Another fun night was we had a Service auction. Each sister brought an item that they had made, (2 homemade child size scarecrow costumes), a coupon for a lesson in something (canning), or a coupon for an act of service (one loaf of homemade bread and a dozen rolls.) We had “Mormon Mullah” money and a live auctioneer to auction off the items. The sisters earned “Mormon Mullah” by filling out a worksheet and earning money by such things as $30 if you have been married for over 25 years; $5.00 for every child you have; $10 if you can name every sister at your table; $15 if you served a mission; $20 if you told someone you love them today. You could add $50 bonus money if you would share your most embarrassing moment with the sisters! It was so much fun to laugh with each other and provide a service to a sister in the ward. It has been requested we make this an annual tradition.
-Monica White
What we did as a service auction did not have anything to do with real money. We had a way for the sisters to earn fake money and bid on real items and take them home. The items were donated. They included things like- a batch of chocolate chip cookies, computer lessons, helping with your child’s next birthday party, an hour of organization by our resident professional organizer, swim lessons…things like that. Babysitting. Dinner delivery. It was a lot of fun and the sisters got a chance to see each other as charitable people and “bid” on the charity that they would like to receive.
We invited a lot of non members and asked those who invited someone to please donate 2 services. One could be eatable like a pie or famous hot fudge sauce so everyone could get something at the end even if they were visiting. Most of the visitors brought their own baked good or treat. One even stopped by the local ice cream shop and got $5 in gift certificates. That was a popular one!
-Dereth
Our ward has done a service auction for the past two years. Rather than auction off service, we have everyone wrap their item or print up their idea and wrap it and we play the game where everyone entering the room is given a number. We sit in a circle and the person with #1 starts. She picks from the service items that are wrapped and sitting in the center of the room. The person with #2 either takes hers or picks another from the center and so on. I think the item was able to be stolen 3 times before it was frozen.
It has been a huge success. Lots of FHE treats for a month or window cleaning or homemade bread on fast Sunday one sister made a box of handmade cards which was stolen till frozen.
Also, we said the service had to be performed within the month so it didn’t drag out and get forgotten. We never had any negative feedback and it is one of our highest attended enrichment nights.
-Margie
One sister shared that in her ward they held a “Wish Upon a Star” night. Ahead of time, each sister writes a wish or need on a paper star that could be met by another sister. Then on EN each star is read and the sisters volunteer to meet the wishes or needs of each other. For example, “Jane Smith wants a night out with her husband. She needs babysitting for 3 hrs” Or something of that nature.
-Alice Johnson, Boerne, TX
If the board is nervous about a service auction try having a service exchange. It is like a white elephant gift exchange. You pick out of a basket and read it for everyone then it has a chance of getting stolen twice. We did this in December and it was a lot of fun.
-Camille
Here are my plans for our Service Auction in place of the Relief Society Birthday party.
First, we are making up invitations on a computer that look like B-day party invite and passing them out at church. Also, Sunday we will have them write down what service they are planning on doing-this will keep them from waiting until the last minute. Prepare! Prepare! We will also be having someone go into The primary & Young Women’s to announce and have them write down their auction donations.
*Have an auctioneer
*Have a person to write down the winner-keep track on points..
Notes:
We will set up everything in the gym-we will have long tables to one side for the food, and on the opposite side for the food (we will be having a Potato Bar & Salad) We will be bringing in the piano and a big chalkboard. The chalkboard will be for sticking all the Paper donations on, when we go to start the auction -beforehand, everything will be on the auction tables for viewing, so the ladies will know what to bid on. I am going to try and find a gavel for our auctioneer.
THAT NIGHT:
First, we welcome everyone and have announcements, you know the drill. Then we will hand out lessons that will combine the R.S , something to do with the birthday or importance of R.S. and then incorporate service in there. (We all know that can be done easily).
Then we will break to eat our Potato’s. (We will already be in the gym,) This will give the sisters a chance to look over the auction items up for grabs and eat.
After enough time, that they have finished eating, I will then read the auction poem. Which gives them their points to use.
I will pass out the auction paddles and we will get started.
