Basics of the Bake Sale/ Magnet Sale

Bake sales are easy and fun!

First off, a little bit of contact information for Conference Services you'll need later on in this post.

Conference Services

Plaster Student Union, Room 302

Telephone:  417-836-5653

Email:  ConferenceServices@MissouriState.edu

Hours:  Monday through Friday - 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Planning

Plan your general time frame during the month you want a bake sale.  Bring this up with the general meeting and/or the officers, and with them pick a few specific dates and times and which you prefer.  Go with these to Conference Services and reserve a table outside Siceluff or inside the union.  Specify the number of tables and chairs you need.  They’ve been known to be late in the morning of the bake sale with tables because they forgot, so if they don’t show up, badger them at the office or call them.  (When in doubt about a phone number remember that the university’s switchboard is 417.836.5000.)  When the date is reserved, send a sheet around asking people what they’ll make.  That way not everyone makes brownies and nothing but brownies.

Baking Party

Throw a baking party the night before a sale at an officer or member’s house.  It’s a good time for the members, and it encourages people to actually bake instead of saying they’ll make something and then not having social pressure to follow up on it.  You can share baking supplies easily also.  Make sure people record their ingredients, I'll bring up why in a couple paragraphs.

There are lots of things you can do while stuff is in the oven.  Bring games, art supplies, movies.  Massage party!

Setting up Your Table

Individually seal food items in ziploc or plastic.  Ingredients should be listed.  It looks professional, it’s helpful for anyone watching what they eat or with allergies, and if you do something novel with your food then it’s a good conversation starter.  If you have a lot of something and it’s not on track to sell out by the time you’re doing clean up, reduce the price.  Put the Club Banner up on the table.  Bring string and/or tape to secure it down to the front of the table, the wind can be a nuisance and blow it all over.  Make sure you have enough cash and change in the box to facilitate transactions.

Earnings

Count the cashbox before the sale.  Count it again after the sale.  This is a lot easier way to record the earnings than counting each individual transaction.  Make note of which items were popular and what time of day they were popular during, so that you can solicit for best sellers before the next sale.

Banking Basics

Change

Banks usually require change to be rolled and labeled with the amount, as most of them don’t have the automatic coin counters, and if one does it’s usually for account holders only.  Keep paper coin rolls in the cash box, the bank will usually give you several if you ask.  Do not ever use Coinstar;  It exacts a portion of the counted funds as payment.

Transition

To transition the ECCU bank account to new officers:  Pick up the Change of Account Holders card from the bank.  Get it signed and filled out with information by the new officers and the faculty advisor.  Get photocopies of their photo ID’s.  Bring all this back to the bank.  Have the new treasurer do this with you.

Educational Community Credit Union

1221 East Grand, Springfield, MO 65804

Phone: (417) 831-0534 or (866) 439-ECCU
Fax: (417) 831-2719
Lobby Hours:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 8:45 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.
Wednesday: 10 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.
Drive-Up Hours:
Monday – Thursday: 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday: 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

MSU Events Calendar

The MSU Events Calendar shows up on the university's homepage and gives you exposure you won't get anywhere else.  You can advertise any event so long as you put it in early enough for it to go through the system.  Post bake sales, open events, and regular meetings.  Don’t bog the entry heading down.

To post an event in the events calendar: Go to the University home page, see “upcoming events”, and select “complete calendar.”  From there select “submit an event”.  From there log in and post the information.

Designing Flyers

The point of a flyer is to have some eyecatching elements while conveying information.  With that in mind, the follwing generalizations and advice:

a.  Size Matters

8.5x11” flyers are okay to hand out, handbills (flyers printed four to a sheet) are even easier to distribute (they fit in pockets!), but big posters for the wall are best for visibility, showcasing design and artwork, and they make cooler keepsakes.  As of this writing, the Art Club owns a large ream of 11x17” paper, which is the same size as two individual 8.5x11” sheets placed side by side.  Therefore the 11x17” flyers can be printed using any regular printer like the residence halls or computer lab printers, the photocopiers should be able to handle it as well.  It’s just loaded into a separate tray (you probably have to load it yourself) and you make note of that in the printing options on the computer.  This writer only makes posters sized 11x17”.

a.  Sometimes Show Some Skin

Weird metaphor, I know.  Posters meant for the Plaster Student Union should have a light colored or white paper space without text for them to stamp and sign, so factor that into the design.  A beautiful poster is only so classy when it has a post-it attached with the stamp information, and that’s assuming the desk worker lets you get away with that.  You can make multiple versions, which is useful for conserving color expenses if you want some color flyers but are okay with distributing mostly black and white.

b.  Posters/Flyers Should Be Bomb

They are best when they are dramatic and have some personal touch to them.  We are Art Club so they should be artistic, not boring.  Subtle typography is nice but not a main draw.

c.  Flyers Are Easy to Make

They can be made with all kinds of methods.  You can use any combination of assets in Photoshop.

