Region: Rocky Mountain

Contact: HeatherTwaiten-Malone (Heather.Malone@mac.com) or the Rocky Mountain Region (LSMRMR@yahoo.com)

Content:
While promoting the fall regional retreat, we let schools and students know that there will be an auction at the retreat. We (the planners of the retreat) encourage the students to think about items that they or their school's LCM would like to contribute to the auction. Items range from T-shirts with the different school logos on them to big containers of cheeze balls! Most of the stuff is school-related - stuff with school logo or mascot, but some other fun items make it, too. Our most prized item each year is our regional "pet" Beatrice the Ostrich. She has created a friendly rivalry among the schools in our region and we all fight to get her at our school. She usually goes for $300 each year because the schools pool all of their money together. I would say that if another region was to do this auction they should also have a big-ticket item similar to Beatrice - like a coveted prize. :) All together, there are usually around 60 - 80 items in the auction - hats, mugs, shirts, shorts, pants, key chains, stuffed animals, etc.

Another key is to have a good auctioneer that is funny and speaks loudly. They should come up with funny descriptions of items to keep it interesting. This can be a long drawn out activity, but you need to keep people excited. Save many of the big items for the end to keep people around, but do some in the middle, too.