With the one lady keeping in charge of the “final bidder” on an item, she will then present to the winner and “giver of the item” a paper stating so. (So that there is no confusion we are going to use a receipt book with triple carbon copies -from Office Depot, so we, the Presidency will have one, the giver and receiver will have one.)
Some of us in the presidency will be making 2 items so to make sure everyone gets something
-Christine Arnold
The service auction we did at enrichment was similar to the one you described. We call it a talent auction in our ward and have done it for three years now. We had people bring items or services to auction that could display one of their talents. We did not, however, use money to buy the items. We used a point system where all the sisters could collect points to auction with. We wrote a little poem for collecting points and it is posted in the Files section–it’s titled Talent Auction Poem. If you read that you will probably get a better idea of how we distributed points to use in the auction. I think we probably had a little bit of the same problem you did with people not actually getting to collect on the services they won at the auction. But there were also items (baked goods, stitched items, etc) that some people walked home with that night. The sisters in our ward love it–it is always the most highly attended enrichment of the year. Hope this helps.
-Jessica in AZ
This is how it went in our ward. It seemed to work out great! We only let those sisters bid on items who donated items, so we did get some last minute donations. We allowed everyone to purchase 2 items if they wanted to and had enough points to spread around. Lots of sisters saved up their points so they could get one good thing for sure, like a free family photo shoot or something. We set starting bids at around 100 points, but be sure you set each item at the same starting point, so no one gets their feelings hurt. The winners didn’t know who they purchased the item from until they received their certificate. I think this is the best way to do it, that way no one is embarrassed. Our enrichment committee decided ahead of time that if there was an item that wasn’t getting bids, that we would bid on it ourselves, at least to get things going. As for the extra points, we didn’t deal with them, just hoped that people used what they had! It was so fun and very successful. I hope you have a good time!
-Leslie Horn
Service Exchange
In our ward, this is what I did:
When the sisters arrived, on a table I had a poster explaining the game, and index cards for them to grab and write down their service.
They all wrote down something they were willing to do for another sister……ideas that came in were: Babysitting, dinner and dessert, gardening, house cleaning, silk plant cleaning!, baseboard cleaning, substituting in their primary class, homemade ice cream, FHE treats for a month, Hair cuts, etc. Then I collected the cards and put them face down on the RS table……
I called one sister up there to pick a card…she read it out loud and then sat down….. whoever’s name was on the card that she read…. I called up there to do the same thing…..
The 2nd sister had a choice…to take a new card, or to steal the 1st sister’s card!! I let them be stolen 3 times, then they were dead!! (With your time restraints, you could allow only 1 or 2). It was a lot of fun!!! The sisters were just cracking up and trying to hide their cards on the most popular ones! It was a great activity!
-Sister from the HFPE Group
Hi, my mom’s ward did this at the end of their Christmas Enrichment Night last year and our ward is going to do it this year. In mom’s ward this is how they did it:
The ward provided certificates that each sister took home and filled out and wrapped as a gift. Then they brought the wrapped gift to E.N. They played the “white elephant game”. Mom said it was so fun!!!! Here are a few examples of what was given in the way of service: any type of baked goods i.e. rolls, breads, pies, cookies, family home evening treats for a month, babysitting, a meal brought to the home, a candle light dinner made at the givers home, a massage, homemade greeting cards, lap quilt, car wash, frozen main dishes, etc. etc. etc. Mom said it was amazing what people came up with! Basically whatever your talent is, will be loved by someone else!
A friend’s ward just did this last month in the form of an auction, where they were given play money and the items were auctioned off - she said it was a blast! I hope this helps. I am very excited to do this in December.
-Sister from the HFPE Group
The general idea of the Auction is instead of sisters bring a “White Elephant” or silly gift like a typical game, the sisters will fill out a card with a service they will give as a gift. It might be babysitting, computer lessons, cooking dinner, scrap booking pages, etc. The ideas are endless. Then the sisters take turns drawing one of these cards out of a basket. They can keep the card they draw or take someone else’s card that has already been drawn.
We are doing this in combination with a dinner. Last year we did several large service projects, humanitarian aid projects, etc. This year we thought we would focus on service to each other in our ward. We have several new young families in our ward and thought this would be a fun way to get to know each other and a fun way to serve.
-Sister from the HFPE Group
