Autographed Sideshow Poster Auction Ends Tonight!
Fundraising is hard. Even a worthy cause, like science and critical thinking education and outreach, competes for attention with so many worthy causes. Since taking over SkepchickCon organizing, I have wracked my brain to come up with new ways of raising the money we need without having to constantly ask you to donate.
Most con organizers will tell you that just breaking even is the best they can hope for, and even that is rare. Since SkepchickCon is just a track in the larger CONvergence con, we don’t get any part of the registration fees or sponsorships. We have to raise the money entirely on our own to cover the travel expenses to bring experts to our panels, the materials cost for panels, the track room, and workshops–things you might not even think of, such as shipping bacteria from New Zealand.
These eBay auctions are one way of offering a little something in return for your donation, especially if you aren’t able to attend the con. The videos we are in the process of editing, transcribing, and uploading are another way of making the results of your donations accessible to as many people as possible.
And speaking of accessibility, one of our goals for next year is to ramp up our efforts to make the con itself as accessible as possible for people with disabilities. This year, we paid to have more space and seating in the Skepchick Sideshow room, and we are not releasing any of the videos without accompanying transcription. But there is so much more we can–and should–do.
We need your help. I know that not everyone can afford the $75 for a poster. I can’t. That’s a lot of freaking money! But we set it high because this is more than just an auction. It’s crucial fundraising. Trust me: We are not selling these for profit. Not even close.
If you can afford to bid, please, please consider doing so. These are one-of-a-kind items, the actual posters we hung in the Skepchick Sideshow room this year, signed by the Skepchicks, Freethought Bloggers, and our special guests. They are even more beautiful than my crappy photos indicate. If you can’t afford to but want to help out in some way, an immediate need we have is more help with transcribing the videos. Send an email to me at [email protected] to volunteer for transcription or video editing.
To read more about the Skepchick Sideshow room, click here. To see all posters up for auction, click here. The auctions all end tonight, starting at 9 pm EDT. And if you decide to get more than one, or even collect them all, we will combine shipping.
Thank you!
