Hi everyone! This is my second year joining in on our local Relay! I'm so excited to be apart! Last year I was sort of bamboozled by a friend who asked me to "help" her with underwriting and then basically dropped the ball in my lap. I took it and ran -half out of mind and completely clueless- and made the best of it. This year I'm back on the committee as both registration co-chair and sun promotions chair. That "friend" by the way, never returned to the committee.
Anyway, I have been searching for two days now on any information regarding the Relay for Life Sun & Moon cards ("In Memory of..." and "In Honor of..."). I know the basic idea of businesses selling them for $1 with proceeds going to the ACS, but beyond that I haven't been informed on exactly how a business keeps track of their sells versus the donations coming in. The sun cards have a barcode on the back, but I've been given no real answers on how to teach the businesses to use them. I feel this is a big reason why many businesses, especially local ones, are hesitant to come on board - they simply have no idea how to differentiate the income. The chair who did it last year is now our committee "prez" and she said that it was basically up the business on how they wanted to do it, but I know there has got to be a set standard for this detailed somewhere. The cards wouldn't come with the bar codes on them otherwise. I talked to a manager of a local business today and asked him how other orginazations do it (such as the Children's Miracle Network) and he said it's all automated and that when they scan the barcode it goes to corporate and the store doesn't have to worry about manually keeping track. Do our cards work the same way?
Can anyone pin point in the right direction to find out EXACTLY how the sun & moon cards work? I would be so very grateful!
To follow up from my first email, your local ACS office is different than your local committee. You should have staff that are paid employees of ACS that can advise you on this issue, or at least explore the issure more directly. Their input might differ than mine...but in my office we contact the local business first. If they are not the head decision makers, then the local store contacts their next corporate contact. For example our local Kroger stores here in southern Illinois go through a Kentucky headquarters. The KY contact, has to input the barcode number into their system, so that when the cards are scanned, it registers to that item (our moons and star card). The corporate headquarters then tracks how many/much money is collected from the dozen or so stores we partner with and and cuts one check for all the stores. They pass along a summary report, telling us how much of the money should be credited to each store.
Of course, smaller, local stores may not require so much work. It could be a much simpler process.
I still recommend that you contact your local ACS office though to see if they have instructions unique to your area. You can call 800-ACS-2345 and ask to be transferred to your local ACS office within your area, and the operator will connect you. If you don't know what office that is, they can search by zipcode. Good luck.
November 16, 2007 - 11:10pm login or register to post comments
fmiley
Posts: 20
Joined: 2006-08-04
Have you spoken with your
Have you spoken with your local staff partner or ACS office? They should be able to provide you with informaiton.
October 30, 2007 - 9:25pm login or register to post comments
jabberjenn
Posts: 2
Joined: 2007-10-30
Yes. Like I stated, our
Yes. Like I stated, our committee Chairmen is the one that told me it's up to the business to decide how to keep track of sun card sells, but it's making it difficult for the businesses not to have an automated system. And with my not being able to tell them how, either, it's causing businesses to back out. You'd think with the barcodes on them that somewhere, there's an easier way.
October 31, 2007 - 9:10am login or register to post comments
relaydivajuli
Posts: 152
Joined: 2006-11-06
Chair v. Staff Partner
Keep in mind that your committee chairs are different than your Staff Partner. The American Cancer Society has staff who are there to help the Relay committee with various aspects of the Relay. Whereas, the Event Chair and the rest of the committee is volunteer. If you, your Event Chair and committee don't know who your ACS Staff Partner is, your local American Cancer Society can get you in contact with him/her.
October 31, 2007 - 9:42am login or register to post comments
Jeff Montegut
Posts: 273
Joined: 2007-04-16
Local ACS office
And if you need to find out how to contact your local office, you can search by zip code from the home page on www.cancer.org.
In the meantime, I will see what I can find out about the bar code/scanning relationship to corporate offices, too. I'd like to know for my local Relay, as well.
October 31, 2007 - 10:55am login or register to post comments
Joined: 2007-10-30