Monday

update

There was another little Club Little House emergency. One of our members' homes suffered a flood and her contribution was ruined. Needless to say she's had other things on her mind. I hope she's able to get things back to normal as well as she can.

Meanwhile, Susan, who was the second volunteer for the last emergency, has stepped in to save the day. She's shipping her 12 littles out today to arrive to me later this week.

Kerry's are due to arrive any day and with that, all submissions will be here finally.

I have to do something next swap to prevent drop-outs. We had 2 emergency last minute drop-outs and about 6 others. Maybe the thing to do is to put the responsibility on the member who cannot fulfill the commitment to find a replacement. Or I just need to collect a list of back ups at the time of sign up. I have to do something or else I think I could drive myself absolutely crazy. Let me know your thoughts, please.

I have a couple of elves (Pam and Lorraine) coming to help bundle up all of the member packages. Before that, I have just a little bit of administrative stuff to do to make that go a bit smoother.

If you live in the DC metro area and would like to join in to help, let me know.

10 comments:

a pink-bee said...

Oh I WISH I could help! I used to live near there !!! Thanks so much Amy, for all you are doing for Club Little House. :)

Anne said...

WOW, Ms Amy, what a lot of extra work this has turned out to be. All of that plus the worry about your dad - life does get in the way of our having fun, doesn't it?

I'm sure I speak for all of us when I express appreciation for all you are doing to facilitate this huge swap. Your house must look like a flea market with 48 sets of littles. I'd love to see it. Will you be taking pictures? Sure wish I could help but I'm in Los Angeles .....

Thanks again and again - I'm so excited I can barely contain myself.

Junie Moon said...

I am so sorry to hear about one of our members experiencing a flood. If there is anything I can do to help her, please let me know.

Thanks to Susan for pitching in during another emergency. This is a lot of work for you, Amy, and I don't have an answer as to how to keep it going when emergenices or drop-outs occur--I'll have to give this some thought. However it works out, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to participate.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...

Well, a couple thoughts - one is a waiting list once the groups close out. If we have a drop out, someone from the waiting list will be added.

Participating members will be asked to update status by a certain date, or they will be replaced. That kind of thing.

I know personally from a number of swaps I've been pulled from for lack of communication that emergencies happen and keeping track of swap dates can become near impossible or fall far down on the priority list. It is really crummy for those who have been diligent about their participation, but having some kind of plan in place in case people drop out / become incommunicado really helps relieve the stress on both parties.

In any case, I am certainly glad I got it together to get something out the door for this swap!

If there is anything at all I can do to help promote or organize future swaps - let me know. I think you are doing an awesome job, Amy.

xoxo - Chel

Anonymous said...

I'm trying to think of a solution that would work too and it's just so hard with swaps! I like chelise's check-in idea. I also like the idea (but don't think anyone would follow-through) of stating beforehand, "Traditionally if someone drops out of CLH after signing up, they make a $50 donation to this swap's charity, the (charity here)."
Then at the end of each swap if people have bagged out, at least you could say, "Your package will have 10 items and we as a group have made a $100 donation to...". But somehow I don't think that would ever come to pass either.
I'll keep brainstorming!
Best wishes to all - the members, the emergency drops and the people who just got caught up in the busy-ness of summer! Life happens, but this is a challenge to address so Amy won't lose her energy for this wonderful swap!
Peace, corinne

Saucy said...

In one way, Amy, I suppose you could consider increasing the fee for this swap... considering the number of participants and the amount of work. Of course, as a participant, I hate to say that! But perhaps if people had to pony up a little more money beforehand, they'd be less likely to drop out.

As for the little emergencies, our hearts go out to those who have legitimate reasons for not sending their littles... I don't know what else to suggest.

Anonymous said...

Well, I know it will all be worth the wait!! Absolutely!! Major props to you Miss Amy for providing such a fun venue for so many people. Sometimes things happen with folks and it can't be helped. We'll just wait patiently and just appreciate the update!

Karen said...

just a little input - i was very glad to be asked to participate after someone dropped out so I support the idea of setting up a waiting list.

i was also one who sent my littles in late because of last minute hurdles and know this must have caused extra work and headache for Amy esp. I am so sorry for this but hope that there will be this kind of tolerance for others in future swaps.

Perhaps the fee should be increased - I hope Amy does not to have to pay extra postage - it cost me more that $15 to send my contribution in

This was all great fun and BIG THANK YOU to Amy for making this experience happen

mo said...

Your work and efforts in bringing this to us is so wonderful- I so appreciate it because I know what a fun fun fun package this will be! Plus it was so fun to make the goodies. Maybe at the next sign up see if there are 5 or six folks who would be willing to send double orders and then the extras are already there. If they aren't needed (which i have to say is highly unlikely because something always comes up for atleast a person or two and then you have those, it sounded like a good idea at the time folks...) then they could be saved for the following swap. I woyuld be more than happy to do double if it makes it easier on you. In fact, I was raring to go another round as soon as mine were in the mail!

Francie...The Scented Cottage Studio said...

Hmmm, how about having those that want to send you an extra set of littles, then if they aren't needed they could be applied towards the next swap?
While I do understand emergencies you do give us plenty of time (says she who was a day late) and there really is no excuse for not notifying you IMHO. Okay maybe one excuse...
thank-you Amy for doing this (())