Would you keep the gift bag?

[MayHug]

My daughter belongs to a mom's group. They get together once a week, have a speaker, refreshments and such. It's a fairly large group of about 50 women. They recently had a gift basket fund-raiser. Each table of  8-10 women pick a theme and put together a gift basket. So there are generally 6 baskets. They then can buy tickets for $2 each and place them in any or all baskets they'd like to win and a ticket is drawn.  The baskets are quite extravagant, one basket contained only gift cards in the $25-$50 range. The ticket money is then used to off-set a retreat all the ladies are invited on each year.

The organizer of the gift baskets did the drawing. On the first basket she drew her own ticket and was very excited. Then on the third ticket she again drew her own name, it was for the gift card basket and she hooped and hollered and was extremely excited. Then she drew the rest.

About half of the group felt she should have drawn another ticket because she herself was the organizer and she was drawing the names and there were only six baskets.

Was she obligated by etiquette to do this or was she in the clear?

[JenJay]

Is everyone else allowed to win multiple baskets? Are the other women confidant that there was no way she could see it was her ticket she was choosing before she picked it? If yes to both then I think she was okay, assuming she contributed equally to her own group's basket.

In the future maybe it would make everyone feel better to either have someone who is exempt from winning draw the tickets or, if the drawer has won a basket, have someone else take over.

[gingerzing]

Should have had the organizer hold the name basket and then had someone else pick.  Or if there was a speaker that day, had the speaker pick.

Not saying that the organizer couldn't win a basket, but not cool when she has won two AND she is the one picking the names.  I would be annoyed if I was one of the other members.


(I am guessing since they buy tickets, that they can have their name in the kitty multiple times.)

[Sharnita]

I think that there might be a better way to set it up.  They might want to establish a rule of one basket per person in general.  It might be a bit annoying ot see anyone get two baskets.

[*new*mommyagain36]

To answer your question "Would you keep the gift bag?" - No, I wouldn't but, I think that if she won both she is certainly ok to keep both.  However, I have been in a situation where I won twice and kept the first prize but asked that someone else be picked for the second.  People seemed to appreciate that.
I have been to Bingos, Raffles, etc where 1 person wins multiple times.  It irritates those who haven't won anything but I can't see where there is an etiquette breach.
I would say in the future the group can make changes, either in limiting how many tickets you can put in or who is doing the drawing for the winners.  You can make a rule where you can only win once if you prefer to go that route.
I can see where one person winning twice, and loudly celebrating that, would be upsetting to others.

[Deetee]

I think that there are two issues.

First, for appearences, it's best to have someone who cannot win doing the actual drawing. It just looks wrong when someone picks out their own name.

Second, it should be decided beforehand whether you can win two gift baskets. I feel that  you should as it encourages people to buy more tickets, but it is totally cool to have only one big winner. (Or you can have some lesser prices-I've seen that too-where if your name is drawn twice, you get a smaller price the second time. then once all the big prices are gone, you draw for the smaller)

[NyaChan]

If I were that person, I would have put my second ticket back, ruffled up the mix to make it clear that the drawing was fair and then picked again.  I would not keep the second basket because I'm the organizer and want as many others to enjoy the drawing benefits as possible.  I agree with other posters that this was a planning problem as well - someone who can win shouldn't have been picking and they should have decided ahead of time whether more than one basket could be won.

[Deetee]

If I were that person, I would have put my second ticket back, ruffled up the mix to make it clear that the drawing was fair and then picked again.  I would not keep the second basket because I'm the organizer and want as many others to enjoy the drawing benefits as possible.  I agree with other posters that this was a planning problem as well - someone who can win shouldn't have been picking and they should have decided ahead of time whether more than one basket could be won.

Yeah, there is something off about it being the organiser and she is drawing and she won more than once and she was vocal about it. It just looks wrong. It is also completely avoidable by having another drawer and rules in advance and not gloating.

[Outdoor Girl]

I don't think one person should win more than one prize, more for optics, than anything else.  However, I disagree with just throwing the second ticket out and redrawing.  The second prize won may be the more desirable one for the winner.  The winner should have the choice of which one to keep and allow the other to be reraffled.  So make a policy not to throw out any of the tickets before all the draws are complete.

I don't know if she was rude for hooping and hollering but it certainly wasn't the best plan, considering she was doing the drawing.  It would be best to have someone impartial do the draws, if possible.  It sounnds like it is set up as a 'shoebox' raffle where you stuff the box of the prizes you want to win.  So at least some of the baskets should have people who didn't put their name in that particular box.  Ask for one of those people to come draw the ticket on a particular basket.  And if there isn't anyone?  Then someone from the crowd should come up to pull the ticket, not the person running the raffle.

