Maine Rose Society December 10, 2005 Meeting: Parker’s Restaurant, Portland, Maine.
The Maine Rose Society held its annual Christmas Luncheon at Parker’s Restaurant. Present at the meeting were: Kathleen Buffum, Soren Christensen, Jerry Cinnamon, Sherman & Charlee Curtis, Margaret Edwards, Roger & Joan Gotlibson, Clair Homan, Sari Hou, Clarence Rhodes, Deborah Rumery, Aurelia Scott, Marion Stevens.

The 12:30 luncheon was preceded by a preliminary meeting of the Plant Sale Committee pouring over nursery catalogs of roses for the 2006 season. During the luncheon a festive light-hearted atmosphere prevailed with members sometimes receiving meals that they ordered that were sometimes cooked to perfection in a quite setting. After lunch, President Joan Gotlibson led members in clearing the tables of empty plates and cups, so that the great many brown bags full of unknown items for the Christmas Auction could be placed on the tables.

The Christmas Auction followed with spirited involvement as most participants now understood auction rules. During bidding, Master of Ceremonies Soren Christensen was able to tease more and more quarters and dollars from bidders with enticing statements such as “we have a long way to go”, or “we are getting there” which were usually the opposite of progress being made toward pre-set values. Soren, who is an experience auctioneer for a number of plant societies, did a great job of moving items and motivating bidders.

The rules of the auction are 1) auctioned items are presented in a brown paper bags from unknown givers, 2) only the giver and the auctioneer know the value of the item in the bag, 3) Bids of twenty-five cents, fifty-cents, or a dollar make sense as item values range between two and ten dollars and entice bidders into throwing their money into a bidding box, 4) Deborah Rumery, as apprentice auctioneer, kept track of bidding to aid Soren, and turned dollar bills into quarters for bidders, 5) bidding begins with any amount and proceeds with any amount, but is usually 25 cents, 50 cents, or a dollar, 6) the bidder who meets or exceeds the exact value written on the brown paper bag and known only to the auctioneer, wins the item. You can bid the last quarter for an item and win it. At least one society member bid on an item that they had donated and after winning the item returned it for further bidding. Twenty-five to thirty items were auctioned off.

After the auction all quarters, nickels, dimes, pennies, and dollar bills were placed in neat piles by society financiers. At the end these financial wizards counted a total of $108.15, an amount that surpassed last year’s inaugural sum. Clair who had to leave early will be happy. We had fun, raised money for the society, and enjoyed each others company! We disbanded around 3PM lugging bags of presents to our cars.

Jerry Cinnamon
Secretary Maine Rose Society