Cookie Exchange/Craft Party: How Can I Make It Fun and Successful?

[AshleyAllison]

I wasn't sure where to post this but figured this might be a good place.

Has anyone had success with a cookie exchange? If so, how did you set it up? My HOTM club is coming to an end, I did it on a trial basis of 6 months and had huge success with it so it looks like I'll definitely be doing it for an entire 12 months next year.

Since I had such an awesome group of women (except for 1 which is a totally different story) that were members of this group I want to do something fun in December. We don't have any Host of The Month for December but have had several people ask if I would please do one more party for this group.

I don't want it to be a regular party though, I want to be able to sit around and chat and have a good time and fellowship with them since most of them are my family and friends but I also want them to be able to order something if they choose to and I know them well enough to know that they'll want to.

That's where I came up with the idea of doing a Christmas Party/Cookie Exchange combination. Maybe I could do something with the cute Christmas gift ideas that we have floating around and make a couple of desserts as well as maybe a soup or something in the DCB. I'll also make it a way to get the HOTM club for next year ready to go. Maybe draw months or whatever and go ahead & lay down the ground rules. Rules were an issue this time with one member because I sent out an email at the beginning and let everyone know that they needed to have their orders to me by a certain date, I would call, text, or email them a couple of days beforehand if I hadn't heard from them and everybody except for one always had their in on time. This one lady was like a child that I had to chase around trying to get her order and she actually hasn't ordered since her own party in August. Needless to say, I will be much more firm about it the next go round and she will not be invited to participate.

Any ideas? I've never done anything like this before and I could really use it to boost my sales but I need some help organizing how to actually do it.

I have had several people who have approached me having heard about my HOTM club from one of the members who would like to have a spot. It looks like I might possibly be able to actually have 2 of them with 12 hosts each which would be awesome!!!

 

[monicag]

I am doing a cookie exchange party tomorrow. Everyone is bringing 2 dozen cookies and their recipe and everyone will get to take a couple of cookies home to try. The host wanted to make it easy so she just thought they could each take home a few rather than dozens.We are going to make the 2-ingredient fudge recipe and the peanut butter almond bark recipe in the new SB cookbook. She has about 12 coming so we'll see how it works out. Haven't done one in a long time.Could you share how you set up your host of the month club? Thanks.

 

[AshleyAllison]

I'd be happy to! I'll give you the gist of it and try to find the flier that I used, I believe it's on my computer at home so I'll find that when I get home this afternoon.

Basically what I did was send an email out with a flier to my family & some of my past hosts that were good hosts or I knew this would be something they would like to participate in. I also sent it to a few people who I knew wanted to buy PC products but needed to spread it out because of finances. The first 6 people to respond were the ones who were "selected" as my Hosts of The Month.

From there I sent out an email with the months and they were assigned first come first served (this will be done differently next time). I included the "rules" for the group, I set a $25 minimum order since there were only 6 of them and I wanted to make sure we had a minimum $150 show. Orders were due by the 18th of the month and the party would be closed by the 20th to avoid end of the month craziness trying to get the show submitted.

This time around I did not require an actual cooking show but next time I think I will. The host has the option of collecting more orders and inviting people who aren't in the HOTM club to get more sales and in turn get herself more free goodies! I had one person this time do an actual cooking show and it was the second best show in the group. I really was trying to test the waters and figure out the do's and don'ts this time and have definitely learned a few things to do differently.

This time I'll draw straws or something for months rather than asking the girls to choose because I don't think it's really fair to know what the specials are going to be for the first two months but not the rest because people might want stoneware month or cutlery month and we don't know an entire year in advance what the specials are going to be. I think I'll definitely be going for a cooking show group next year for better shows. There will be a strict clause that if you are a member of the host of the month club you are expected to place your minimum order every month whether you can make it to the show or not. If you do not place your show you will forfeit your month of hosting. I want to put something in about forfeiting after your host month but I'm not sure what I want to put or how to word it.

That's how the one girl messed me up this year, she ordered for the 2 months before hers but not since.

I think I'll get each of them to fill out a wishlist and simply say that if they don't submit their order an item meeting the proper monetary minimum will be ordered from their wishlist.

I'm sorry this is so long, I'm feeling extremely scatterbrained today and am trying to organize my thoughts on here but it's not working very well.

 

[monicag]

Sounds like you have it all together....I would love the flier that you used. My e-mail is [email protected]That's always my concern is will the other people order after their month. If you do a wish list, that is a great idea, but how do you get the $$ from them.Thanks again.

 

[AshleyAllison]

Sorry Monica, I've been on travel with my full time job. Some of the girls actually suggested that I keep their credit card numbers on file to place their orders. I still haven't decided how, or even if I'm going to do that.