[AylaM]

The lady can take it, but I personally wouldn't.

I agree with getting someone who can't win to draw to avoid just this situation in the future. I think she can keep the baskets, but should acknowledge that it looks unfair, assure them that it wasn't, and then proceed to tell people how they'll avoid a repeat in the future.

While it may suck to watch someone walk away with 2 baskets, chance tells us that it shouldn't happen regularly unless the person buys many, many tickets.

And if a person does buy so many more tickets than anyone else that others don't have as much of a chance of winning?  That money goes towards the retreat.    If that person didn't buy all those tickets others would have a greater chance of winning, yes, but the fundraiser wouldn't make as much.  And isn't that the ultimate goal?

But I think it should all be looked at as a way to increase the raised funds.  If people grumble about others winning too often, they may stop buying tickets and the fundraiser loses money.  Then new rules should be enforced.

But I'd probably consider something like upping the prices of the tickets after someone bought the first few.  After determining that average number of tickets people buy.  If people, on average, buy 3 tickets, then everything after that can cost more.

Tickets 1-4 cost $2
Tickets 5-7 cost $5
Tickets 8-100 cost $10

Because, personally, if I was told I could only win one basket I'd only really enter for one basket.  And I'd spend less money.  Because if I won basket I didn't really want then the one I did?  Would I get to choose which one I want?  Or will people grumble about me picking and choosing?  So they'd make less money off me.

[Rohanna]

I've always seen these done with the first winner drawi g the next basket, and so on.

[YummyMummy66]

Was she picking honestly?  Anotherwords, I hope she was not looking into said basket that she was drawing from and I hope that her tickets were not misshaped in any way. 

If she was picking said tickets honestly, than I would have no problem with her winning one, two or three baskets. 

I am assuming that at these types of events, whether you are the organizer or not, eveyrone has purchased tickets and put them into a basket in the hopes of winning, so I am not sure who you would have gotten to pick a ticket that was not involved in some way. 

But, I do not think she should have picked all tickets.  The winner of the first basket picks the next winner and so on and so on.  If she was the winner of the first basket, I would have gone to someone else to pick the next ticket.

I am surprised no one called her on it.

[GSNW]

If multiple ticket purchases are allowed, multiple wins should be allowed.  It's a fund-raiser, so buying stack of 100 tickets, say, raises more funds and conversely gives the purchaser a greater chance at winning.  It's not "equal chance basket giveaway," it's a fundraiser!

Having said that, I'm 100% in agreement with the ticket-chooser being someone not eligible to win.  The whooping and celebrating is tacky, IMO.  A staff member at work once won a coveted raffle and shouted, "In your face!  In your face!" to the entire room.  Really annoying.

On the same token, I once drew tickets for a raffle that had lots of small prizes, some medium prizes, and an iPod (when they first came out) as the grand prize.  This guy that purchased a boatload of tickets was winning almost everything.

You should have seen the look on Big Winner's face when the guy who purchased only ONE ticket won the iPod.

[camlan]

If the rules allow multiple wins, then it is fine if someone wins two baskets. It may seem a little unfair, but it really isn't. This happened at my office holiday party once--there were 5 baskets and we were given 3 tickets--we could put one ticket in three baskets or all three in one basket. The most senior employee (after the owners of the company) won two baskets and lorded it over everyone all night. She could have easily afforded to buy everything in both baskets. She didn't need to rub winning in everyone else's faces all night long.

But the actual drawing--no one involved in setting up the draw should be drawing the tickets. You just don't want to give even the hint of impropriety. Have different moms draw different tickets or someone from outside the group. But never the people who arranged the whole thing.

[sweetonsno]

I would not buy tickets if I was somehow involved in drawing the numbers. That seems improper. Not rude, but perhaps not the best choice.

Md have drawn another ticket because she herself was the organizer and she was drawing the names and there were only six baskets.

This attitude really rubs me the wrong way. It sounds like sour grapes. I do think that it would be smart to have a person who doesn't have a stake in the raffle (no names in the hat) to draw the tickets. However, if people are going to allow the organizer/drawer to buy tickets, it's wrong to limit their ability to win. I also think that if they don't want people to have the chance to win more than once, they should only allow each person to buy one ticket. Why should someone have to relinquish their prize just because they already won once?

I can see how they think it is unfair, but assuming that she didn't cheat, it is not unfair.

Her decision to whoop and holler was certainly unbecoming, but that's because it's tactless in general, not because she was the organizer.