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Posted by andi on 10/1/2009, 5:14 am
72.228.139.137
Here it is again folks! The winter exchange. And as always; you will be matched with a person to send to and a person to receive from, they will not be the same person.
This is open to all board participants OVER the age of 17 (this is for legal reasons). We don't care what your board history is, if you're mad at one of us or if you are new or old....we just want folks to have some fun with it.
Before we get into anything else I want to make some thing perfectly clear. The Dates involved are NOT SUGGESTIONS. They are firm deadlines and you must send by send date and your package MUST be received by the receive date
We do however have a few rules,
1) sign-ups will be through the official email address ONLY. No exceptions. We've had a few folks try to sign up though alternate emails or PMs over the past few exchanges and this is just too "iffy" for you and for us, so we are limiting it to just the email address set up for this exchange. And to avoid confusion and much hair pulling on our parts...we will not be sending out confirmation emails this year. Word of advice: I will be doing a lot of this alone, as the other admin is a teacher and has teacher’s duties to attend to so use the email – I don’t ever check PM here on the OKP and will be checking the exchange email 4 to 5 times a day. As stated above I will NOT deal with exchange issues through alternate email, Facebook, or any other means.
2) sign-ups will be held until October 16th, 11:59 pm EST.
3) There will be NO sign ups taken after October 16th. For the past few exchanges we've had folks try to sign up well after the posted date. And we've run into problems with trying to accommodate them, so no sign-ups after October 16th, and yes, that is written in stone.
4)Packages MUST be mailed no later than November 27th for North America, Earlier if you are sending overseas, so that the person can receive it by late December.
5)Please include your full address and boardname (and info on which board)when signing up and use a return address when mailing. As well as the info requested below – We will not play tag with you, or ask repeatedly for the info, if you want to participate this is what we need.
6) Price range is about $10 of local currency.
Please remember that exchange rates are involved and that not everyone is in the same financial situation as you.
7) While we cannot accept request as to whom you send to, we will honour requests that your info not be given to someone...if you don't want someone to have your info feel free to tell us. Several folks have said that they would like "new" people...we'd love to honour that request to. If you know who you've had in the past we can help with this better. After more than ten years of doing this, we don't always know who each person has had. Also if this is your first year tell us please 
8)Please do not feel that living outside of North America means you can't participate. In the past we’ve had folks from Australia, France, England, Germany or wherever. Come have some fun and get to know your fellow OKPers! Just leave about 4-5 weeks for your package to get there
9) This is a gift exchange. There are many belief systems represented on this board WE are going to respect that. Please realize that you may get paired with someone who does not share your religious beliefs. Please respect their religion, or lack of. It's a GIFT exchange meant to celebrate ALL the winter holidays and to have fun.
10) if you have signed up in the past and not sent *AND* not contacted us before hand then you're not eligible for any further exchanges. Also if you have contacted us and still not sent after we've made special arrangements for you, then you're also banned from further participation. We’ve recently had issues with people not sending on time and telling us that they thought the dates we’re mere “suggestions” – They are not. If you can not send by the date above (November 27th) you MUST tell us, in the event that you don’t, you will be risking being banned. If you do this more than once – you WILL be banned. It takes all of 5 minutes to send an email and you have about 5 weeks to send if there is an emergency you have plenty of time to let us know. (and issues finding the gift are NOT emergencies)
In the past Anne and I have taken turns with making sure that folks get something - in one exchange we had 5 people not send and not respond to repeated attempts at contacting them. We simply can not afford to send out $70 worth of gifts between us (our two people + 5 "extras") So at the suggestion of several on these boards we have decided that if you have not sent and not contacted us about the circumstances BEFORE the deadlines for sending you are hence forth ineligible. I am sorry that we have to do this but it's unfair for all of us involved for people to continue to be signed up and not send. ***THIS IS absolutely NOT directed at the one person who contacted us for the winterangels exchange of '06*** She is more than welcome to join again. Family emergencies we fully understand, having been through our share of them ourselves.
11) and this is a polite but firm request: Please tell both your giver and us that you received your gift. We have heard from several folks that they were never notified of their gift actually get there. We keep track of who posts in the thread that pops up, but a thank you note is always appreciated either by email if they include it or by snailmail. I know it meant the world to me when someone sent me a thank you note for a gift I made and was very nervous about having someone send off for me...the littlest things mean a lot. BUT if you are truly uncomfortable about sending a note directly to them, a post in the OKP thread would be helpful for all of us.
The email for sign ups is winterangels@gmail.com
What we need to get this rolling, so when you email us to sign up, send us the following:
Your board name
Your Real Name
Your mailing addy
a few interests to make it easier for your gifter to purchase that perfect gift. ( trust me this helps immensely) And if you DON"T want some one to have your info tell us.
The most important thing in this is to have Fun .
***Also due to the fact that it is just too hard for us to keep track of communications that come in personal email, pms, IMs, ect and too ify for you from now on ALL communications regarding problems and/or requests about the exchange will be through the exchange email.**** this is born out of three seperate situtaions in the summer
exchange and it's just too ify for us and you to do it any other way. sorry.
This year we are going to suggest that you send things that are going to places like NFLD, or Overseas or across boarders that you send by traceable means...your post office can direct you on this. We are suggesting this because we have had several instances of packages crossing boarders getting lost. At least if you have a way to trace it, you can try and see where the issue is. Your post office, customs, it being delivered and placed somewhere and the person just not finding it ( then you can say" it was placed here") and so forth.
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