Some kids may beg for the buyer to promise a preminum, that is not right in my opion, our buyers say they really like the face to face invites. I can tell you of four buyers right now that will only buy from a face to face invite. This type of invite helps the kids break thru a shell if they are shy. My oldest son is not shy in the least, until it comes to invite the buyers, because he is asking a person to spend alot of money. We are a small operation, we don't spend tens of thousands of dollars each year with some of the potenial buyers, so asking them is a hard thing to do when others do spend a chunck of change with some of the buyers. I understand the advertising thing, what does the kid learn by not inviting thru a letter and/or a personal visit. If the parnents leave cussing and ticked off because the buyer dosen't promise a premium, I guess it's time for the parents to GROW UP a little, the sale is a oppertunity for the child not a right.
I disagree with the County Board doing the inviting, again what does that teach our children. My thought is "Let's do a project, and the county board will do all the inviting, that's great less work I gotta do."
The picture thing is a great idea, we did that this year, every buyer we had visited so far thought it was a great extra touch, helps remind them of who did the asking, and who cares about thier project. What a great reminder at auction time, put a name with the face and the animal.