Features:

Talent Auction Tips

• Publicize the event via newsletter, bulletin and temple talks. Include a response sheet for talents members may offer.
• A week before the auction, decide which 10 or so talents will be auctioned aloud, which silently. Decide on starting bids and a minimum amount for each increasing bid.
• On auction day, display bidding sheets with any accompanying items or explanations. For instance, if someone paints, place a sample of his or her art next to the bid sheet.
• After a designated time, the item goes to the highest bidder.

We've got talent

Auction builds community, extends stewardship

Do I hear $25 for a fine German Oktoberfest meal to be prepared in your home for up to six people?” shouted auctioneer Nancy Matthias. This was just one item offered this summer during the annual talent auction at First Immanuel Lutheran Church, Portland, Ore.

"We have five bids on the spa treatment, eight for golf lessons and forty-seven for the free pass on Sunday school."

Matthias, standing atop a chair in the fellowship hall, gazed over the crowd at coffee hour looking for raised hands. After a flurry of bidding, the meal was sold to Elizabeth Schwartz for $75.

“It was a spur of the moment thing,” Schwartz said. “I was a German major in college and studied in Vienna, Austria, too. So I’m looking forward to an authentic dinner prepared by Anneliese Knapp.”

The rest of this article is only available to subscribers.