Silent Auction

The Student Affairs Committee is organizing a Silent Auction this year! We hope that you will join us in this fun event to raise money to support the activities of the Student Affairs Committee. 

How it Works 

We are gratefully accepting items donated from conference attendees for the Silent Auction. The conference registration form includes a field to indicate whether or not you will donate item(s) to the Silent Auction. If you decide to donate after you’ve registered, please contact Kristen Rosamond (kristenrosamond@gmail.com) and Lan-Nhi Phung (lphung@ur.rochester.edu) to confirm that we can accept your item(s) for the auction.

We will collect donations in the poster hall until 12:00 p.m. (noon, MT) on Wednesday, 2 October. Bidding will be open during Wednesday night’s poster session and all day—8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.—on Thursday. Winning bidders will be contacted directly and will pay for and pick up their prizes at the auction table on Friday during the coffee breaks or poster session. Winners must be present on Friday to pick up their item or have someone else pick up the item for them.

We will not be able to ship items to anyone departing sooner. Payments will be accepted via PayPal as well as via check for U.S. and Canadian bank accounts. 

Items and bid sheets will be laid out on tables in time for Wednesday’s poster session, when people will begin to pass by and write their bids on the sheets. Thus, the price for each item will creep up, with tensions and friendly rivalries developing over the most-wanted items. The finale will bring a flurry of bidding as people vie to outbid their rivals for their desired items. At the close of bidding on Thursday, the highest bidder on the bid sheet is the winner, and they get to purchase the item.  

What to Contribute 

Silent Auction items can include books, art, handicrafts, food and drink, field equipment, stamps, apparel, jewelry, music, toys, educational materials, tools, custom experiences, etc. 

 
Think of the sorts of things you might want to buy for yourself or for your friends or family as gifts or souvenirs. Bird- or nature-related items are always very popular, especially those with local flavor, which aren’t found everywhere. The most popular items are not always the most expensive ones but the things that catch people’s imagination. Be creative! Pull from your own collections or closet, create a new piece of artwork, or spend time browsing antique or thrift stores and eBay.  

 
What you can offer is not limited to “stuff.” Experiences are popular items to bid on. Maybe you have a cabin or condo that you could make available for a weekend or a week. If you live near a birding hotspot, you could offer a brunch or dinner for a small group of birders. Or, perhaps you could take people out on a guided tour somewhere, or make your kayaks or canoes available for a day of exploring. The only limit is your imagination. 

For bidders, this is a good way to get some early holiday and birthday shopping done for your family and friends! 

Contact Information 

 For questions, please contact the Student Affairs Co-Chairs, Kristen Rosamond (kristenrosamond@gmail.com) and Lan-Nhi Phung (lphung@ur.rochester.edu).