As the President of the Auckland Chapter, I spoke to Linda Guirey recently about the forthcoming Gala Dinner and National Awards.  With the date now locked in (the Gala Dinner will be held in Auckland on September the 19th), this could be your chance to lend a helping hand and this could lead to an Award coming back to you.

Here’s a transcript of our conversation — Let Linda explain…

“As you may be aware, the Annual Awards and Gala Dinner is coming up, which means the Silent Auction will also be on! None of these things happen though, without assistance from members, volunteering of a little of their time”

Why would you do that?

“For me the first reason is that NSANZ wouldn’t survive without volunteers for committees and events. Secondly though – if you don’t volunteer of your time, just a little, then you don’t meet the criteria set down for Awards and Membership.  When you apply for our Awards – Brightstar Emerging Speaker of the Year, Speaker of the Year or the new Educator of the Year – the evaluators will look for evidence of your contributions to NSANZ.  What a wonderful way for you to show how you have contributed!”

Linda – as you know, the cut off for Awards is on August 15th, which means there are only a couple of meetings between now and then – very little opportunity therefore to ‘help out’ in any other capacity.  What would you recommend to people thinking about volunteering to help out?

“The Silent Auction doesn’t require much input and with a few keen people on board, the tasks will be minimal – but you WILL be ticking the box for helping behind the scenes in the last 12 months. It doesn’t count, if you once did some work on the committee or behind the scenes years ago – it has to be recent. What’s more, many of these tasks can be completed anywhere – whether you are somewhere in NZ or overseas.

“So I thought I would clarify the tasks that form part of the Silent Auction and then anyone who is willing to offer just a little of their time – can contact either Bill James (President@NationalSpeakers.org.nz), Elias Kanaris (Auckland@NationalSpeakers.org.nz) or myself (Linda@LindaGuirey.com) and we will gladly have you on board.”

Apart from volunteering their time, what else can our members do that will help?

“Well, if  you have any contacts who may be able to donate a data projector, or a video camera, a voice recorder, free printing of promotional material, a venue for someone to run their own event? LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to hear from you!

To make things easier to understand, here are a list of TASKS that any volunteer will need to undertake to help us our:

1. Making contact, following up contact with people who have offered auction items – for creating a small blurb about the item and obtaining a normal value of the item
2. Creating a spreadsheet of all the auction items and donors, contact details, brief description of the item, value and columns for what the final bid was and who won it.
3. Creating a blurb sheet for each item (template provided)
4. Creating a bidding sheet for each item (template provided)
5. Ensuring any physical items, where possible, are available on the night for viewing.
6. Helping set up the auction on the night.
7. Being the auctioneer on the night – taking the mic, encouraging people to bid, letting people know what the items are, collecting sheets when times up and totalling bids.
8. Following up with successful bidders to ensure payment and liaising with the Secretary with regards payment.
9. Successful bidders who have won coaching, skype calls etc – introducing them to the supplier of that item (by email).
10. Sending a thank you email to all providers of auction items to advise them of our final tally, and to thank them for their support.
11. Completing the spreadsheet.

Thanks Linda.  Is there anything else that you would like to let our members know?

“Well Elias, the admin side of this is really not much work at all – possibly 15 or so auction items, 15 sheets filling in the templates and printing.

“We just want volunteers and we can allocate tasks accordingly – the more volunteers we have, the easier it will be. A BIG thank you to Kanuka Simpson who has already come on board for this.”

Thanks Linda!  

Thanks everyone – together we can ignite the world, together we can ensure NSANZ is a vibrant, awesome place to be!