Each year the Los Gatos Rotary holds the crab feed auction as a fundrasing event to benifit the Los Gatos Rotary Charities Foundation. This is a community event that is great fun for all and funds the Los Gatos Charity Foundation.

The Los Gatos Rotary Auction grew from the fund-raising committee in the 1980-81 Rotary year.   William W. Johnson was Rotary president, John Pencer was Auction Committee Chairman, and Ben Reichmuth was Auction Committee Vice Chairman and a professional fund-raiser. The rest of the committee is as follows:

Cliff Axt	Bob Groh	Chris Santaella
Bill Del Carlo	Bert Millen	Dale Shue
Merrill Foutz		Ted Schenk

Los Gatos Rotary's primary fund-raising vehicle had been selling hot-dogs and "Orange Bang” orange drinks at the Chamber of Commerce Wine and Art Festival, with the help of our local Boy and Girl Scout Troops.  We would net between $500.00 and $1,500.00, most of which would be donated back to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

With the talent available at the Los Gatos Rotary a more efficient method of fund-raising had to be found. Several alternatives were investigated.  With Cliff Axt, Bob Groh, Dale Shue, Ben Reichmuth and Bert Millen, all having had prior successful experience with other auctions, the die was cast.

The Mid-County Soquel Rotary had held its successful auction in May, 1980, and had raised over $7,000.00.  Its General Chairman, Gene Wright, was contacted and was more than generous in supplying advice and an outline of the planning process.

The following made up the first Los Gatos Rotary Auction

Committee:

John Pencer -  General Chairman
Ben Reichmuth - Auction Coordinator
Cliff Axt Ticket - Sales and Advertising
Dale Shue -  Item Procurement
Bill Del Carlo and Ted Schenk -  Internal procurement
Bert Millen - Auctioneer
Bob Groh - Warehousing
Merrill Foutz - Finance and Accounting
Chris Santaella - External Procurement

With just 3 weeks until Auction night, a group of "Old Timers" headed by Bill Mason, Sr. contacted President Bill Johnson to request that the auction be abandoned.  They felt that Los Gatos Rotary was not established to be a fund-raising organization.

The following Tuesday, the program was cancelled and John Pencer led a club assembly to explain the goals and objective of the Auction, and the pros and cons of continuing with the project. It was projected that $2,000.00 to $3,000.00 would be raised initially, and $5,000.00 to $7,000.00 annually thereafter.  Of equal importance was that it would be a fun social event with a favorable image in the community as well.  At the end of the assembly the membership voted overwhelmingly to continue with the Auction.

On April 25, 1981, the Inaugural Los Gatos Rotary Auction was held at the Los Gatos Swim and Racquet Club.  Approximately 115 Rotarians and guests were in attendance.

Tickets were sold at $50.00 per couple, which included a buffet dinner.  In addition, $25.00 in bidding script was given back to each couple.

Instead of hiring a professional auctioneer, it was decided that our own member Bert Millen could handle the task.  Because he knew the bidders well, was quick on his feet, and had previous auctioneering experience, it proved to be a wise decision that w&uld pay dividends for years to come.

All auction items were listed without minimums or reserves.

Gross revenue from bidding and ticket sales was $13,624.50. Total expenses were $2,820.86 with a net profit to the Club of $10, 803.64.

In addition to the hard work of the committee members, donations of items of significant value by Rotarians John Colwell, Ed Stahl, Rene Friedrich, Cliff Axt, Peter Crandall and Jerome Rosefield accounted for 40% of the bidding revenue.

Several refinements have been made to the Auction along the way.  In the first five years the bottleneck at the cashier's table at the close of the Auction was a significant problem.  In 1986, Bill Cilker's son, Carl, designed and implemented a computerized billing system to solve this problem. Ken Black brought his IBM PC and together they perfected the system.  The check out was so successful that Carl began receiving requests from other Clubs to install his system at their Auctions.

By 1992 interest in the auction began to wane.  Putting the event together took a great deal of time and there were many competing auctions in the community.

In October,1993, Bob Lathrop and Darrell Monda co-chaired the event. Extra effort was made to have more members attend, get more community involvement and obtain more interesting auction items. An outside company that specialized in fund raisers was commissioned to consult with the committee.  The result was one of the largest crowds ever attended. Gross revenues were in excess of $50,000.00, with a net profit of approximately $27,000.

In 1995, Julian Rodiguez and Bob Lathrop co-chaired the event. Under President LeRoy Neider it was decided a combination auction and casino night would be a fresh idea.  It was felt a casino night would be more fun, get new people involved and provide a better chance for the future of the event.  However, most casino nights don't raise much money, so a combination casino/auction was decided as the best approach.  The result was a fun evening for all who attended with raffle items, a casino event, a silent auction and an oral auction.  The Club netted over $10,000.00 and was provided with a wonderful evening of entertainment.

Since 1981 the Auction/Casino Night has provided a fun social event and raised between $10,000.00 and $34,000.00 each year.

John Pencer, May, 1994