Macna raffle FAIL

[gcarroll]

Workers/Vendors/ people not paying for the tickets should not be given tickets to win items. I would feel just as cheated as you. I am the person that once I saw this would have raised holy hell.

Lets not forget that the volunteers are hobbyists just like the rest of us. I not sure it's fair to exclude them from buying tickets. Not saying that giving them tickets is a good look though.

 

[Geebs19]

Lets not forget that the volunteers are hobbyists just like the rest of us. I not sure it's fair to exclude them from buying tickets. Not saying that giving them tickets is a good look though.

I am completely fine if they wanted to buy tickets, I am more speaking to the points a given ticket.

 

[SandJ]

I was at MACNA and have been reading about people’s concerns.

One question I have is this....

What, if anything, do you think the volunteers should receive for putting in their time with MACNA?

I can see how a volunteer could easily put in dozens of hours preparing for a show of this magnitude. Each show takes over a year of preparation. And most of the volunteers I spoke with were working the entire show and did not get to walk the floor and enjoy the show as a hobbiest (and for many this is not the first MACNA they have volunteered at).

And volunteer positions (and perks) are open for anyone to apply.

 

[siggy]

Workers/Vendors/ people not paying for the tickets should not be given tickets to win items. I would feel just as cheated as you. I am the person that once I saw this would have raised holy hell.

Lets not forget that the volunteers are hobbyists just like the rest of us. I not sure it's fair to exclude them from buying tickets. Not saying that giving them tickets is a good look though.

There will always be those that think its rigged...... If they asked you to work your tail off for 12 hours for free would you do it? If they offerd you 10 tickets? now how about 100 tickets....#&!! YA!

 

[Greybeard]

If you place tickets in a cage that rolls/mixes them up, would help boost confidence.

I've been responsible for raffle draws...

We used a CLEAR container, so you can see there are no tickets taped to the rim... visibly shake the tickets up, and pick a random kid from the audience to do the draws.

 

[rkpetersen]

most every place disqualifies management/volunteers/employees/sponsors/member/anyone that has anything to do with the event. That would be fair.

This, this is really the only acceptable answer. Otherwise there is always room for suspicion of fraud. Or at the very least, all tickets should be purchased, although good luck enforcing that one.

 

[rkpetersen]

If they asked you to work your tail off for 12 hours for free would you do it?

Of course! There are huge benefits to volunteering at events like this, early entry, introductions, 'official' status, swag, I'm sure I can't even think of all of them. Boatloads of free tickets that other people are paying good money for, but more importantly, that are dramatically decreasing their chances of winning, shouldn't be one of them. imo.

 

[DibsOnMcRibs]

Personally, i’d be okay with paying a bit extra for my admission if it meant that volunteers and vendors could have their own raffle.
I feel the volunteers should absolutely be compensated for their work.
And lets be real, many of us are dropping hindreds of dollars at these conferences. What’s a few more bucks if it means keeping the conference enjoyable for everybody?

 

[rkpetersen]

visibly shake the tickets up, and pick a random kid from the audience to do the draws.

'Random' kid, oh yeah sure, say that kid looks a lot like you now doesn't he?

 

[Kyler]

I noticed this. Such crap and I will never buy a raffle ticket again (my brothers and I spent $200). Felt like a rip-off 100%.

 

[davejep]

If I had known what I was up against odds wise would have kept money in my wallet. Should be out in the open.
Hey if you buy these tickets there are 10,000 plus free tickets given to “volunteers “
Still never heard of a paid volunteer.
Mansna this will be my last Macna EVER.
Going to let all my reefer friends know as well.

 

[SandJ]

I am guessing that there are numerous volunteers that put in lots of hours and walked away without a raffle prize.

Yes, the volunteers received tickets, but this does not guarantee them a prize.

As far as I know, this is not something new at MACNA. I think the volunteers have always received tickets.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Items raffled off are, correct me if I'm wrong, freely given to the event by the vendors and sponsors.

Event operators that give raffle tickets to volunteers as compensation for their duties, must disclose to the public that this happens if the tickets are equal to the public's ticket chances. In fairness to everyone.

