The plan is to conduct a multi-club Wine and Chocolate Tasting using the traditional event conducted by the Sertoma Club of DTC in October with other clubs participating as well.  Last year the DTC club hosted over 200 guests and raised over $30,000.  Food was provided by four or five restaurants free to the guests.  A silent auction was held with some items auctioned off live.  A band played at the end of the evening so there was dancing as well.  The goal would be to sell 350 tickets to the event, participating clubs selling 20 or so and the DTC club selling over 200 again.  Sponsorships are available at various levels and all include free tickets to the event and promotion of the sponsor to varying degrees.

 

    Each club will decide for itself whether to participate.  Participation will consist of 2-3 volunteers to serve on event committees, selling tickets to the event, obtaining silent auction items, and soliciting donation/sponsorship monies for the event, and any additional proceeds generated by a club would be kept by the club for whatever causes they sponsor in their ordinary course of business.  DTC will not only sell 200 tickets and obtain all the restaurants, it will porvide enough auction items for the event to carry off well no matter whether other clubs participate or not.  Each club's production will be tracked separately.

 

    Even if too few clubs participate to cover one-half the costs of the event, each club's share of expenses will not exceed $1000.  The participating clubs will not be asked to pay for more than on-half the total costs of the event, so, if enough clubs participate, their pro rata share of costs could be less than $1000.  Any income raised by a club in excess of its share of costs will go first to the two causes (up to $2500) and additional income generated by a participating club will go back th the club.  On the other hand, if a club does not raise enough to cover its pro rata share of expenses, it must make up the difference.  The most a club risks is $1000.  Also, if a club does not raise enough to cover it's share of the costs and contribute's $2500 to the causes, they will keep no proceeds from the event.  Income can come from ticket sales, auction sales, donations and sponsorships.  DTC will arrange the facility, the tickets, the program, the auction process, etc.  Other clubs will be able to piggy-back an already successful event.

 

    The benefits of participation are:

1) learning how to conduct a wine tasting fund raiser on a large scale

2) supporting the causes which include the CU SLHS Department clinical video system project and a diagnostic preschool at the Marion Downs Center of CU Medical School

3) raising money for your own club

4) developing greater teamwork between clubs in the future

5) receiving two free tickets to the event for each committee volunteer (up to a maximum of five volunteers or ten tickets per club max

 

    The responsibilities of participation are:

1) paying a pro rata share of the event's expenses

2) selling tickets

3) soliciting silent auction items for the event

4) soliciting sponsorships including from club members

5) providing volunteers to help run the event that evening

6) promoting the event to your own members and communities

 

    Information on the couses to benefit from the event is attached.  Each club is asked to decide for itself whether to participate.  Any questions can be directed to Steve Dawson, Central Colorado District Governor.  The ultimate goal is to raise name recognition for Sertoma by increasing the impact/good we have/do in the community.  Hopefully, each club will see this as an opportunity to do what Sertoma does: help people.  The idea is not just to have a successful event in October, but also to enhance the ability of each club to raise money in the future and to increase its sense of connection with other clubs.

 

Our infrastructure was scheduled to be completed over our spring break in March, but when the MetroPlex guys came to do it, the university people came to inspect what they were doing.  To make a long story short, even though MetroPlex had submitted all their plans in detail, the university didn't like the something about the conduit, so the called a halt to the project and brought in a conduit person.  That jacked up the price of our infrastructure by a little over $5,000.  What that means is that we can't get as many rooms on line as we had planned and it won't be ready until summer.

 

So, here I am with my hand out again.  Is there any fund you all can draw from to help right now?  What I was thinking was that you could demonstrate the intent of Sertoma to be behind this project and the department immediately as a way to show other clubs what they can do.  

 

On a more positive note, we have filmed the video.  We had an entire film crew at the department yesterday.  We had interviews with patients we've served, parent's of children with communication challenges, interviews with faculty members, etc.  I think I told you that the group we're using is donating their time and all we had to pay for was a little for the crew.  We filmed all day and from that, they'll narrow it to about a 6 minute video!  The video should be completed by May 8th - graduation.    So, at any point after that, we can take it to Sertoma club meetings.

At any rate, please let me know if you think Sertoma can jump in sooner than we originally planned.

 

Regards,

Annie