The other really easy way to make a flyer is using a photocopier.  You can draw one with a marker and then photocopy it.  One of the best MSU campus flyers I’ve ever seen was crafted by taping up wrinkled paper and relevant collage imagery together with all of the information written in marker and maybe part of it was typed up, then photocopied.  What else could you photocopy?

d.  Keep in Mind the Audience

I don’t recommend anything too avant-garde to read. Or anything TOO offensive.  Or views that are narrow to the individual and don’t reflect the club.  It’s very easy to see things only from your perspective, so there is potential to damage club image. There’s a reason you run flyers by the president for approval (it’s also to catch typos and wrong dates/times.)  But do BE BOLD.

e.  Printing Requires Small Revisions

Monitors, printers, and copiers are in collusion to mess up your hue value and saturation (black & white or color it applies to both), so always do a print test before you get stuck paying for a large batch, and bring the editable file with you to the computer lab so you can tweak the colors and send it through again.  You could circumvent this problem by only using solid black/white linework with no gradients or tones in your design.

f.  Save Your Work

Always save full editable version of your files if you work digitally.  File storage is so cheap and easy that it’s criminal to not keep copies of both your working files and your finalized files.  This gives you the ability to edit stuff or leave the assets to others who might use it.  And on a self-care note, you can use it in your portfolio later.

g.  Plan According to Paper

Always plan your files to the size of paper.  Images with unplanned space at the side look shoddy.  I strongly recommend sizing your image shy of the printable margin (I use ¼ inch margins) on each side (printers can usually pull off something close to 1/8 inch but it varies., then add the margin to the size when you are done, then saving it as a PDF.  PDF’s are printable EVERYWHERE and are expected by most printers.  They also easily facilitate the print dialogue option “No Scaling” which means it comes out exactly like you planned it instead of it arbitrarily deciding it thinks it can print here or here and resizing your things.

h.  Turn Off Double-Sided Printing

It’s easy to forget and ruin a large batch of prints.

i.  Label Your Things.

Make sure the organization name and the contact information are always posted on flyers.  It's important for both the PSU and Reslife.

Chalking

Chalking is a good way to let people know about the organization or a specific event.  like bake sales, that's definitely an impulse visit, people are outside walking, are hungry, and see the sign!

a.  Chalking Can’t Be Read Upside Down

Placing stuff perpendicular to the sidewalk is a good way to deal with this, as is simply repeating your chalking right next to your original facing the opposite direction.

b.  Succinct

You only have so much time to read something as you're moving.  Also, it’s hard to read chalked messages that are separated out and are meant to be read over a long distance walking.  What if you only notice it while you're in the middle?

c.  If God Can’t Piss On It, Don’t Do It

If it can’t be washed off by rain because it’s on a vertical surface or under an overhang, the organization will get in trouble (See Student Org Handbook).  

d.  Ask for Help

Cover ground faster with more people.

e.  Creativity is Appreciated

Where to go for Printing and Imaging

There are many places on campus that can be helpful when getting stuff printed.

Copy This is a useful place.  Well maybe they aren’t the most knowledgeable but they should be able to help you with printing stuff.  They are also the people to go to if you need banner printing, anything bound, or unusual sizes.

Flatbed Scanners can be found at the Morris Center 5^th floor, The Cheek computer lab, and the library.  Copy This might also have a flatbed scanner, I don’t remember.  The Morris Center has a larger flatbed scanner in addition to the regular sizes.  Copy This has a drum scanner in the back you have to ask for if you have large stuff or long stuff that can be fed into the machine (so no holding down your notebook on top of the scanner).

There is a color printer you can use your printing balance towards at Cheek.  Keep in mind it costs more off your balance than a black and white copy does.  Any campus printer should be able to print 11x17, most printers have a special tray you can load and select from when printing, for sure Morris Center and Cheek have it because I’ve used those.

btw, computer lab printing costs off your semester's balance are (as of 10-01-2012) $0.75 for color sheets and $0.08 for single or duplexed black & white.  The info source assumes 8.5x11 letter format, if costs are different for larger sizes then please update this post.
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