Many local parties have a change of officers during the year, which means changes to contact details, addresses etc. Even bank details may change. We cannot roll-over registrations from previous Draws as we need confirmation that we have permission to contact those individuals.
First buy your own tickets - it helps if you have experienced the buying process so that you can explain it to others if necessary, (and do please let us know if you find any glitches - the sooner we know about them the sooner we can fix them!).
Then promote ticket sales to all your members and supporters! This can be by any and all of your usual means, most often by email. It helps if you make your communications as eye-catching as possible, (we can help with ideas, graphics, templates etc).
Then keep an eye on your sales and send reminders or prompts as needed. Remember that there is a 20,000 limit on tickets so don't leave it too late!
The person who registers your local party can see how many tickets you have sold. Just click on "your account " in the top orange bar and scroll down to the end. You will see details of your own ticket purchases, including your numbers, and also the total for your local organisation. However for privacy reasons you cannot see who has bought tickets.
The law has changed and Credit Cards can no longer be used for any on-line gambling activities - including lotteries and prize draws. You can still use a Debit card (bank card), or a PayPal account if you have one. (You do not need to open a PayPal account to buy tickets!)
The prizes are listed on the website as they are obtained. In order to ensure that local parties receive as much commission as possible, we start with the 1st prize then add others as more tickets are sold. So keep checking each week!
Once the Draw is made the winners will be listed on the website, where you can also see winners from previous Draws. If you would like to "see" the Draw "live" you can log-on to the website at the advertised date and time of the Draw and the winners will come up as they are drawn.
All local organisations should receive their commission by Bank Transfer within a few weeks of the Draw, also an email detailing the date of the transfer and the reference which will appear on your bank statement.
The person who registered can check the number of tickets you have sold and can work out the minimum commission (currently 70%) you will receive. If profits allow we will always try to increase the stated commission rate.
The Draw is run by a team of volunteers from the sponsoring Local Lib Dem Organisations - currently Rushmoor, Surrey Heath and Folkestone & Hythe. We are responsible for the smooth running of the Draw, including budgets, licences, organising the promotion of the Draw, dealing with queries, sourcing and distributing prizes, and of course, the Draw itself.
Prater Raines develop and maintain the website, and Lib Dem HQ assist with the Bank tranfers for commission payments, and mass mailings to local parties to launch the Draw and promote ticket sales. A real Team effort!
Some local parties were long-term and enthusiastic participants, but unfortunately many others found the workload for this system was impractical. Hence numbers were dropping, and the cost and time involved for our small Draw team was unsustainable. We had a choice: end the Draw completely, or take a chance and invest in the development of a new on-line system.
We worked with Prater Raines for 12 months to develope the new system and launched the first on-line Draw for Christmas 2018. The first 2 years were difficult but Christmas 2020 saw a ticket sell out, and requests for an additional Summer Draw for 2021. A big thank-you to everyone who has been on the journey with us!
Contact the Draw team on: info@libdemdraw.org.uk. Thank you! 😁