New News!!

The date for the 2008 Yard Sale has now been set.  Our sale this year will be October 18th. 2008   Please contact a member of the committee if you have items to place in the container.  Contact a member of the commttee now or Mike & Sally Scott - 328-4224.

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August 2008 Steering Committee Minutes

Yard Sale Steering Committee

August 3, 2008

We met at 4:00 p.m. at the Mewborns. 

Present were:  Mike and Sally, Kirk and Clayann, Sam and Lois, Jimmy and Virginia, Jim and Martha, Dot, Dave and Jill, Bill and Frances, Mrs. Margaret, and Doug and Sherry. 

We opened with prayer.

 Old Business:   

The bazaar date had been listed incorrectly in the last set of minutes.  The bazaar will actually be held on December 6, at Faith Harbor. 

We need a canvasser for the island.  We will ask Johnsie to work with Virginia on this area and we will ask Carol Justice to help canvass in the Snead’s Ferry area.

At the present time our biggest effort needs to be to get donations for the Silent Auction.  We discussed getting donations of cottages and condos from the local realtors.  Several committee members volunteered to contact certain realtors with whom they have personal relationships.  Mike will contact Hiram Williams about building supplies donations.  Canvassers should take a flier with them as they make the contact and ask to post it in the business.

The timeshares still are a problem.  We can’t act until ownership is legally established.  Any paperwork that we had seems to have disappeared.

With our canvassing of businesses, we must work fast because schools will begin their fundraisers around Aug. 25. 

Canvassers need to be sure to get a mailing address so that we can send out thank you notes after the yard sale.  If canvassers would e-mail Sherry when they make a contact and receive a donations, she can forward it to the entire committee so that we don’t have repetitions and so we know what has already been collected.

Jim Ellis has agreed to head up our publicity campaign.  Ray Barwick is also working on this.  Sally has an article written but needs to get it published.  We discussed ways to improve the ad in Topsail Magazine.

The second container is filling up.  Mike feels that donations are ahead of last year.  We are trying to directly sell sofas now rather than storing such large items until fall.

Christmas Bazaar plans are underway.  Lois plans to sell a 10 x10 booth for $20.  She has 10 venders already signed up.  Church groups can do food booths if they so desire.  The bazaar is slated to last from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Lois has created small bags for each department chair to have handy during the yard sale.  The bags will contain items that people need to do their work such as tape and markers.  She will make 24 bags.

Sally has determined that we need to move more of the Yard Sale to the grassy areas if possible.

Jim has made the necessary contacts for us to open the Sun Trust accounts and earn $100 for the church.  Any members who own a business can actually open both a personal and a commercial account and earn $200 for the church.  He has typed up instructions and left them in the narthex.

New Business:

The UMW Executive Committee has determined that they are required to give 60% of all income to the district office.  Therefore they have decided to not take a portion of the yard sale proceeds in the future.  We discussed that the Youth still need to have their funds matched.  The committee proposal will be:

            25% to Missions

            25% to Men

            25% to be determined

            25% to Building

Doug presented this to Leadership on August 7, and it was approved.

We discussed the department chairs.  We hope that in most cases the same people will lead the different departments again this year.  This needs to be verified though.

These areas have been verified:

Food Court – Harriet Rice, Eunice, Mrs. Margaret, and Lois

Pick Up & Delivery – Matt Snyder (?), Bobby and Andrew Snyder

Toys & Games – Darlene Ellis

Library – Carol Justice

Kid’s Clothing – Johnsie and Faye Strickland

Kitchen – Jean Hawley

Home Décor – Frances and Ann Bryan

Linens – Virginia and Catherine Burleson

Site Management – Sally, Sandy, and Sherry

Publicity – Jim Ellis

Correspondence – Lois and Sally

Finance – Doug, Sam, Bill Moore, and Dave Strohpaul

Frances Moore took the rest of the list and agreed to call and check with the other department heads for verification.

Doug pointed out that our cash register is faulty.  Mike will ask the congregation if there is another that is possibly available.

Charts will be posted and our new people will be encouraged to sign up.

We discussed the need for financing for publicity.  We have reserved $1500. for the yard sale initial expenses for this year.  Jim Ellis will be informed that he has $500. to work with as he begins his campaign.

We had heard that the Turtle Hospital was not going to have a yard sale on Labor Day this year, but Sandy Sly said that they are.

Sally is still looking for furniture movers.  Give her names ASAP of possible people to help in moving big items.

Yard Sale Steering Committee

August 19, 2007

Present:  Mike and Sally Scott, Virginia and Jimmy Platts, Doug and Sherry Mewborn, Lois and Sam Snyder, Jim Graziano 

The meeting was called to order with prayer. 

Old Business:

*Report on bulk mailing.  1,260 letters mailed.  No responses yet.  Great difficulty with    bulk mailing procedures.  Cost $173. 

*We have (and will continue) to communicate with the furniture stores that we are accepting donations, in case cottage owners decide to redecorate. 

