2011 Trip Report - The DE Rondy Anza-Borrego - Recap & Photos

DESERT EXPLORERS RENDEZVOUS 2011

Anza-Borrego, CA

By Marian Johns

Another year, another Rondy, how time flies. If your  missed this one, we’re sorry because I think is was one of the better ones,  despite the late decisions about dates and place - for which we apologize. Next  year we hope to have this information available early so you can set aside the  dates. Debbie Miller will be working on Goffs as the venue for next year, but we  should probably have an alternate site just in case, so if you have any ideas  lets us know.

I was really impressed with the outstanding job that  Bob Jaussaud and Steve Marschke did organizing the silent auction. It was loads  of fun and we made a significant amount which will now be used for our own  expenses and hopefully a donation to a worthy cause/organization. We surely miss  Alan Romspert, the Dodd’s and Maybelle for the work they did putting together  past auctions and hope Bob and Steve will continue this tradition. Thank you  everyone who either donated or purchased items.

This year’s trips came off without a hitch. Even  though Friday was a real scorcher (104 degrees I heard), Saturday and Sunday it  cooled off considerably and was quite pleasant. Thank you trip leaders! Look for  trip reports in the newsletters.

The Saturday evening banquet, although a bit pricey,  was, in my opinion, tasty (loved those mashed potatoes). Your $20 did not  include the tip, so the D.E. had to cover that. Did you know that the left-over  food has to be thrown away? This seems like such a waste - there was lots of  meat left. I was told we could not take the left-overs in "doggie bags" either.

See you all again next year – hope to see some new  faces too. We would also be delighted to see you during the year on some of our  monthly trips – not just once a year at the Rondy. We have some fine outings  with dedicated leaders who put in a lot of time planning and sometimes pre-  running trips just for you.

Debbie Miller Marschke deserves a special thanks for  arranging to have Mark Jorgenson be our Rondy Speaker. Mr. Jorgenson, a former  park superintendent, presented a very educational and humerous talk about the  desert bighorn sheep that reside in the Anza Borrego area.

Vicki Hill also deserves a special thank you for doing  much of the leg and phone work to put this Rondy together.

The Silent Auction by Steve Marschke

Thanks to everyone that made the silent auction a success. This year we tried  a little bit of a twist - the "Buy it Now" feature. It was modeled after the  eBay function of the same name. It was the option of the donor to choose to put  a Buy It Now price on each item. The bidders had the opportunity to short  circuit the bidding and buy the item directly without having competition. Of  course this meant that the Buy It Now price should be about the fair market  value of the item. Bob and I thought this might be a good way to seperate the  fools from their money as in the past many items had only one bidder and sold  for the minimum bid. It seemed to work, 30 items were sold through the Buy It  Now feature.

Depending on how we counted, there were 163 items donated and 135 items  purchased (Jim Proffit's lightbulbs and Bill Neill's grapefruit presented a  source of counting discrepancies as some were bought indivdually and some as  sets.) The revenue from the auction was $874. I believe that is a record high  number! I thought it would be fun to have some awards:

First the awards for the donors: the Benefactor Award (for total revenue  donated) goes to Ann Stoll; her photocopied out-of-print books earned a whopping  $215! Honorable mention in the Benefactor category goes to Chuck and Kathy  Mitchell for jewelry, clothing and Baja books. The Attic Prospector Award (for  the most items donated) goes to Jim Proffitt for the donation of 62 compact  flourescent light bulbs, with Ann Stoll as runner up for her 51 photocopied  books. The Gold Bar Award (for the item that fetched the highest price) was the  handmade mirror frame from Mignon Slentz composed of treasures that she has  found on various DE trips - it garnered $55 dollars for the club. The Most  Desirable Award (for the item that triggered a bidding war) was a malachite  bracelet from Zimbabwe that Chuck and Kathy Mitchell donated - 5 different  bidders made a total of 15 bids, eventually selling for $30 (or 6 times the  starting bid!)

Now the awards for the purchasers: The Big Spender Award (for total dollars  spent) goes to Neal Johns, honorable mention to Jean Hanson. The Shopaholic  Award (for the person that bought the most items) also goes to Neal Johns with  Jean Hanson and Vicki Hill tied for runner up.

Thanks to everyone that donated and purchased items, this is our one and only  fundraiser for the year and helps to pay for the newletters, website, satellite  phone and other operating expenses that you all enjoy. Bob and I would like to  add a special thanks to Joan McGovern for reviewing, ordering and numbering the  Ann Stoll books and for helping us collect the money at the auction closing  frenzy - people were literally trying to throw money at us. See you all next  year.

Steve Marschke