It’s a glamorous night - as Permian Basin residents and supporters of children throughout the area gather to support High Sky Children’s Ranch.
The Crystal Ball annual fundraising event is always a spectacular site - even if you’re only watching the newest dresses and fashions that walk into the Petroleum Club in Midland, Texas.
The event features a lively, high end live auction; several fun items in the silent auction, dancing and camaraderie for everyone.
So, was it a ON BRAND EVENT? Let’s see…
FOOD: It was fantastic again! I’ve had the pleasure of attending this event for many years and the “theme” this year was an oriental style feel with bamboo chairs, oriental style decor and orchids donning every table. Even the food plates, sporting almost a sushi style decor, showed the oriental style. The food went right along with it with the only drawback that the Petroleum Club was truly not ready for the growth of this great event. One serving line for an event that has grown to the point that the band had to be relocated to the first floor of the building, means that there are more “butts in the seats” and this means more people in the line. The LIVE AUCTION was slated to begin at 8 p.m. but could not begin because the serving line housed almost every participant of the event standing and waiting. I don’t fault the volunteers for this slow down but the Petroleum Club, as a venue that caters to this type of event, needs to re-evaluate how they serve this function and realize that the attendance has increase so in form they need to increase the opportunity for food service, may be another serving line, perhaps?
ENTERTAINMENT: The band was 10x better than the band from last year. Kudos to the volunteer team for securing a “good entertaining” band for the event! It was a little weird to hear a woman sing George Strait’s “All My Exes Live In Texas” (c’mon there are just some names that rhyme in that song that do not equate anywhere close to a man’s name!) but other than that they did a fine job. I truly believe the event has a huge hurdle in that they’ve outgrown the venue, The Petroleum Club. It makes it challenging because party goers have to climb the stairs up AND down to make it to the dance floor which means by the time they arrive the song might be at the end and they have to hope upon hope that a good song will be up next. Perhaps, since we do not have many large banquet facilities in Midland that provide worthy service or atmosphere for an event such as this, they need to think about listing a “song sheet” with the upcoming dance tunes so that participants can know when to come down stairs to enjoy their favorite music. Just a thought! Although I have to say the event was the MOST FUN when you could sit at your table and see everyone dancing, it felt like we were all together instead of a two separate events - one upstairs and one downstairs.
VOLUNTEERS: The volunteers at this event are by far, the BEST VOLUNTEERS in town! Any shortcomings that the event may experience they make up with their service and their sincere APPRECIATION! The only change would be the auctioneer - he would of been great for a goat auction but did not fit well at a high end, gala event! Not one with the excellent reputation of the Crystal Ball. Starting the auction items too low, haggling too much back and forth on the price, he burned valuable time AND he didn’t know the participants at their tables so he couldn’t have good fun with them, nor call them by name and get them extra recognition and he didn’t even auction the items in order. Plus, he would haggle from $25 to $50 on crystal pieces that were auctioning for thousands! It lasted too long, because the auctioneer was inexperienced FOR THIS EVENT. Mind you EXPERIENCE AT AN EVENT counts for a lot. Regular sponsors and bidders can be recognized - people can be “pitted” against each other all in fun, competitive, lively, good hearted bidding. I never have time during the past auctions to make it to the ladies room and yet this year I did, had a full blown conversation, go a drink before returning to the table, and the auction was still painstakingly behind. Bring Steve Taylor back and book him accordingly so that the auction will run ON-TIME and IN FUN which is something that didn’t happen this year. But, go figure - they raised loads of money (for a great, great cause!); there was some “hoopin’ and hollerin;” and a whole lot of “atta-boys” - just be mindful of the feedback from all the event goers.
SPONSORS: I have to say that this event does a FANTASTIC JOB RECOGNIZING THEIR SPONSORS. And, after all, don’t people like and want to be valued? It’s true in business but also with non-profits. While we might love the cause, people still give to people. So sincere appreciation is VALUABLE.
Congrats and 5-Buzz Points to the Crystal Ball 2008 for a spectacular event!!!
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