The calendar contest has prizes!

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CarvedTones

Board of Directors, Vice President
Andy
The contest was announced a while back:
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/showthread.php?p=454935#poststop

The short story is that you take a good picture (fairly high res) of a project and upload it, choosing the category as "2014 Calendar Contest" and the sub category for the type of work. You could get a $25 gift card. Right now, there are so few entries the odds are not bad. We can't keep extending the contest indefinitely; it has been extended through the end of this month and going a week or two more might be doable, but we need the entries before the holidays are on us. Please see the earlier thread for the complete rules (pretty much everyone but BOD members is eligible and it has to be your work).
 

merrill77

Master Scrap Maker
Chris
I'm still a bit confused as to why (how?) we're having a "Calendar" contest if there will be no calendars? Or at the very least, why is it still called a Calendar contest? Ok, I get the part about it not selling enough calendars. But why continue?

Here's my feedback, for what it's worth: For me, the motivating factor was to have a calendar hanging on the wall with my work on it. To give to my parents and other friends/family. It was partially an ego thing. Ok, mostly an ego thing. That's why I spent the many hours that it took to stage and produce a photo good enough to enter. Without an actual calendar, the motivation is gone. Cash prize was not a factor. A nice bonus, being just enough for a small tool, but not really a motivating factor. Judging by the lack of entries, it appears I am not alone.

Perhaps next year we could try pre-selling the calendar? If not enough calendars are sold, no contest, no effort expended, no effort wasted. Kinda like a Kickstarter project. And we should pre-sell enough to be a money-raiser for the site...not just break even. If not enough people want it, then the effort is better spent elsewhere (e.g. outreach). We could try selling the calendar on CafePress for a little extra revenue generation, like this one. (dunno if that is allowed?). Anyway, there's my 2c.

Chris
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
Chris,

There will be a calendar. We just will not be selling it but will be giving it away *FREE* as a PDF file.

If you have a high quality inkjet or color laser printer you will be able to print it yourself. If you don't you'll be able to take it to Staples, Office Max or Depot, or any of the print while you wait shops and have a professional calendar printed for a nominal fee, probably about the same cost as we'd have to sell it for.

Since high quality inkjet printers are so prevalent these days we thought this would be an excellent alternative to us spending a lot of your donation money printing up a calendar whose sales never break even.
 

merrill77

Master Scrap Maker
Chris
Thanks for the clarification, Ken.

So why not set up shop on Zazzle or CafePress so anyone can easily order one? That's what they guy whose calendar I referenced earlier has done - and he makes a profit on each calendar sold. Since anyone can make a custom calendar for $20, I'll bet he's making ~ $8 on each $28 calendar.
 

ScottM

Scott
Staff member
Corporate Member
Thanks for the clarification, Ken.

So why not set up shop on Zazzle or CafePress so anyone can easily order one? That's what they guy whose calendar I referenced earlier has done - and he makes a profit on each calendar sold. Since anyone can make a custom calendar for $20, I'll bet he's making ~ $8 on each $28 calendar.

Chris we, NCWW, have used CafePress for years. I think that stopped in 2011 or 2012. Even with repeated reminders we never had individual members order them. The issue with CafePress is the charge like $18 per calendar and then tack on something like $5.95 for shipping. We did do a bulk buy but most of those who did purchase calendars were the winners.
 

merrill77

Master Scrap Maker
Chris
Chris we, NCWW, have used CafePress for years. I think that stopped in 2011 or 2012. Even with repeated reminders we never had individual members order them. The issue with CafePress is the charge like $18 per calendar and then tack on something like $5.95 for shipping. We did do a bulk buy but most of those who did purchase calendars were the winners.

Hmmm...thanks for the info. I have bought the calendars for the past few years and don't ever remember being able to buy them this way. I guess I only saw the group buy info. That seems like a reasonable price for a custom calendar...I must be getting less [STRIKE]cheap[/STRIKE] thrifty in my old age :D.
 

nn4jw

New User
Jim
Let me see if I've understood this project correctly.

There's a $50 gift certificate prize for the cover photo. There is a $25 certificate for each of the months for a grand total of $350 in prizes.

I cannot tell if the gift certificates were donated or paid for out of the NCWW budget.

In past years not enough calendars were sold to break even. So this year the calendars will be PDF documents that individuals can download for free and print at home.

And at this point in time there haven't been enough photos submitted to even make up a calendar.

Does that about sum it up?
 

Bugle

Preston
Corporate Member
Can the same photo be entered in different categories, i.e., "cover", "turnings", "small items", etc.?
 

Berta

Berta
Corporate Member
There's a $50 gift certificate prize for the cover photo. There is a $25 certificate for each of the months for a grand total of $350 in prizes.

Correct.
 

ScottM

Scott
Staff member
Corporate Member
Let me see if I've understood this project correctly.

There's a $50 gift certificate prize for the cover photo. There is a $25 certificate for each of the months for a grand total of $350 in prizes.