*Items are coming in weekly.  Walt’s house is almost full of furniture. 

*Doug has gotten the IRS forms and reminded all that we need VIN numbers on vehicles.  He will activate credit card machine for the month of October. 

*Aprons have been purchased (66) and embroidered. 

*Picture by Ray Barwick was in several newspapers and an article was in the Pender Post. 

*Fliers will go up in businesses after the Turtle Hospital sale.  Two press releases have been sent out.  One was run.  Message was sent in newsletters and in bulletin.  Crawl is running on the Weather Channel.  Several TV stations are running information on their calendars.  Mike is contacting two radio stations.  We will take out classified ads the week of the yard sale in the Jacksonville, Wilmington papers and in the Globe. 

New Business:

*Mike reported on large items donated so far. 

*Virginia reported on merchant donations so far. 

*Lois has volunteered to do handwritten thank you notes to businesses and she ready to begin at any time. 

*Silent Auction – Jim G. reported that he needs items in order to get pictures and information ready for Sept. 12.  Sandy and Jim are working to get the items onto the church web site.  People who want to bid from the web site can call Sally or Sandy to place a bid or can bid by e-mail.  Site will be updated on a regular basis so people will be aware of the highest bid. 

*Containers will be organized on Saturday mornings in September.  Have used new tables and been well pleased.  We do not feel that we will need to borrow from other churches this year as it is such a problem. 

*Food Court – Youth will write letters to solicit donations for the food court. 

*We will notify the police chief of the event, but we do not want to pay for off-duty policemen to direct traffic.

The meeting closed with prayer.

Next meeting will be on September 9, 2007 at 4:00 at the Snyder’s.

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Yard Sale Steering Committee

July 15, 2007

Present:  Sally & Mike Scott, Teri Ragan, Sam Snyder, Jim Graziano, Sandy Taylor, Doug & Sherry Mewborn. 

The meeting was opened with prayer. 

Discussion:  It was brought up that it might be an issue to ask merchants who don’t attend FHUMC for donations.  We discussed this and those among us who are retail merchants pointed out that we are customarily asked by numerous groups with whom we have no association for donations to support their causes.  We decided to continue with plans since our proceeds benefit the entire community and it is a common practice.  Another recommendation was that there may be people who want to contribute to the silent auction but do not own a business.  They could purchase a gift certificate to a local merchant and then donate it in their own name to the silent auction.  This would benefit our local merchants and our yard sale and get a tax deduction for the contributor.

Printed Fliers:  Discussion of printing costs vs. trying to do a flier ourselves.  The church actually needs to have fliers to hand out at many functions, not just the yard sale.  Teri will pursue getting estimates and see if the marketing committee for the church will approve and pay for these.  Teri remarked that this needs to be done in a timely fashion.

Old Business:

• Letters to cottage owners.  Sally has written a draft that was discussed and approved.  Jim will print the envelope labels.  Sandy will type the letter.  Sherry will do the clerical work necessary for this mailing and then see to it that they are mailed.
• Getting rid of leftover it4ems.  Virginia had found out that 1 800 JUNK does charge for their service.  Mike said that we can handle this on our own if we have made our arrangements ahead of time.  The Scotts will contact the Salvation Army, Mr. Kirkland, and others about this issue.
• Doug will order 20 1098C forms and also the 1096 form that we will need.

New Business:

• Doug Mewborn will be the treasurer of the Yard Sale account and will report at our next meeting exactly how much we have as a balance in that account.
• Ray Barwick came and took a picture of the committee.  Sally will write an article to accompany it and Ray will put it in the local papers.
• On September 12, the family night supper will be devoted to the Silent Auction.  Jim and Mike will prepare the program.  Sherry will be prepared to register bidders.  Sally, Jim, Sherry, Sandy, and Kevin Heckart will set up the Silent Auction items for display.
• Sally will set up the tri-fold that we used last year and begin the committee signups.  Sandy has agreed to have the committee chairmen put on the website and we reviewed the list and validated it.
• Communication to church members.  Sally has proposed a draft that the committee reviewed and made some small amendments.  This will be dispersed through bulletin inserts, e-mailings, shepherding groups and the September newsletter.
• Tables.  Mike saw a sale at Lowe’s for 6 ft. tables and ordered 40 of them in our name.  **Since the day of the meeting, both the men’s group and the women’s group have agreed to give us $500 each to go toward these tables.  The balance will come from the small account that we set aside last year for handling the yard sale.  The tables will run a little over $1500 after tax is added in.  As many as possible will be stored at the church for use in family night dinners and other events.  The rest will be stored at the Snyder’s until needed.
• Advertising.  Teri will arrange for some ads that FHUMC normally run in the Advertiser and the Topsail Magazine to have info about the yard sale.
• Jim will notify Sandy, Sherry and Sally when he is able to schedule the next meeting of the Silent Auction subcommittee.

Our next meeting will be on August 12 at 4:00pm at the church and will include a pot luck meal.

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