Sushi/Silent Auction

Monday: It's 11:30 PM and Todd and I are raising a well deserved glass of beer in the Southwestern Yacht Club(SWYC) bar to celebrate an event that went off without a hitch. We took a moment to talk about what sparked this moment along with all the meetings, phone calls and preparation, and what happened tonight between 6 to 9 PM.

About 5 weeks ago at the end of a Sunday ride Todd Northup and I were talking about how our individual fund raising was going. We both had made some progress but realized that we needed something big in order to pick up the pace. Todd was planning an event but hadn't settled 100 percent on the date or other details. I had a friend, DDS Lan Tran, who had suggested a Sushi event at the SWYC. She has done these before and seen huge success.

We shared what was in our plans and I asked him if he would like to join in with me. Todd said he would think about it. A day later he called and said..."I'm in". He decided to 100 percent focus on our event and drop his other.

We first laid out some ground rules for this two man committee. Communication, we agreed, was key. If there was an idea, issue or thought, we would get it out on the table. Todd is a very level headed person which is kind of how I view myself. Leaving our feelings at the door we quickly found we could work the plan quickly starting with a 5 page outline of notes as our template.

Todd had already secured a handful of items, hotel stays, restaurant vouchers, etc. I had a few things with more on the way. We soon realized that we needed to centralize things. We housed all the items at my house and I was responsible for making up the 100 plus guest gift bags along with all the Silent Auction Gift Baskets. (all bags were donated by the way) Todd took on the display sheets. All in all we had over 30 grouped items so a lot of computer work and hand labor in putting that portion together.

Todd took on the layout of the web page/blog site. Not having a web domain saved us money. Todd designed the fliers and tickets and found a printer who produce them as a donation. I met with the Yacht Club General Manager along with Lan to secure a date and talk about some of the details. We had a follow up meeting withe the event coordinator and my job was to cut that down from $700. End result was $300 for the club.

We started to get the word out which at first seem slow. When it's 4 weeks to an event, people in general aren't looking that far forward. We had decided on a VIP ticket for $50 and Standard at $30. VIP would include unlimited beverages that we, not the club, would serve. Unfortunately that idea had to change when we learned that the club couldn't allow us to serve. Fortunately our sponsor, John Pabst, said he would cover the tab, up to a certain dollar amount, instead of purchasing cases of wine and beer. Another disaster alleviated for the tickets already sold.

Todd and I think alike and know that people need direction on projects. We had found 15 volunteers to help but what would they do? A week prior to the event we met at the club and had a training session on how to make sushi rolls (roll your own). We also had pictures of the room layout and answered questions. We had a dress code, wrote down expected arrive times to help, and everyone was assigned positions. Lan was instrumental on the demonstration process and food prep at this point which ensure we stepped around some land minds she had seen in previous events. An example was 4 stations instead of 1 for sushi instruction. This eliminated long lines waiting to learn the art of sushi which in the past had created a backup and very hungry people.

Todd and I were calling each other every few hours in the last weeks of preparation. This may sound like a lot but it kept our lines of communication wide open leaving no room for confusion. We could share thoughts and quickly make decisions. Little things that can be minor details, like the color of table top, become easy. Why argue over a color when there are bigger things to focus on?

Handling the money was an important detail but Todd and I knew exactly who should, our wives. Both Crystal, my wife and Britt, Todd's, stepped in with no problem. They manned the table for registration, took money, sold raffle tickets, took money, when silent auction tables closed, took money and handed out gift bags as people checked out.

Our MC, Gary who is the voice at the San Diego Velodrome, did a fantastic job of keep things moving. He interviewed some of the Challenged Athletes, talked about Silent Auction items and was very entertaining. Three hours flew by pretty fast with his help.

The food was great and in the end we had more fish than we needed. We had hoped and thought 100 plus people would attend. Better to have too much than too little. The volunteers and staff all received some very nice fish to take home.

Would I do it again, not tomorrow, but as a fund raiser in the future, you bet. We learned a lot, made some mistakes but the end result was over $6000 that will go to CAF. Bottom line is the fund raising and if you can have some fun at the same time it makes the whole process that much more enjoyable.

There are so many people to thank; those who made donations of their time, services and products, volunteers, the staff at the Yacht Club, Lan Tran for her idea to help with this event, CAF, and all the friends and family. We could not have done this alone and want to extend that message of appreciate. Thank You for your help and support.