Poll for Hamfest Participants

I'm on a committee that is in the planning stage for its first ever Hamfest event and I'm seeking input from others.

There is a question that has came up in our discussions that I would like others here to chime in on as your opinion as fellow Hams who attend Hamfest would be of great interest to me.

If your club was holding , or has held a Hamfest, and was selling tickets for a drawing prize of a new radio valued at $2K .... would you exclude members of your own club from being eligible to win this prize ??

Some have said that it would not look good to others if a club member won, while others say club members should be allowed to win.

We would have our state ARRL rep do the prize drawing as he will be in attendance.

We are potentially thinking of limiting the number of tickets sold to 250 at a price of $20 each.

Would you keep the drawing open to everyone, or exclude your own members since they are the hosting organization ?

What is your opinion , and why ?

Thanks, Mark K5MGW

 

Excluding club members might be a good way to loose club members, also might make it hard to make enough money to cover the cost of the radio.

 

Thanks for your reply. 73 - K5MGW

 

Everyone should have a chance to win the Grand Prize. Some clubs sell extra tickets towards the grand prize for a lower price,
so if say Admission is $10 you can buy extra tickets cheaper to enlarge chances...

https://cincinnatihamfest.org/event-details

Event Pricing
Hamfest
Admission Ticket - Gate Purchase
$10
Paid admission includes single entry for door prizes

Everyone under 18 free admission

Active Duty Military free admission with ID

(Show ID inside and receive door prize entry)

Courtesy transportation for customers

No Access to the fairgrounds until 6am

Admission Ticket - Online Purchase
$10
Paid admission includes single entry for door prizes

Bring printed or electronic receipt to allow gate entry and speed exchange inside at club table for door prize entry. We must have either a printed or electronic copy to allow entry to the event

Courtesy transportation for customers

We do not mail tickets to keep our pricing as low as possible

No Access to the fairgrounds until 6am

Admission PLUS - Online Purchase
20
Each Admission PLUS ticket includes 11 Door Prize entries

You will have One (1) entry included with your admission ticket for a TOTAL OF 11 DOOR PRIZE ENTRIES

Courtesy transportation for customers

We must have either a printed or electronic copy to allow entry to the event

(Bring receipt to event table near raffle drum to enter your single door prize ticket)

No Access to the fairgrounds until 6am

We do not mail tickets to keep our pricing as low as possible


Outside Display Space - Flea Market
10
INCLUDES 25 FEET OF FRONTAGE SPACE FOR DISPLAY

- No additional charge for your vehicle

(More than 25 feet of frontage requires additional purchase)

YOU MUST SUPPLY YOUR TABLES - no reservations

*** Admission ticket is required ***

PLEASE TAKE ALL UNSOLD ITEMS WITH YOU

WE ARE CHARGED FOR ALL CLEANUP

Gates open 6 a.m. for setup

Bring receipt or electronic copy for confirmation

May also be purchased day of event if space is available

Courtesy transportation for customers

Inside Vendor Table
15
Air Conditioned Comfort

Rental price per 6 foot table which is provided

*** Admission ticket is required ***

Gates open 6 a.m. for setup

(We also provide Friday access 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. for setup)

Bring receipt or electronic copy for confirmation

Courtesy transportation for customers

Priority is given for ham radio, computer and electronic related vendors


5 Door Prize Entries
$5
Purchase of Five (5) Door Prize Entries

Need not be present to enter or win Major Door Prizes

Online purchases automatically entered into drawings

We do not mail tickets to keep our pricing as low as possible

May also be purchased during the event

15 Door Prize Entries
$10
Purchase of Fifteen (15) Door Prize Entries

Need not be present to enter or win Major Door Prizes

Online purchases automatically entered into drawings

We do not mail tickets to keep our pricing as low as possible

May also be purchased during the event

 

As a former board member of a local radio club that has hamfests twice a year, here is my opinion, based on experience:

No admission fee. Walmart doesn't charge you to come in and look around, and neither does Target or anyone else. Money is made from vendor spaces, food concession, and raffle ticket sales.

Make the prize(s) available for everyone.

Our pricing structure: $5 for three tickets. $10 for seven tickets. $20 for fifteen tickets. $40 for forty tickets, each additional dollar gets an additional ticket past that point.

Have tickets available online. We've sold lots of tickets to out-of-state buyers. Just make sure that the prizes are within economic shippability. No mail sales for tickets, however.

Need not be present for drawing.

A cutoff time for on site ticket sales is advisable. Otherwise, you will get at least one, if not three, people who buy $100 worth of tickets one minute before the drawing, then try to guilt you into helping them fill out their tickets. (I've never seen these last-minute buyers win anything!)

We turn a healthy profit, put some of the money back into getting more prizes, which in turn sells more tickets, which in turn gets us more profit............

We have no reason to change how we are doing things.

 

We charge $10 admission; this includes no door prizes. We have successfully run silent auctions. We've done raffles, but these can be fraught with problems; they're popular at other hamfests and some vendors might even sponsor or for promotion purposes, offer discounted gear. ARRL clubs have hamfest benefits for their clubs, too--- see the ARRL for more details.

What helps more than anything is to ask for donated gear (not junk) to sell. Get the word out for a 200mi radius to your event. Keep the costs low. Sell food where that's legal and practical. Hamfests are great meeting events, but you need to cover the costs. Profits can be OK. 2025 was our best year ever, thanks to great equipment donations to the club specifically for the hamfest. Keep absolute track of your funds, and appoint a hamfest chairperson to do the work of being the coordinator for activities, the facility, Q&A, and volunteer coordination.

In lieu of much planning, just do a nice tailgate. They can be fun, and have low overhead (if the weather's good).

73 Tom W9YW

 

For our hamfest, club officers are excluded from winning major door prizes.

 

Thanks for your reply. 73 - K5MGW

 

Thanks for your reply. 73 - K5MGW

 

Typically, when our club's Hoosier Hills Hamfest has had a grand prize, anyone in the ticket tumbler had a chance to win, we did not exclude club members.

 

Thank you for you reply. 73 - K5MGW

 

Thanks for your reply. 73 - K5MGW

 

Thanks for your reply. 73 - K5MGW

 

Thank you for your response. 73 - K5MGW

 

Never been involved in a hamfest raffle, but in several organizations I have been involved in, the "brass" generally buys a generous quantity of tickets to set a good example. Should they win, they immediately donate the prize back to the organization and another ticket is drawn. Gives the "little guy" an opportunity to win, and doesn't hurt the image of the leaders either.

"Rank and file" members are free to enter, and win, as they choose.