[Coco] Fest Ideas was Aaron's apology and Coco Contest Results

[Allen Huffman]

On Apr 30, 2013, at 4:05 PM, Mike Rowen <mike at bcmr3.net> wrote:

> I agree with Aaron. The auction has served multiple purposes - to recoup costs for the Fest, to benefit members, and to draw Fest attendees. It already troubles me that anyone would be purchasing items in the auction simply to dump them immediately for profit on eBay or elsewhere.

Sorry about that ;-) I actually bid on a huge box of joysticks at the 2009 or 2010 Fest, specifically with the goal of cleaning them up and testing them, and reselling them on e-Bay to raise money to be able to attend the next Fest. Sadly, I never got around to it and thus missed two fests.

But see, is it better for something like that to go for $5 to a club member who doesn't have a use for 15 joysticks, or to someone who wants to go and make them available to more people who want them?

But I definitely see your point. It would suck if folks who had NO interest in the CoCo were showing up just to buy and resell stuff. But, that only hurts "us" if it means we can't get anything cool at the auction ourselves. I will say that while I like the auction, not having it wouldn't impact me going at all -- I go for other reasons.

But, thanks to the auction, I now own some items I always wanted (like a RASCAN, and EARS and such) that I never would have gotten otherwise.

Balance, balance.

> There is no way to prevent this of course. If the goal were simply profit, the club could simply list all items in an online auction and bypass the fest entirely.

Yes, and raise tons of funds towards club activities. BUT, it's a ton of work, and really comes down to who has the time to do it. There's not enough money in most items to really be worth it -- and it's easier to get a few bucks for something with zero effort than spend a bunch of time and get maybe $10 more.

> I don't have a problem with someone acting as proxy for other members, but I don't think the club need be directly involved or burdened with responsibility for that.

I don't expect the club to take on any additional responsibilities. I expect club members to step up and do things like this. We have some club folks doing live coverage (just like all the live blogging at an Apple event or whatever), and folks handling the chat room and Q&A stuff, etc.

> there may be opportunity for more interaction via the web for other purposes, such as having a live presentation to the Fest by a remote member. Or, we may be able to more formally have the live feed manned by volunteers during the FEST since Aaron can only currently be in a max of 3 places at once.

Whoa.... That's an interesting idea. Like, getting Marty Goodman or someone else that we might never be able to justify getting there in person, to give a presentation via Skype on a projection screen in the cafe room! That's neat.

		-- Allen