30th July 2010, Friday
Founder’s Day and Recess/ After School/ PTM 30th July Sales
This was our first major sales among the school population. We had three venues in 6 hours: our canteen during recess, RJ’s canteen after school and Junior Block during PTM.
The origin of this sale was when the big group decided that we should have small-scale sales to sell our umbrellas among Year 1-4 Rafflesians. As such, we decided to pick up Friday as the best option as we are exposed to the whole school population during combined recess. The original plan was to set up the booth, after filling up a proposal to the school, on the 23rd and 30th July, after making a speech to the whole school too.
Our group had pulled off the speech pretty well, although we did it through the PA system since it was raining that morning. Sadly, we couldn’t show the target audience the umbrella either, as planned. Even worse, while we had announced that we planned to have a booth on 23rd, unfortunately there was an ambassador talk (by the Saudi Arabian embassy) and recess was thus delayed. We did not roll out the carpets.
The next day was Founder’s Day sales.
I got the call from Mrs. Yap after school that Friday that we had gained permission from the school administration to set up a booth during Founder’s day. A great opportunity “as there are many happy parents, who had seen their sons go up on stage to receive a prize... They’ll surely want to get an umbrella!”
Yes we saw a surge in the sales of umbrellas, a whooping 73 umbrellas, i.e. $1111, with a $16 donation. Although there were very few parents who had purchased the umbrellas before the ceremony, as I think we had missed the first wave of parents, I think we sort of accidentally raised a lot of attention from the teachers who were lined up, getting ready for staff procession. There were indeed many parents after the ceremony in the reception area, taking a meal. So here we made the rest of the sales. It was a great, encouraging voyage.
And yet there is more to come next Friday (30th July) during our sales in school!
Meanwhile Ahmad had prepared a list for marking off the no. of umbrellas sold, a checklist, which became handy to keep a rough gage, if not accurate, of the sales of umbrellas. On Thursday, I received approval from Mrs. Yap that we are able to set up booth during PTM, and revamped my allocation schedule, called the group leaders who sent the information to their members, and also sent a reminder via email.
The attendance was ok, because during Founder’s Day people were difficult to find in setting up the booth. However, we lacked manpower after school during PTM, as half of the people I scheduled and even informed did not turn up. Nevertheless, here goes the tale…
For recess, the plan was that Yue Heng would miss half of his PE lesson, grateful to whom our sales wouldn’t have taken off that recess. He personally brought the things from the HML, and maybe set up the booth as well.
Ah it was also raining during recess, the perfect opportunity!! 19 umbrellas I thought was a good figure for sales as I do not expect that many Rafflesians would buy it. I also met old friends who bought the umbrella, or said hi and visited the booth at least. I even posed for Ho Sheng Yi in the rain for demonstration! Fun’s the word.
Later after school, I made sure that Khang Hwee and his team are prepared to go the RJC for sales. After my prayers I found out that the poor guy didn’t find a table, although I don’t know whether he sold any. He had also kindly brought everything to the junior block and set up a booth, which when I visited I saw Zhong Sheng.
After adjusting the booth a little, I had to perform my duty as chairman, to manage my classroom. Fortunately, I have great friends, especially my class CEC, Sean Sum, and replacement Phedro, who had also bought the umbrellas. Thanks go to 3I CECs for being nice to me.
It was very risky sneaking in and out of my classroom, and I was caught by Mrs. Maas twice at the booth. Ouch.
So when I went up I decided to call Mrs. Yap for assistance, as I also found that the booth wasn’t satisfactory too. Thankfully, when she came to the Junior Block many things changed. She had taken charge of the booth and we were sending whoever was there (Yui Fai, Giang, Khanh and me) all over the place. Only then did we manage to sell so many umbrellas among the parents. Sigh; if only the scheduled people came we could have been more efficient.
With the help of a parent volunteer, we had also achieved many supporters. She had even went around asking parents to buy Raffles umbrellas among passers-by, and this was great help as we were lacking manpower. I had also met a lady who had kindly suggested that we should do sales in her office, and we proposed a date that is 11th August which is school holiday. I have her name card.
So we sold many umbrellas. This was also a first time for Khang Hwee’s group. Yui Fai made a leap in approaching parents all over the S. Rajaratnam block.
In the end, we made $1607.10 in a total of 6 hours, i.e. sold all 107 umbrellas. This so completes our earlier consignment from Founder’s Day. Oh yeah, I was resourceful enough to sell my own umbrellas too, finishing the 5 remainder during PTM. Also, in truth we made an extra of $30, which is not meant to be accounted as part of the 107 umbrellas.
I love the experience. It’s thrilling, it’s fun.
Thank you…
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