Organising an Online Market - Part 3

In my last blog, everything was a bit "eek, this is actually going to happen".  Then I moved into "easy peasy" mode, patted myself on the back a bit for my organisational skills, and sat back and waited.  Photos and descriptions weren't due in for a while from the stall holders, so nothing much to do in the meantime.

A few days before the deadline, I posted a nice friendly reminder on Facebook which worked quite well - for half of the people who had committed themselves to participating in the market.

So I sent an email on the due date.  I messaged people on the due date. I ground my teeth in frustration on the due date.  And repeated these things for two days after the due date.  Then I cracked it!

Here are just a couple of excuses that I received after chasing those people for a while (bearing in mind, these people confirmed their commitment to participating):
"Oh, I'm going to a rally tomorrow, so I'll give it a miss this time."
"Sorry, I'm going out to lunch so I won't bother doing it if that's okay?"
and the classic, but straight to the point... "I've changed my mind, thanks."

Well golly gee (and if there was a font called 'sarcasm' then that would have been in it) - don't let your commitment to anything interfere with your social life hey!  And why (oh why!!!) did you commit to this????  And thanks for letting me know in advance that you've changed your tiny little mind, before I chased you up 3 times.

And on the off chance that one of you uncommitted people should ever take time out of your busy social schedules to read this, here's a definition for you - commit - to pledge: to commit oneself to a promise; to be committed to a course of action.  Hey, guess what?  I know who you are, because you all got in touch with me.  And I also know who never to purchase anything from (how could I trust you now really).  And what's more, I also know who to tell my friends not to purchase from, because I could never recommend you as doing the right thing by anyone, could I?

Do I sound just a bit cheesed off with these people?  That's because I am!  They showed their complete lack of respect for myself and the other people participating in the market, who did the right thing.

At the last minute (and for some time after), I found myself chasing around getting random people to participate.  This was, I'd like to point out, during an extremely hectic time personally for me also, with much more going on than lunch!  Hats off to each and every one of these people who jumped in at the last second with nothing more to go on than the fact that I asked them to.  I owe you a debt of gratitude for not leaving me with the wanting-to-avoid-at-all-costs red face.  And a huge thank you to those who remembered they were taking part in the first place, and did everything required of them.  Love you to bits.

Sadly there have been some lessons learned the hard way in this stage but, being an optimist, some really great things too.  You can never have too many people to trust and appreciate in the world now, can you?  It's also advantageous to know who to avoid.