Originally written by Helen Francini

What you did?
Solicited ads to be placed in the souvenir booklet from everyone who had a complete address in the extant "program book ad sales.xls" spreadsheet, and handled all replies. Forwarded ad files to Publications as they came in.

What went right?
Generated $1,625.00 of ad sales revenue in 8 weeks.

What went wrong?
Was unable to access the documents on Google because for some reason the password wasn't working; this was fixed when the spreadsheet was forwarded directly to me, so no catastrophies ensued.

What should be done differently next year?
Bring ad sales person in much sooner in the cycle.

Offer a cheaper price to advertisers who reserve ad space early (like, four months or more before the convention).

Also lower the ad rates -- I know of at least one person who did not place an ad but would have done if only she could have afforded it. Simplify the size of the ads: eliminate the 1/3-page and 1/6-page sizes, and offer only full page, half page horizontal, quarter-page, or business card size. Offering fewer sizes will make things easier both for advertisers and for the Publications department. (I am aware that changes to pricing and sizes will have to be approved by the executive committee, or some such.)

What sort of schedule/timeline did you use?
Only to get everything done ASAP because by the time I became involved with the process; there was no time to spare.

Are the any changes you'd make to the schedule for next year?
See "What should be done differently next year?"

Vendors you used?
Staples, for envelopes and paper; the USPS for stamps.

Experiments to try next year?
Collect as many emails of people on the list as possible and send out the first solicitation electronically to cut down on costs.

Grateful thanks to Tem, Crystal Huff, Paul Selkirk and Ben Levy for their assistance and support!