The Nuts and Bolts of Planning our Oktoberfest
Julie Reid, President, QI of Seattle

Seven years ago, our club was pondering on what event they could promote as their annual major fund-raiser. We had put on numerous different kinds of fund-raising activities, but wanted something that was a little bit different than other types of fund-raising events in the Seattle area; something we could count on doing annually; and something we could grow and improve on every year.

What we came up with was our Oktoberfest. This October, we held our 7th annual Oktoberfest. It was an evening event (from 6pm-10pm) with a sit-down dinner, raffle drawings, silent auction, and it ended with a series of eight bingo games. The German Oktoberfest theme was evident throughout, including the menu, music, and decorations. The feedback we received from our guests is that everyone had a fun time.

We held the event in a large downstairs room in a Seattle restaurant on the waterfront of Lake Union. It was large enough to accommodate our 124 guests for the sit-down dinner and our tables full of auction items, raffle items, and bingo prizes.

Invitations had a response card for reservations and included a credit card option. We mailed them a full 4-5 weeks before the event. We included a donation option in case the invitee was unable to attend. (What a good idea that was!) We let our guests know in the invitation which organization would be benefiting from this fund-raiser. This year we chose the Listen & Talk School, and their representatives gave a short talk during the event.

Our small but mighty membership of 13 all served on work teams, so they knew what was needed during the evening—whether it was time for the raffle drawing, bingo games, or silent auction to end. We even have an accordian player dressed appropriately for the first hour to keep everyone in the Oktoberfest mood. (Click here to review schedule.)

• Tickets were $40 per person.
  
  
• Our dinner costs ran around $26.00 per person.
  
  
• Raffle tickets were sold for $1.00 each with discounts for buying groups of 10 or 20 tickets. Winners could put their winning tickets toward one of the four raffle items. The favorite every year seems to be the wheelbarrow full of wine. Each member donates two bottles of wine and the guests love it.
  
  
• We charged $10 each for bingo cards for a set of 8 games. Besides having prizes for each set of bingo, we had 6-8 consolation prizes for those occasions where there were two winners.

We don't have the exact figures yet for this year's event but know we have cleared approximately $11,000. That's a record high for us, due primarily to a larger attendance than ever before.

If your club would like more details on how we operate this event, please feel free to e-mail me at my office: jmr@spectroncorp.com.