annual orchid auction

Once a year, usually in May or June, OSSC hosts an auction of high-quality orchids. This is the main fund-raising event for the society, and proceeds from this event are vital to the continued operation of Southern California's oldest orchid society. This year's auction will  be held June 9, 2012. Be sure to put the date on your calendar!

2012 ossc annual auction

This year, hundreds of beautiful orchids will be available for sale at OSSC's Annual Orchid Auction. The auction will be held on Saturday, June 9, 2012 starting at 2:00PM at our usual meeting site in the meeting hall of the First Christian Church, 221 South Sixth Street, Burbank, California.  Doors will open at 1:00PM for plant inspection and bidder registration; plant donations will be accepted after 12:30PM. The bidding should be over by 5:00PM. A wide range of orchids will be available, with well-grown varieties of species and hybrids suitable for everyone from the orchid novice through the advanced collector. Door prizes and refreshments will be offered, and admission is free to all. Feel free to bring your friends and neighbors!

This year we are again privileged to have TWO fully accredited AOS Judges, Doug Overstreet and Peter Lin to conduct the auction. Their encyclopedic knowledge of orchids and lively banter always adds to the auction experience.

There are two posters available to download and post (with permission) to advertise this year's auction, one in full color and the other black and white. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to read and print these. You are encouraged to print a few copies and post them at your places of work and commerce.

More information on this year's auction can be found by calling OSSC 2nd VP Michael Salerno at  (818) 848-9546. Michael is still looking for a few volunteers to help with some of the work of preparing for and holding the auction.  Members who are able to help out and have not yet signed up are encouraged to contact him.

2011 ossc annual auction recap

by 2nd Vice President and Auction Chair Michael Selarno

“We have a four plant minimum at our auction,” I kiddingly told a friend of Rose Fistrovic’s, last year’s auction chair. She stayed several hours, and lo and behold, our guest left with, you guessed it, four orchids.

“I spent my entire budget within a half hour,” a first time visitor emailed to me a couple of days later. Apparently, this year’s auction was a crowd pleaser. A heartfelt THANK YOU must be expressed to those who made it happen. Over forty donors, both professional growers/vendors and amateur hobbyists, generously made almost 300 hundred plants and supplies available to bidders at the society’s annual fundraising event. Thanks, so much for your generosity and support.

KUDOS to you. You know who you are. YOU, the volunteers who devoted millions of hours to create a huge success. Phone calls to donors. Graphic design. Plant pick up, maintenance, transportation, grooming, inspection, testing, check in and processing, moving, packing, tracking. Publicity. Auctioneering. Bidder registration. Cashiering. Computer recording. Photography. Food and beverage preparation and service. Hallway sales. Runners. Scribes. Set up and tear down. The list goes on, and may be found in this newsletter. Apologies, if anyone was inadvertently omitted.

At 9:45am, the meeting room was empty. Within an hour, I stood there amazed as more than 20 volunteers (including one member’s Mom) working in well controlled, choreographed chaos, created a surprisingly efficient smooth process. At the end of the day, just about everything was sold, and no one shed tears. A few folks, no doubt, shed a few pounds running around. Congratulations and thank you, very much.

2011 OSSC AUCTION VOLUNTEERS