A separate raffle for them could include "better" prizes, disclosed to the public in fairness. This as a way to promote people to volunteer for these events.

If I was attending and they called for the volunteers raffle and the prizes were slightly better, I would understand why and I might even want to volunteer for the next event! It's fair and it's reasonable.

 

[gcarroll]

Items raffled off are, correct me if I'm wrong, freely given to the event by the vendors and sponsors.

I am not sure with MACNA but for RAP shows, some items a donated, some are in exchange for other services (ie: sponsorship, booth payment), and some are outright purchased to bolster the raffle.

 

[d2mini]

At our local show, the volunteers (and me for doing the graphics) get free full passes. Not free raffle tickets.
If volunteers AND staff want to BUY tickets, more power to them.

FWIW, I went to the Miami Macna a few years ago and won a bunch of stuff.

 

[d2mini]

I am not sure with MACNA but for RAP shows, some items a donated, some are in exchange for other services (ie: sponsorship, booth payment), and some are outright purchased to bolster the raffle.

Yep, that's usually how it goes.
Not enough donations to do a whole other raffle for volunteers/staff. People don't realize how much work goes into JUST acquiring raffle items.

 

[Tristren]

Just putting this up for discussion.
Lots of great prizes from Neptune, Ecotech etc.
This is a picture of one of the volunteers free tickets for the raffle.
She won the apex system donated by Neptune.
Each ticket was 20 individual tickets for the draws.
The rest of us had to pay $20 a sheet
I saw more than one person with piles like this .
Feel scammed having spent my $100 to try and win something only to see “volunteer” after volunteer winning stuff.
Never again for me, just put the icing on the cake of Macna being a miss for me from now on.
Whole thing was a big disappointment.

Given the form that showed they get 3 sheets for 5 hours of work, either that person worked for days or they bought a lot of tickets as well.

Either way, with the numbers of tickets people seem to have bought it doesn't seem like they would be overwhelmed by the "free" volunteer sheets.

I suspect it may be more likely that these are people who are a) hobbiests like the rest of us and b) willing to donate their time to support this event and so therefore they are also likely to buy raffle tickets for it as well.

 

[Rakie]

Didn’t have any issues on how they were drawn that was fine.
But when you pay $20 for your 20 tickets and someone involved in the draw gets 1000 plus free tickets.
Something is a bit fishy.

Are you 100% certain they got them free? Very often volunteers throw in a LOT of their own money because they're gamblers.. I see it year after year. More than a few volunteers spend upwards of $1000 on tickets.

EDIT: Ah I see, they got sheets of raffle tickets for their time.. Yeah... That's a bit generous.

 

[Larry L]

I have worked all the MACNA shows from 2014 through 2018 so far, and am not a spokesperson for MASNA or MACNA, just a hobbyist in Denver with no affiliations. And, I've helped with the raffle draws every one of those years, which means despite all the awesome prizes, I've chosen to sit out purchasing (or being given) any tickets at all to avoid any appearance of cheating. (If you were there this year for the final drawing, I was the guy handing Rob and Kevin all the boxes.) The other folks who help with the raffle draws are MACNA staff and/or MASNA organization board members who also never put any tickets in the raffle for the same reason. (I do not have anything to do with deciding how volunteers are rewarded for the time they put in, so don't ask me.)

The year I went the person doing the drawing won a few prizes.

I'm curious to know which MACNA this was - I know this has not been the case in at least the past 5 years that I have been involved.

Are you 100% certain they got them free? Very often volunteers throw in a LOT of their own money because they're gamblers.. I see it year after year. More than a few volunteers spend upwards of $1000 on tickets.

It's not unusual for folks to drop hundreds (or thousands) of dollars on the raffle. There's one guy (not a volunteer) who I see every year who I bet drops a thousand dollars (or more) a day. In the other raffle related thread that has a photo of all the ticket stubs one person is holding, there's a guess that there's maybe 80 sheets there - if those were all freebies given to a volunteer as a reward for helping work the show, that means to get them all for free they would have had to work all three days of the show for about 44 hours a day.


Larry

 

[Rakie]

What happened is someone screwed up and gave out way too many tickets.