Everyone please read!

just sent you a pm check it in a few.

This is a great idea! Denise I think you don't really know what you are getting yourself into! LOL Everyone has always said that I'm too organized for my own good so I'll just pose some things for you to think about when organizing this.

My personal feeling is that since it will be an ongoing thing, with multiple opportunities to sign up, having a certain number of posts would be a good thing. That way you know that the person has been here for more than a couple days and isn't going to drop the site or their secret friend. Is 100 posts too many? Is 50 too few? Any thoughts on this? I know I reached Adult Cat within about a month, but I get obsessive about things like this site. How often would you reopen registering? Every quarter? Every 6 months? You should probably say in the beginning how often to people who don't have enough posts know when they can start participating. Should there be a limit or suggested limit for gifts and such? (You don't want it to end up "keeping up with the Jonses" with someone getting extravagant gifts while others with more limited finances can't do that.)

With the Secret Santa, Daniela had everyone PM her their address and then once she got everyone assigned she PMed the addresses out. Of course, she did keep her lists so that when someone got "dropped" she could reassign them (if the person let her know that they couldn't participate).

Anyway, I'm just throwing out ideas and you certainly don't have to take any of them. Just brainstorming and bouncing ideas off everyone.

Okay, I think Hissy has a good point. I will be getting my thoughts together and set the whole thing out. I will post a thread on sunday night. I will set the deadline for two weeks. and everyone who signs up will get a person after a few days from the deadline. I just hope everyone thinks about this and realize that you may end up with the dud. There where a few in the secret santa. I would hope that no matter what you would continue your notes to your buddy. If someone doesnt send anything after a reasonable time I would ask that you tell me and i will send a reminder to that person if all else fails I will find someone else for you if possiable. and remember some of our members are overseas so there is some expense for mailing, but i will outline all of this in the sunday post.
I am off to las vegas soon to show my cream and white persian please wish me luck!
:tounge2:
Denise

Originally posted by ceehorne
My qwuestion is still this do you think there should be some qualifing measure like so many posts or somewthing to make sure the people are not fly by night. How does everyone feel about this issue. And no matter how hard we try their will be people who never receive anything do you all have ideas how I can minimize that?
Denise

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I can see many people unfortunately being disappointed. Some people who signed up for Secret Santa in October didn't even participate in December. You can imagine how 'some' people will not even be around in a couple of months (never mind a whole year).

Don't get me wrong, I love this idea. I just don't have any real criteria to give you. Number of posts do show a regular presence to the board - so maybe that will be the only indicator to go by. In the end, this whole idea is really based on a honour system.

Hmmmm...any other ideas?

P.S. please come up with a name for this and I will use it on the sunday post!
Denise

Ok, I know I am going to get flamed for this, but I feel like I have to say it. And Ceehorne, this is not a slam at you, but you are fairly new around here and maybe haven't had a go around on these boards. Those of us who have been here a long time have seen a lot of strange stuff, and strange members around here.

This idea of the year long thing is going to flop I think. A lot of members who are here now won't be in a few months. I think all in all there are only a handful of us who have stuck around as long as we have. Not to mention, things happen like people losing their internet or whatever.

It was very difficult with the organization and work of Secret Santa, and that was a one time thing. I had a lot of duds, and a lot of ridiculous requests. Someone even asked to not be paired with a Christian. I am not trying to insult anyone, but this is the internet, not "real life" and I really forsee a lot of problems and hurt feelings with this venture that you are trying to partake.

My opinion is if you choose to organize something, perhaps you should start w/ something small, like a Valentines swap or something along those lines before you bite off something as big as you are discussing now.

Just my .02.....no flames please.

Originally posted by Russian Blue
In the end, this whole idea is really based on a honour system.

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I agree with this. I have been in a number of these secret pal things over the years, and there is always SOMEBODY who fails to follow through. I'll be brave and join up this time.

I just sent her an email dtolle sort of educating her on this idea. I suggested she break it down into 3 months increments at first just to see if it goes, then proceed from there. But I did tell her the problems I encountered which were similiar to yours in regards to secret santa- plus told her that more than a few people ended up getting their feelings hurt after it was all over.

Well, I've said what I needed to say on this idea. I hate to see people getting disappointed and feelings getting hurt. And this seems like its going to end up that way unless 100% of those who sign up actually participate. The odds are against that.

I hope that it all works out, and that everyone has fun doing it. But I'm going to pass on participating on this one!!! I'll let my fellow mods have fun w/ mailing packages!!!!!!!!!!

