It's secret quonsar time again! The randomized draw will be on American Thanksgiving, November 22, and the send by date is Monday, December 3.
Please sign up by 11:59 PM EST on Tuesday, November 20.
The spending guideline: $10-20.
secret quonsar is the MeFi holiday-adjacent gift swap. Each participant sends a gift to an awesome Mefite; each participant receives a gift from an awesome Mefite. Awesomeness and gifts abound.
Signing Up
There will be a link at the end of this post. Follow it. We need a MeFi handle,
an email address you check, your mailing address, and some good guidance for the person who draws your name.
You will get a confirmation email within 12 hours of signing up that will show you the information you submitted. If you do not get this confirmation within 24 hours, send me a memail. If you have not gotten a confirmation email, you may not be signed up or you entered the wrong email address. We can fix that. Fun Fact: Every year, several people accidentally typo their own email addresses, which leads to confusion and consternation, and sometimes no gift for someone until late in the season.
You will get your draw via email. It will contain key information about the person you will be gifting: MeFi name, real name, mailing address, and hopefully helpful guidance from the person you drew. It should allow you get off to a running start.
We will not share, abuse, sell, or spindle your email address. The person who draws your name will not get your email address. I will delete all emails sent and received at the end of the sq season.
The Rules
If you failed to send your giftee a gift last year without ensuring they got a gift, don't even bother signing up. You've been banned from this year's festivities. If you do try to sign up, your name will be yoinked from the swap. You can try again next year, but two strikes and you will be out. If you don't send a gift this year, you will be banned next year. You will get only one second chance. If you sign up anyway, you will be removed from the list and you will hear from me.
If you find that you can't participate after signing up but before the draw, after all, then send me a MeMail or an email to the address below. I'll remove your entry.
If you find that you can't participate after all after the draw, please send an email to that same gmail account as soon as possible so we can contact the folks who drew you and whom you drew and redirect or reassign as appropriate.
If you do not think you can mail a gift in a reasonable amount of time, please do not participate. It's not OK to plan now on finding and sending your gift after your life calms down in January or late December or on Valentines Day.
The Swap
You will be notified which mefite you have drawn on American Thanksgiving.
Hey! You have a question!
Do you have a burning question for the person whose name you drew? Do you need more information? We're here to help! Send us an email and we will follow up! Phunniemee will be helping me during this anonymizer phase. If you draw my name and need answers from/about me, contact her directly; if you draw her's, contact me. We'll do our best to get folks the answers they need.
After the gift giving frenzy has begun, We are happy to follow up on your behalf after a suitable period has passed - to check in with a giftee to see if a gift has arrived, or to check in with a sender to see what the status is. During this time, we will also reassign folks who are getting stiffed to our fine band of second chancers - folks who have volunteered to step in and make sure every gets a gift. If you want to be a second chancer drop me a memail or an email.
If you know your gift will be arriving late (for instance, if you are making it or the manufacturer has a backlog), we would be happy to let your quonsee know they have not been forgotten and it is on the way.
A Note About the Swap Groups
The list has changed slightly from last year. If we do not get enough people to do a swap in a group, I will contact folks in the underpopulated swap groups to see what can be done in the week before Thanksgiving. I will take suggestions, so if you want to suggest an alternate swap group (e.g. Mars only), those can be added .
A Note about International Swapping
I STRONGLY recommend mailing as early as possible if you are going to send anything internationally, especially if the US is involved. Customs holds up lots of packages for varying amounts of time (with some, it seems forever.) If you sign up for the International/Anywhere option, please be aware that shipping times may stretch out longer than you'd prefer.
Communicating with us
Unless you need to contact us specifically about one of the organizers, please use our gmail account secretquonsarswap. This will help us make sure we don't overlook anything and can be as efficient as possible. This year, I'm pleased to be joined by PhunnieMee, arcticseal, and lampshade on the organizing crew.
The signup link
Sign up for Secret Quonsar 2012
Please note: we've set up a once-a-year mailing list to notify people when sq signups go live. You can
sign up to be notified in future years. (This year's notification has already gone out) Please note: signing up for the notification list does not mean you are automatically signed up to participate in sq every year. You still have to fill out the sq sign-up form every year.
posted by schleppo at 7:02 AM on November 12, 2012 [1 favorite]