Chewy wrote:I can probably do it if hallowe'en bride isn't able interested inspired or otherwise motivated to coordinate ghoulish gift giving.
Chewy - Are you good with managing lists? Spreadsheets maybe?
No pressure, but if you're interested in collecting the names/addresses, coordinating the matches and distributing the details to the paired partners - I'm sure we'd all be grateful.
Lala hasn't logged into the forum for over a month, so we'll have to assume she's too busy to handle it. And not having to directly manage it would be one less thing on my full plate.
Let's officially get the ball rolling...How it works: The idea is to send a variety of Halloween/autumn goodies (for a set dollar amount) to your randomly assigned partner, who will also be mailing you goodies. Those interested will send in their questionnaire answers to the organizer who will assign the matches.
What to send: Be creative! Our members live all over the world and it's so much fun to see the variety of items. Halloween decorations, household items, candy, toys, books, artwork, even handmade gifts. Remember if you don't have a plethora of Halloween stuff to send, you can do fall or autumn themed as well. You can look at last year's
2015 Halloween Swap Photos for ideas.
Deadlines: Last year gift swap partners were paired by September 15 and packages were sent out by October 1. By those standards, it would seem we are running behind. But there's enough time to push things forward. One main thing to consider - some partners may be in different countries, and international shipping can take around 2 weeks. I'd say you'd want to
have packages sent out by October 7 probably? Then just as you said, that allows 2 weeks for shipping, and a week of buffer - ideally that's a week before Halloween to enjoy the gifted goodies!
Pairing and notifying partners by September 30 sounds reasonable too. Those who surely want to participate can pick up stuff sooner (and some already have). But that week between September 30th cutoff - October 7th mailing would allow us to personalize the contents (although not required) once we know our recipient.
Spending Amount: Previously we did gift(s) of
$20 USD in value. Does that sound agreeable? It's probably safest to consider that the general target (rather than a "maximum" or "minimum"). To keep it feeling fair, we wouldn't want anyone going wildly above or below.
Questionnaire: These are the answers participants should provide.
1. Your name
2. Your mailing address
3. Do you have any allergies? (some people like to add edible treats, candy)
4. Are you willing to ship internationally?Chewy - If you're game to handle it from here, go for it! The next step is to privately collect those questionnaire answers from everyone who wants to participate. Can they just PM you? As you collect the info, post a list of the participant names here so we know who is officially locked in. If there's not an even number of participants that match up, let me know and we'll even things out somehow. At the end of the month, match pairs of people randomly and PM each person the details of their swap partner (making sure that those who can't ship internationally are paired with someone from their country).
Let's do this! Oh, and count me in too!