I cannot tell if the gift certificates were donated or paid for out of the NCWW budget.

In past years not enough calendars were sold to break even. So this year the calendars will be PDF documents that individuals can download for free and print at home.

And at this point in time there haven't been enough photos submitted to even make up a calendar.

Does that about sum it up?

Jim I do not recall when the first contest was but I want to say about 7-8 years ago. It was never about making a profit or even breaking even. It should be noted we did make a samll profit one year through a lot if pushing and hard work by Steve Coles. The contest was always about recognition. To allow NCWW members to be recognized by their peers. It was meant to encourage members to show off their stuff. To try harder. To participate more. Steve started this like many other NCWW functions and features to get and keep people involved with the site. In the early years he even donated all the prizes and paid for the winner's calendars. It meant that much to him.
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
Let me see if I've understood this project correctly.

There's a $50 gift certificate prize for the cover photo. There is a $25 certificate for each of the months for a grand total of $350 in prizes.

I cannot tell if the gift certificates were donated or paid for out of the NCWW budget.

In past years not enough calendars were sold to break even. So this year the calendars will be PDF documents that individuals can download for free and print at home.

And at this point in time there haven't been enough photos submitted to even make up a calendar.

Does that about sum it up?

Yes, that is close.

The gift certificates are purchased at a discount by NCWW. So our advertisers are supporting us with a substantial discount but not the complete purchase price.

We are doing what we can to solicit more entries. Don't understand why our members don't want to display their excellent work and have a chance to win a valuable prize.
 

nn4jw

New User
Jim
Thanks, Berta, Scott and Ken. I wasn't judging - just checking my understanding of what's happening with this project so far.

None of what follows is me suggesting that you don't produce the calendar. But you were wondering why there doesn't seem to be much interest in it and I'll just address why I'm not interested. Not why others may or may not be interested.

Just for the fun I googled "Do calendars sell?". Plenty of discussion out there on that topic. It seems that calendars are a tough sell these days all around for any number of reasons.

But rather than try to make a universal statement (which I'm certainly not qualified to anyway) I'll just say why I, personally, haven't bothered with or been interested in wall hung calendars for some number of years.

First, wall space. Not much free space for a calendar in either my shop or my home. The shop doesn't have any empty walls space. Where there is any wall space in the house there's a family picture or such. (There actually is a calendar hung on the breaker box door in the shop. I can't tell you what month is showing or whether or not it's actually even this year's calendar - let alone what the subject matter is for the pictures. Until just now I'd forgotten it was there.)

Second, my wife and I use Google calendar to mark appointments so we can each see all our appointments on both our computers and smart phones. Many times handier than marking a paper calendar and carrying that around. And if I'm wondering what the date is I can pull it up instantly simply by mousing over the time in the lower right corner of my pc screen. No need to mark up a paper calendar. A calendar that doesn't have day boxes, just numbers, even less useful.

(Several years before I retired we couldn't even get desk calendars at work any longer. We used a global calendaring system (Novell Groupwise) on our networked pc's.)

As a side note, I love watches. I have quite a few wrist and pocket watches. All put away now and not used for several years. Date, time, appointments - all on my smart phone. Don't carry a note pad either - all on the smart phone.

My son, who is in his 30's now, has never worn a watch. Never saw the point or the need since that info is on his phone.

Between computers, tablets and smart phones we're rapidly becoming a paperless society. Except for junk mail.

We have one paper calendar in our house and it's on the kitchen fridge. That's my wife's territory and I don't get to displace that calendar or any of the numerous fridge magnets there. Don't have any input to the subject matter of that calendar either. But I can tell you she isn't interested in woodworking.

There are thousands of pictures of NCWW projects on this site. Random examples pop up all the time for us to enjoy. Some really beautiful works. Much more inspiring to me than a static set of calendar pictures.

I might look at the NCWW pdf calendar online once out of curiosity. But I wouldn't print it or hang it anywhere.

But that's just me.
 

rcarmac

Board of Directors, Secretary
Robert
Staff member
Corporate Member
I would recommend not extending the deadline out. The deadline has been adjusted a couple of times, the last extending it to the end of the month for over a month and a half of extensions. I don't think an additional 2 weeks will make a difference. Plenty of time has been given to submit. Sometimes you just cant get people interested. In order for this not to be a lost effort, I would make the recommendation that if each category doesn't have 3 entries, the categories be put to the side and the 12 best projects voted on. I currently count 11 different projects that have been submitted. Almost enough for the calendar if you disregard the categories.
 

ScottM

Scott
Staff member
Corporate Member
Thanks, Berta, Scott and Ken. I wasn't judging - just checking my understanding of what's happening with this project so far.

None of what follows is me suggesting that you don't produce the calendar. But you were wondering why there doesn't seem to be much interest in it and I'll just address why I'm not interested. Not why others may or may not be interested.

