braewe:

I think we should log what we receive. We should also give the donor some sort of receipt. I realize we aren't an 'official' charity as such, yet, but we might become one(what do you have to do for that?), and also, the receipts usually have a carbon copy thing so we have a record of who donated, and what was donated.

Absolutely. I already keep track of donated money on the website, both privately with full details (names included) and publically without names. It would be easy enough to get some donation forms. Donations to us won't be tax deductible (you can thank the IRS for that), but we certainly need to keep track ourselves. I was thinking of a button or something that each donor would get, or a classic Exhibit Hall ribbon, but a receipt with the name of the game would help too.

braewe:

The only trouble with the hotel room is lugging them back and forth. But what is Tom planning on doing? Does he have a large van to carry 'em that we could lug them to, and store 'em there, or? How is he planning on moving them after the con?

All being looked into :)  Although, if someone wants to volunteer to do some 'legwork', like contacting the Con center about rental storage space, and asking them if they would *donate* the space to us, their help would be appreciated by a very busy Tom :)

braewe:

I've also noticed, from just watching the donation bins for charities, that people are MORE likely to contribute if they see someone else has. People are more likely to put change in the half-full bucket then they are the empty or full one, so we really do want to always have 'some' donations visible, but not be overflowing. Overflowing means we 'have plenty already'.

As good Lutherans would call it, 'priming the pump'. That's why, after church when coffee is being served, there's always a few dollars in the donation cup, mysteriously before anyone has gone through the line :)

katsobsession:

 I don't know what is planned for the booth as far as 'signs' or 'buttons' but perhaps we can go along with the idea of recycling and avoid things like flyers? just make buttons perhaps. I know for sure we cannot give out stickers per gencons policy. Just thoughts. Im sure closer to con our questions will be answered. But I am very much looking foward to it!

Wait, we can't give out stickers? They are about the cheapest sort of thing we could give out. I can get black and white stickers for $.08 a piece. Buttons are 5 times that.

I was thinking of stickers that say "I've upped my giving. Up yours."

Kat's right about the stickers; they aren't allowed to be distributed in the convention center (Unless you feel like footing the bill for cleaning the center after the con).

Tom:

Wait, we can't give out stickers? They are about the cheapest sort of thing we could give out. I can get black and white stickers for $.08 a piece. Buttons are 5 times that.

I was thinking of stickers that say "I've upped my giving. Up yours."

Its part of the whole..no adhesives stickers rule. Mari help me out!

apparently the ICC was not happy with people sticking them on walls and floors and what not. They can be Sold just not given away I believe.

katsobsession:

Tom:

Wait, we can't give out stickers? They are about the cheapest sort of thing we could give out. I can get black and white stickers for $.08 a piece. Buttons are 5 times that.

I was thinking of stickers that say "I've upped my giving. Up yours."

Its part of the whole..no adhesives stickers rule. Mari help me out!

apparently gencon was not happy with people sticking them on walls and floors and what not. They can be Sold just not given away I believe.

Yep ...

Talked about in this thread...

http://community.gencon.com/forums/t/14041.aspx?PageIndex=1

It's not a Gen Con rule at all, it's unfortunately a new Convention Center rule that stickers may not be given out.  Sorry, I know that sucks, because I had a really good sticker idea I wanted to go forward with this year as well, but there's nothing we can do about it.  I'd suggest as a cheapish alternative, badge ribbons, which, even with the adhseive strip, are apparently still ok.

Trying to look through that thread...

Can stickers be SOLD?

If so, there's our solution: a donated game allows you to buy a sticker for $.01 :)

(I just sent out an email to a ribbon company. Ribbons really aren't much cheaper than buttons...and GforH really has no budget, per say. We'll see what happens.)

If you really want to do that Tom, I'd suggest you talk to your Gen Con contact about it; maybe Megan?  The problem being that Gen Con would likely be on the hook for any clean up costs for sticker removal.

What about custom Pencils? or something a long the line of gaming?

marimacc:

If you really want to do that Tom, I'd suggest you talk to your Gen Con contact about it; maybe Megan?  The problem being that Gen Con would likely be on the hook for any clean up costs for sticker removal.

I definately would talk to them if we go that route. My thinking, though, is that if Gen Con attendees haven't been the problem for the convention center with stickers, and if selling stickers was still allowed, I wouldn't feel too bad about it. Plus, if someone gets a sticker for having donated to a charity, they're going to be more likely to want to use it themselves, I'd think.

At any rate, this may be a moot point (or, as some of my students have claimed in the past, a 'mute point'...because no one can talk about it anymore).

I've been in email contact with the folks at Nametag.com, and there's a chance that they will donate, or reduce the price of, a pretty good number of badge ribbons. We're still talking numbers and such, but they are definately willing to help us. I'll keep everyone updated.

(still learning that, for a charity, it's not looked on as 'grubbing' if you ask people for things like this...it's hard to remember that)

I'm not sure how much help I could be with storage space - I'm front out of town and our hotel is a few blocks away - but I would happily offer some up if needed. I'm also willing to beg the vendors for empty boxes to stack/sort stuff in when you find somewhere to actually store them. And if you need someone to man the booth, I could do that, too.

