Post TV Auction Report by Kevin Manuel

Rota-Teller Bulletin Notes:

Date: November 26, 2014

Attendance: 13 members with no guests

Anthem: Gordon Brown

Grace: Jim Boyko

Announcements:

Frank Allison advised that Jack Holman is doing well and is in good spirits, realizing that it could have been much worse.

Gerd Wengler injected a little humour into the meeting, indicating, apparently quite seriously, that there is a difference between ravens and crows in that one has a different number of pinion feathers than the other. He said that this difference between ravens and crows is therefore simply a matter of a pinion.

David Seemungal conducted the Marbelous Draw, which was won, and lost, by Roland List.

Sgt-at-Arms, Al Meredith, levied some fines and asked for Happy Bucks.

Those who did not volunteer at the TV Auction were fined.

Those without Rotary pins were fined.

These fines still left a few Happy Bucks to be had:

Basil contributed a Less-than-Happy Buck, because he had a wardrobe malfunction at the auction and had to go on the anchor desk after his pants split unexpectedly.

Arthur was happy from his China and India trip.

Program:

Acting Chairman Gerd introduced Kevin Manuel to report on the TV Auction.

Firstly, Kevin requested post-mortem comments from everyone. A lot went wrong this year, even though it was not apparent. So, feedback is encouraged to ensure that we are better organized for next year’s auction.

This year’s auction had 983 items, the best number so far, with a retail value of about $175,000. Our club’s contribution was 171 items worth about $35,000. Using an estimate of 65% of gross, he estimated our net proceeds to be about $22,700. The overall net auction results were about 62% of gross receipts, but our club’s items did better. In fact, our club had the best return on items out of all of the participating clubs. We recovered $3,400 on the furnace. We did have 12-15 items that have to be returned. Some were not picked up, but others just did not receive sufficient bids.         

By comparison, from the 2013 auction, we received net proceeds of about $16,000, so we’re up over $6,000 from last year.

These proceeds are also not including sponsorships which is an additional revenue for the club. Gerd interjected that sponsorships should be about $15,000.

So, this is the best TV Auction to date, since gross revenue finally exceeded the $100,000 net receipts barrier. Our club brought in 23% of the auction value, so our club was well represented in this combined auction project.

There is, however, a problem this year with the expenses, which are up from last year, bringing the net receipts down, perhaps to about $88,000. This may also bring our net down to about $19,000, which is still up $3,000 from last year. The reasons for the increase in expenses from $8,000 last year to $15,000 this year are multi-fold. Firstly, the auction committee has set aside $2,000 as a float for next year’s auction, so that there will be funds to cover the next auction’s set up costs. Secondly, there were items missing from, and furnishings not returned to their proper location at, the East York Civic Center. Two $1,200-$1,500 carts are missing, and we will receive a bill from the civic center for replacement of these carts plus clean-up and furnishing re-location costs. These problems resulted from a lack of volunteers to ensure that items did not go missing, that all clean-up was performed, and that everything was returned to its proper location. We had Goodwill volunteers, but we needed more Rotarians to properly supervise them. With respect to scheduled volunteers, twenty of them failed to show up for their slots. These are matters that will be further addressed in the post-mortem meeting.

Kevin also urged our club to participate to a greater extent in the TV Auction Committee. Next year’s committee work will start in March 2015. The frequency of committee meetings will increase to once every two weeks in October-November, 2015. Kevin is looking into the possibility of having these meeting by way of conference call.

For next year, we are probably losing our warehouse and chef. So, these are items that will have to also be addressed for next year.

Kevin thanked all those members who donated items and/or volunteered at the auction.

After his first year as auction chairman, Kevin confirmed that this Metro Toronto TV Auction is 3 to 4 times more complicated than our club’s previous TV Auction. Being in the top job, he can finally see all that is involved. Rogers has confirmed that the Metro Toronto TV Auction is the #1 rated program on Channel 63 bar none! So, we have a piece of a good project, and we should ensure, through participation on the TV Auction Committee, that we continue to have input and increased involvement in all future auctions.

Kevin fielded questions and was thanked by all of the members in attendance for all of his hard work on the TV Auction.

As the official thanker, Peter Masson thanked Kevin Manuel for his report, but also for all of his work as Chairperson of the Metro Toronto TV Auction. Without Kevin, North Scarborough Rotary Club would not be a major player in the TV Auction.

The meeting was terminated