Thanksgiving Caring and Sharing train - sign ups closed

[chitownmelli]

THANKSGIVING CARING AND SHARING TRAIN

Oh yeah, it's that time of year again, when my giving spirit is on a rampage! Who will join me? I hope 65 members (if there is more interest than that, we will create more seats, the more the merrier!) will join in the giving spirit this holiday season and hop on another one of my rip roarin fun time trains while we chugga chugga choo choo through the holidays!

What's the skinny, the low down, the 411?

This is going to be a massive train. It is also going to be a contest. Dominicsmommy and I will be running it together, and we will each be the leader of our own separate teams. My trains always have a twist, catch, or task to be performed, and so this one will not be any different. In addition to sending envies to 3 assigned members, you will also be pledging privately to donate something to your community. The donations can fall into different categories, with different point values, and the team with the most points at the end of the contest period will win. More on that later in the thread. The prize for the winning team is a RAOK from a member of the other team. The top "giver" from each team will receive a RAOK envie from either me or Dominicsmommy.

Requirements

Any member of the trader group with an itrader score of 5 or higher and no negative feedback will be allowed to ride this train. You may ride up to 3 trains at a time @ HCW, so if you are already on 3, we hope to catch you next time.

You must be able to send 75 quality coupons (25 to each assigned person) with the possibility of sending a RAOK envie later to someone from the other team if yours does not pledge the most donated items. The RAOKs are not required to have 25 q's, but should be quality envies, just like any other envie. No coupon may expire before November 15th unless they are extras and you have already checked with your buddy to make sure it is okay.

Food q's are a nice item to send right now, but are not required. You should follow your buddy's wishlist as a guideline to start, and then send q's that you think would compliment their needs after that. Extras are fine, just remember to watch your postage. Absolutely NO junk is allowed in these envies. We all know what is considered junk, and a remail will be required if a junk envie is sent.

Also, if your envie is not received at the two week point a remail will be required.

It is required that each member post to their thread when they mail out and when they receive their envies, and in the case of being the team that has to send the RAOK to the winning team, you must post then, as well.

Mail out day is October 31st or November 1st. Whichever works best for you. We are not allowing early mail out on this train.

A donation of one of the suggested items IS required to ride this train. It will be done on the honor system. We do hope that everyone will follow through with their pledges, as this is the time of year when our neighbors need us most.

The donation portion

We have 4 different ideas for you each to pledge for donation, which you will do after you have been assigned a team. This thread will actually be closed after sign ups are complete and we will branch off into two separate threads ~ one for each team ~ to keep things neater.

By pledging to donate these items, your team will collect points. These points will be tallied up between sign up time and Nov. 8th. This way, if you are at the grocery store and find that you are able to contribute more items to your local food pantry or something, you can still help get your teams score up. Any pledges not received by the 8th will not count. You MUST make an initial pledge (after teams have been assigned, you will find instructions after this section) to even be allowed your seat on the train, even if it is just a pledge of one food item to the food drive or food pantry, that is totally fine. We can all do different things, and that's all we want, is for us each to help in our own special ways.

Okay, here are the 4 things you can chose from, and the point values for each. These donations are done BY YOU, in your own community.

Donate a food item to a food drive or food pantry, basically any place that collects food for sharing --- 1 point per food item donated.

Create a HBA or food basket for someone in your community using your stockpile items --- 5 points per basket given

Donate a turkey to either a family that needs it in your community, or to a charity who will use it to share Thanksgiving dinner. --- 5 points per turkey donated (this particular item may be pledged now with the promise to donate it closer to the holiday to be considerate of people's storage capacity and also because the sales get better, and more of us will be able to afford a donation like this with better sales)

Donate an hour of your time to ANY charitable cause --- 5 points per hour of time donated.

HOW TO SIGN UP

1. Make sure you have read this entire thread.
2. Post to this thread "I AGREE". (this means that you have read and agree to ALL of the rules) We will check each person's eligibility and create a rider list.
3. We will randomly assign each member a team
4. After teams are assigned, your conductor will contact you and you will send your addy at that point along with your first pledge. Remember you can pledge additional donations until the 8th,
5. Your conductor will post match ups and the train will go on as usual.

We are tallying points as a way for people's pledges to be private, only they and the conductors will know what they have pledged. In the case of the top "givers" they will have the option of having their name be given, or it can remain private and we will just quietly send their RAOK's :)

Any questions? If so, please do PM me before signing up so that I can get your questions answered. This will be a fast moving train with a ton of record keeping, so it would really be best to clear up any confusion before boarding the train.

[chitownmelli]

Rider list
1. Chitownmelli
2.Dominicsmommy
3.clwarner10
4.frugalstafar
5.chantal12002
6.landuponastar
7.tarheeltwins
8.mommaof2kiddos
9.lilles
10.scouch71
11.jenn1399
12.julz81
13.kookiecrisp
14.lvoskan
15.blte
16.moneysavnmama
17.Elhana
18.mcatwood
19.sushiroll
20.ejboobear
21. beetrothed
22. newatthis
23. austinmomto2
24. joannemturner
25. RobininVT
26. cayro7
27. hillaryef
28. momof4inmi
29. rdot
30. Sammysmom
31. shetlandponyluvr
32. jkelstaten

[clwarner10]

I would love to join his train. I agree to the rules.

[frugalstafar]

This is so great I'd love to be on this train. I Agree!!!!

[chantal12002]

I love your idea! I agree!!!

[dominicsmommy]

I just wanted to hop on here and give a BIG thanks to Melli for organizing this and coming up with the fabulous idea!!

Now lets get to giving:)

Kristy

[Landuponastar]

I Agree! This sounds like great fun!

[ScrappyDoo]

I agree. This sounds like something I can do....YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mommaof2kiddos]

I agree!!!

This will be my first train ride, and I love that its a charitable one!

[lilles]

I agree! How fun!