I like the idea of a once-a-month all year thing. I loved the Secret Santa, both the giving and receiving. I'm in for whatever you decide.

Well, I originally just wanted to do it for Valentines day. But I guess some people dont celebrate Valentines and people dont want time limits etc. etc. etc. I personnlay feel that there should be a time limit otherwise people will forget and put it off to the last minute.
I would like to do this as a one time thing for valentines day I personnaly would basically like a penpal. So maybe we can just put this in another spin that people be paired. More like a penpal situation. That way if someone turns out to be a dud I could just match the person up with someone new. It could be an on going thing and we could switch partners every 3 to 6 months. We could send cards and things back and forth and then at a predetermined date we could switch. At this point there have been some good points brought up and there are some things I will have to think over while I am at the cat show. You all can keep chatting over this and I will try to catch up on sunday. I would greatly appreciate any help anyone offers i did not intend to come across that i wanted to lord over this idea. I also want to say that if you have any concerns please express them I have thick skin and will not be hurt. I have only been here 5 months myself so some of you might not be comfortable with me handleing this i would really love to get some help from some of the founding members. I am doing this in fun so lets try to figure a way to keep this fun. But the biggest thing I can stress is for people to not go into this with too high of hopes. Dont expect high end gifts, this is supposed to be little lift me ups to make you smile when you go to get your mail.
Denise

I'm in! This could work out, and then again, it might not. But you won't know till you try.

I'll do it too, as long as the person I have to send stuff to participates on the board on a regular basis, unlike the Secret Santa one.

I'm in! That is, if I have enough posts to qualify!

I understand if I don't and that you do need some way to make sure everyone is going to participate the whole time. I'll just keep checking to see what develops as the plan. . .

I participated in a Secret Santa for my dog (I missed the one here) and it was great! I love putting together little packages!

I see everyone has great opinions. and I agree with all of them, especially the one of the long-term idea not working out. Keep it simple. We could assign pen-pals, but that's what we're here for. A one-time gift thing would be the simplest and best for short term TCSers and those who tend to leave things to the last minute. I personally would love to do a long term gift thing, but sitting here and writing to all of you is more instantly satisfying .

(You don't want it to end up "keeping up with the Jonses" with someone getting extravagant gifts while others with more limited finances can't do that.)

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To address the above issue, we should have a price limit (under $20 for example...dollars, pounds). Or a theme~candles, chocolate, furrbaby stuff.

Nothing big but something so we know everyone gets a little something each month a little pick me up. And since every culture and country has different holidays why dont we send our buddy a little somethung each holiday so we can learn about different holidays. I would try to pair up people from diffrent countries and as far away from each other as I can.

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I see a big flaw in this. You can't be secret purrson with this idea, you'll need to know a lot about that person and religion before we get started and I just think that religion and politics isn't so good an idea for a happy pick-me-up thing. For example...

Someone even asked to not be paired with a Christian.

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So in my opinion (and it's just an opinion, no flames please) a cheap, one-time, themed gift would be best.

Tamme,

Great post!!!! You said it perfectly.
If you guys decide to do a one time mailing thing then I'll join in. But if its going to be a year round sort of thing, I think I'll pass....life is too busy for me to remember to mail stuff on a regular basis.

Also, its hard to keep it secret...you'll want to know about each other to pick out the right things.

When we do this at work, there is a little questionnaire that the participants fill out with things like favorite color, favorite candy, little stuff like that. I could get a copy and we could post it in a thread for all the people participating. Then people could post their own responses, much like when we do one of those multiple question threads. All you would have to do is look up the person you were paired with.

I'm definately in.

I would love to be a pen pal to someone. I love online chatting but snail mail is fun too!

So, how about we include the birthday as the one day to send something "special" to our pen-pal?

And hopefully, those that do sign up, stay with it.

And if, for some reason, it is not working out, that person can email Denise and tell her thay have to back out and then Denise can find a "savior or two" to step in. There are always last minute people around so, as long as you hav "back ups", then maybe no one will be left out for long.

Whatever the decision, count me in.

Deb...just read your post. Love that idea!!!

Thanks, G. I may be crazy, because I usually get burned by these things, but I am willing to try this one. I have not participated in the other 2 Secret Santa things. I am looking at it this way: I will hold up my end of the bargain for the person I get paired with. If the same doesn't happen for me: oh well. I am not going to get upset over it. I just can't fathom why you'd sign up if you weren't enthusiastic about following through, but it always seems to happen.