JT Smith

Due to the feedback we’ve gotten from previous year’s surveys, as well as many blog posts and other rants in the Perl community, we’ve decided to replace the long-standing tradition of a charity auction with something new at YAPC::NA 2012. We thought about perhaps doing a silent auction, but we wanted to set it apart from that, and we wanted to make something that anybody could get in on, not just those with large amounts of cash to spare. So instead, we’ve decided to do a series of raffles.

Here’s how it will work. Well before the conference we’re going to announce a series of raffle prizes. For example, if our sponsor Linode were to give us a couple of 1-year hosting plans as prizes, then those would be added to one of the raffle drawings. If you were interested in that particular prize, then you could buy one or more tickets to that drawing for $10 each. A ticket will be drawn for however many prizes we have in a given category. The first ticket holder to be drawn will get first pick on that raffle, and then we’ll draw the next name, until that category has been depleted of prizes.

We may allow raffle ticket sales online, but definitely all through-out the conference we’ll be selling raffle tickets. In addition, all through-out the conference we’ll be doing various drawings at the Plenary Sessions, the banquet, and the Lightening Talks. 

All proceeds of the raffle will be earmarked to support the continued development of Perl. 

We think that by going to a raffle system we get a number of advantages.

1. The banquet won’t be interrupted for very long, allowing you much more social time.
2. Having lots of small raffles through-out the conference rather than one huge auction keeps things moving, and less boring.
3. No auction means no begging.
4. Having raffle tickets set at $10 each, rather than prizes that sometimes go for more than $100 each, means that everybody can afford to get involved.

We hope you agree.