Just for the fun I googled "Do calendars sell?". Plenty of discussion out there on that topic. It seems that calendars are a tough sell these days all around for any number of reasons.

But rather than try to make a universal statement (which I'm certainly not qualified to anyway) I'll just say why I, personally, haven't bothered with or been interested in wall hung calendars for some number of years.

First, wall space. Not much free space for a calendar in either my shop or my home. The shop doesn't have any empty walls space. Where there is any wall space in the house there's a family picture or such. (There actually is a calendar hung on the breaker box door in the shop. I can't tell you what month is showing or whether or not it's actually even this year's calendar - let alone what the subject matter is for the pictures. Until just now I'd forgotten it was there.)

Second, my wife and I use Google calendar to mark appointments so we can each see all our appointments on both our computers and smart phones. Many times handier than marking a paper calendar and carrying that around. And if I'm wondering what the date is I can pull it up instantly simply by mousing over the time in the lower right corner of my pc screen. No need to mark up a paper calendar. A calendar that doesn't have day boxes, just numbers, even less useful.

(Several years before I retired we couldn't even get desk calendars at work any longer. We used a global calendaring system (Novell Groupwise) on our networked pc's.)

As a side note, I love watches. I have quite a few wrist and pocket watches. All put away now and not used for several years. Date, time, appointments - all on my smart phone. Don't carry a note pad either - all on the smart phone.

My son, who is in his 30's now, has never worn a watch. Never saw the point or the need since that info is on his phone.

Between computers, tablets and smart phones we're rapidly becoming a paperless society. Except for junk mail.

We have one paper calendar in our house and it's on the kitchen fridge. That's my wife's territory and I don't get to displace that calendar or any of the numerous fridge magnets there. Don't have any input to the subject matter of that calendar either. But I can tell you she isn't interested in woodworking.

There are thousands of pictures of NCWW projects on this site. Random examples pop up all the time for us to enjoy. Some really beautiful works. Much more inspiring to me than a static set of calendar pictures.

I might look at the NCWW pdf calendar online once out of curiosity. But I wouldn't print it or hang it anywhere.

But that's just me.

Jim thanks for your response. Points well taken. Calendars are a love/hate situation. I still like at least one on which hangs on the fridge. In my house it is the gospel on who has to be where and when. I have one in my shop, not an NCWW calendar, and it is still on January 2013.
 

ScottM

Scott
Staff member
Corporate Member
I would recommend not extending the deadline out. The deadline has been adjusted a couple of times, the last extending it to the end of the month for over a month and a half of extensions. I don't think an additional 2 weeks will make a difference. Plenty of time has been given to submit. Sometimes you just cant get people interested. In order for this not to be a lost effort, I would make the recommendation that if each category doesn't have 3 entries, the categories be put to the side and the 12 best projects voted on. I currently count 11 different projects that have been submitted. Almost enough for the calendar if you disregard the categories.

There will be no further extensions.
 

CarvedTones

Board of Directors, Vice President
Andy
The deadline doesn't need to be extended this time as we have received several entries, but I would still love to see more. As Scott said, this is more about recognition than anything else and the calendar format is historical (no pun intended :D). Anyway, this post is also a bump to give people thinking about it a little push; this is the last weekend.
 

ehpoole

Administrator
Ethan
So when does the voting begin for the calendar photos?

Whenever you all want to.

I've gone ahead and closed uploading and taken down the sidebar ad for the time being. To start voting someone need only turn on voting for each of the eligible categories.
 

Phil S

Phil Soper
Staff member
Corporate Member
just some suggestions:

We do not have enough in each to do the normal vote for three in each category so, how about
Turnings entries 5 vote for 3
Furniture entries 9 vote for 4
Small items entries 9 vote for 4
Shop items entries 1 vote for 1
Use the one submitted photo for the cover and put the art chest on the back

Again, I will create the calendar as soon as voting is complete
 

ehpoole

Administrator
Ethan
just some suggestions:

We do not have enough in each to do the normal vote for three in each category so, how about
Turnings entries 5 vote for 3
Furniture entries 9 vote for 4
Small items entries 9 vote for 4
Shop items entries 1 vote for 1
Use the one submitted photo for the cover and put the art chest on the back

Again, I will create the calendar as soon as voting is complete

Phil,

To the greatest extent of my knowledge and recollection the only vote(s) we have ever supported multiple voting opportunities within (that is, within the same ballot) is the annual Board Election Ballot, which is entirely independent of our Gallery software.

Unless someone knows of something I'm missing (in which case *please* speak up!) I know of no way to allow members to vote for multiple photos within the same Gallery category (i.e. members can only vote once within each calendar category).

I believe we simply chose the three photos within a given category that had the most total votes.

PS - Unfortunately there is one ineligible photo that a member uploaded to an invalid category (it was placed into the top-level of the 2014 Calendar gallery and not one of the 5 categories eligible for voting).
 
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