and maybe more than one if I fancied the pedal on offer that month. (I assume this could become a monthly thing...)

Not sure about having second prizes unless there's lots of donated pedals. If there were two pedals/things offered in a month, I'd suggest keeping one for the next month. If a pedal surplus starts building up, then consider offering 1st and 2nd prizes.

TTony

Thanks for the input @Nomad

It's not planned to be a monthly thing - it's only happened because some generous members have donated stuff to us to use in raising some funds.  We're entirely dependent on voluntary contributions, although we try to offer something tangible (like the t-shirts and calendars) or the chance of winning something tangible (these raffles) rather than just aiming for donations.

tbh, setting the price at £2 a ticket would make it a pita to keep track of who'd contributed what, and then make sure that everyone had the right number of tickets/balls in the draw, for a relatively low return.  £5 is more likely.

Puppy (12 weeks old now) will be primed and ready to go for winner-picking duties!

monquixote

TTony said:

What do you reckon then @monquixote

And I have something else (pickup shaped, pickup sized, pickup looking, called a set of pickups) to run as the next compo ....

Well my thoughts so far are:

* We should probably have one compo at a time and perhaps not as frequently as one every month. 

* I don't think there is a benefit in having more than one prize per compo unless we do it in a clever way

* I didn't initially go for a minimum price to enter as I think that encourages people to either not enter because it's too much or to just pay the minimum 

* I think we might make the best of all worlds by allowing say a fiver per entry and allowing multiple entries. 

* I've been thinking about premium memberships for some time, but I need to think what the benefits would be. One automatic entry into each competition would be a decent fringe benefit. 

* Puppies are cool.

Nomad

monquixote said:

* Puppies are cool.

I'm not a doggy person by any means, but a puppy-picked pedal prize piques my payment propensity.

(groan)