Charities - Part 2

 Lil' over a month ago, I wrote on this subject: Charities.   I didn't expect to be writing a part 2, but here it goes

This past weekend a group I'm with put on an event that overall was great, but in the end lacked the 'bang' it should have had.  A week prior I had concerns.  Those concerns were based simply on lack of advertising.  The only thing I'd seen was a FB event created and a few FB shares of it.  That was it.  Of course, the whole "covid" thing didn't help either.  I'd pushed the event out to another group (jeep club) to try and get momentum from another base, but had minimal luck.  On the same day, there was a Trump boat parade nearby that day that no doubt, took some of the mindset away. There was a small bike rally that coincided at one of our 'poker stop's' that no doubt, took some of the mindset away.  Overall , bad timing/luck on our part.

When the smoke cleared at the end of the day, we barely broke 4 digits of funds raised.  So, going back to my initial post on this subject, was it worth all the time of all the folks that worked the event? My answer is unequivocally  ...... 'no'.  I mean, as a group, many of us contributed to the 'prizes' that would be given away. Several gave a lot of their time to create gifts to be raffled off.   From where I'm sitting, it was a wash. I over analyzed it all over dinner that night, and crunched the numbers.    Would I ... will I .. do it again?  Well.... yes.. but...

Next time we need to have an thorough discussion on marketing the event. It's not just about sharing it off on FB.  There has to be posters put out there.  At restaurants. At bars.  At motorcycle dealerships. At repair shops.   It has to be done a few months prior, not just a few weeks prior.  This was a poker run and we could have, should have, gotten the locations involved .... much more involved, months prior.  The number brought in should have .. could have.. been 5-10x what was done this past weekend.

So, my takeaway.  I had a great time. Most in our group had a great time. Participants had a great time.  But there is a lesson learned here and I'll leverage that if we do a 'second' annual poker run in 2021.  Because as I said in my last post.....   I could have easily pulled out the check book and accomplished the same feat in the stroke of a pen.

Early morning Prep