Hello, FAR-West Friends!
After learning so much from organizing last year’s raffle, I am really excited to be on board again this year. I know that many FAR-West attendees look forward to participating either by donating an item or a service, or by taking their chances to win a prize. And I also know that the money raised goes to a good cause, the Howard Larman Memorial Scholarship. which helps musicians with a financial difficulty who may not otherwise be able to attend our conference.
FAR-West is now ready to start accepting donations for the 2016 raffle! I have made some changes, including creating a dedicated email account. So please send all correspondence about the raffle to me, Chrissie Natoli, at: farwestraffle@gmail.com. Last year was a challenge for me as I was learning the raffle-ropes. Using this email address only for raffle business will make it easier to organize and be sure I don’t miss anything. So please send any raffle communications to me at farwestraffle@gmail.com starting...NOW! :-)
In case you are new to FAR-West and are wondering what our raffle is all about, let me explain. At the conference, we will have a display of items that have been donated. This display will move to where the action is around the conference, i.e. near the registration desk in the morning, the networking center during the afternoon, and outside the big evening concerts. Everyone will be curious to see what is being offered and anxious to make a bid on their favorite prizes. Also, the items will be listed in the program book, which all conference-goers will keep (if they’re like me) forever. So if you have a business, service, or item that you want to get out in front of the music and storytelling community, our raffle is a great place for it! And, of course, the prize-drawing on Sunday morning is one of the highlights of the whole event.
Here are some ideas from past raffles: a vocal lesson, visual art services, studio time, songwriting retreat, photography, massage, bio-writing (We ALL want to win that one!), tickets to an event or house concert series….or if you have a connection to a music store or organization that might be interested in donating, I’d love to hear about that, too. You are all creative and it’s an ever changing industry, so we are excited to see just what you come up with!!
THANK YOU all always for your talent, community, and generosity!
Sincerely,
--Chrissie Natoli