As far as keeping track of what comes in, will the booth have power? If so, a laptop with a spreadsheet program, a sheet of plain labels, and a magic marker to number the boxes would let you cross reference what ends up where if you end up sending things to more than one store room. It would be pretty easy to set up and would only take a few minutes to catalogue each box before it leaves the booth for storage.

Oh, and if you're collecting books this time, too, I think I can convince Jas to bring a few down with us on Wednesday... I could use the space here at home. LOL

amusingjenn:

I'm not sure how much help I could be with storage space - I'm front out of town and our hotel is a few blocks away - but I would happily offer some up if needed. I'm also willing to beg the vendors for empty boxes to stack/sort stuff in when you find somewhere to actually store them. And if you need someone to man the booth, I could do that, too.

There's a booth sign-up thread and a schedule thread down in the Gamers for Humanity forum, along with a thread about the Indy build.

The sticker point has been mooted! :D

The awesome people at Nametag.com are donating 500 badge ribbons for our game drive. The ribbons will be for people who donate, so if we run out of ribbons...well, that'll be amazing, but also good, because we'll have had over 500 donations.

So, big thanks to Aarin and his people at Nametag.com.

BUT...we now need to decide what to say on the slogans. Go here to help figure it out, please. Your help is needed and appreciated. http://community.gencon.com/forums/p/16111/184923.aspx#184923

Great to hear about the ribbons. So far, it looks like I'll have a hotel to myself at the Hyatt, which is not that far away. My friend will also have a room there (CDSmith)... and I might be able to convince him to donate a corner of his room if it comes to that. I should also be able to provide some 3-part invoice books / receipt books from work since we don't particularly need them anymore. I'll double check on them when I get back from vacation (with a reminder, maybe???) and see which style / sizes I have available. They all have 50 pages, so we will hopefully need a few books. I am pretty sure we have several available. As far as keeping track of them on a spreadsheet, most laptops can go for a good while on battery power, and we shouldn't need to keep it on all the time. Even if the booth does not have power, we should be able to do the logging on this easily enough. Even if we have it on the receipt books and transfer it later to a spreadsheet (maybe downloadable later to show our donations), the information will still be available. I can get with Tygerlilly on this and we can get a layout of information needed and set it up. We could possibly talk to some of the other vendors in the hall and see if they would be willing to be drop-off points if we get swamped at the last minute instead of trying to run around and make these last - minute contacts.

I'll see if we still have some empty boxes we can put the donated games in and tape up (for a minor level of security / portability) at the warehouse. We are moving our warehouse around the end of July, IIRC, so I have to move a ton of stuff around anyway, and this will let me earmark some otherwise trash. We would also need some boxing tape, which is easily obtainable and I have tape guns at the warehouse.

Won't there be any electrical outlets available? For a convention center that size, you'd almost imagine they'd have some every so often for the various vendors they host throughout the year. And, worse comes to worse, maybe the laptop can be taken back to someone's room at the end of the day for recharging.

And speaking of lists, will we be taking names and email addresses for subscriptions to the Gamers for Humanity newsletter?

I hope legibility won't be too much of an issue when it comes to receipts. I think I've caught more than one four-year-old laughing at my handwriting <g>

NDGeekboy:

Won't there be any electrical outlets available? <g>

I don't know for certain in your case, but electrical drops often cost additional money, just FYI.

Also, I know it's moot now, but I did check the exhibitor form, and it says distribution of stickers is not allowed, so I think that would make the sticker for one cent solution not work. However, I'm glad you guys got the ribbon donations!

My understanding is that we can't even sell stickers. Here's what the exhibitor application says:

2. Adhesive stickers are prohibited in the Convention Center. Exhibitors are liable for all costs and expenses associated with sticker removal.

Note that it doesn't say giving them out for free is prohibited.

Vendors almost always have to sign-up and pay extra for electricity. I haven't received the info yet on the cost, so don't know yet if we will have it in the booth. The only thing I can think of I would use it for is my lighted magnifying lamp.

I imagine most use it for any cc# machines they have, or electric cash registers.

We can certainly get along without it.

What about portable generators to power cc machines, registers, and other devises?

Just remember to charge it in the evening.

game junkie:

What about portable generators to power cc machines, registers, and other devises?

Just remember to charge it in the evening.

Just ask Megan whether you have power in the booth.

I really feel that having a laptop and updating a spreasheet with the donations are going a bit overboard. Most people who will come by and drop off a game isn't even going to want a receipt. I know I wouldn't.  Now if a vendor drops a bunch of product on us the last day so they don't have to ship it back, Oh yeah, we want some way to give a receipt.  

We will only have space for one person, maybe two if we are cozy, in the booth to talk to people. I want to make sure we are *talking* to people, explaining what GfH is, what we have done, what we are planning, etc. Most people outside of these forums haven't even heard of us yet, so we want to make sure we get the word out.  

My personal feeling is I would rather have the person staffing the booth talking to the people walking by and stopping than worrying about getting a spreadsheet updated with the latest donations. Plus I would not want the booth staffers to be responsible for someone's personal laptop. I'm not saying the staffers aren't trustworthy at all, but I also know if several people stop by to ask questions, it's hard to watch everything. We are going to have to watch the donation box to make sure people are putting in and not taking out (sad, but I have seen it happen more than once). My opinion, let's not give them more to watch over.