You're awesome!

I've been stalking this page, trying to figure out how soon to expect them. Yes, I'm impatient. Can't wait to start planting!

Now relax and have an amazing thanksgiving.

Thank you everyone. I wish I could relax. In the next three days I have a house to clean/prep for the Thanksgiving celebration I'm hosting, two dogs to groom, I have multiple family members coming into town (on various days), a TON of errands/shopping (not the least of which is getting a new little laptop which I have been putting off for years), a second Thanksgiving celebration at my MIL'S house....

And in the midst of that, getting seeds out on Friday so that they make it to everyone the beginning of next week. :cross_finger:

Dull week, right?

Anyway, though, I'm not complaining, it's actually gearing up to be a fun, productive, energetic week.

Thanksgiving might be this week, but after seeing some of the goodies you guys nabbed in the swap, I have a feeling the Thanksgiving spirit/mindset will pervade into next week, after you all get your seeds. This was an awesome swap and I'm thankful to all of you for making it such a successful and fun swap. You all brought the abundance of seeds and charisma that makes it so much fun!

Thank you, Libby, I hope you had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving. Sounds like you're "booked" much of the rest of the weekend as well --- ENJOY!
PS I found the same thing when i went to the PO for the priority bubble envelopes. I had gotten them at another 'further' PO and assumed they stocked them. Nope! They are great to have on hand, tho, I gotta admit!

Am I losing my mind or did I see somewhere that All seeds were mailed except for Rick's?

I don't know about you losing your mind Lisa but yes, all but Rick's seeds were mailed on Wednesday

Rick's probably going to feel picked on
Things always happen to that fellow ,

Rick ? I hope we don't become the neighbor lady next door ,, oh my ,,,

Lol, I couldn't send his out because his package didn't have an address and there wasn't one entered for the swap info, either, so I had a package with his name but no address. He's famous to all of us in the swap, but I'm afraid the post deliveryman didn't know where he lived based on name alone.

Good evening/morning everyone! I'm not normally a late-night sort of person, but I realized a piece of the puzzle of the seed issues and wanted to notify everyone that Rayann did *not* send in seeds. If you claimed seeds from her, you would not have received them in your package.

I should have mentioned this sooner, but I did not catch it because she did not claim dibs on anything. Without a master list to show me what each member should be getting from whom (the seed swap system doesn't have that feature yet), I didn't realize we were missing hers. The way I set up the shipping boxes was based on people who sent in their fees for the seed swap, so there wasn't one for her... Which meant there were no alarm bells raised in my head.

I'm very sorry for anyone who claimed seeds from her and didn't receive them, I know it's disappointing to use your tickets--especially early on--only to have them be wasted. I imagine it was an honest mistake, she probably decided not to participate (or didn't realize the trading had started?) and didn't realize the impact it would have to leave her seeds in the swap.

I have contacted her regarding the matter, but I don't know if I truly anticipate a reply. The last time she posted was in the swap on Sept. 16th, and doesn't appear to have made any posts other than that in her apparently-short tenure with NGA. I don't require members to participate in the threads in order to participate in the seed swap and I intend to keep it that way...we have a few quieter members of our 'family' here in the ALL SEEDS SWAP, and that is certainly okay. I will need to find a way of discovering who has 'checked out' in the future, though, so that these sorts of things don't happen again.

I think, aside from Rayann's missing seeds, the few packets of missing seeds should be fixable in Alana's upcoming seed swap.

If there are any issues with missing seeds (or receiving seeds that weren't yours) that have not been addressed, please let me know via Tree-Mail.

I had some but no big deal, not like I didn't get great seeds

Ahh, the mystery solved. Probably you should let Dave know so he can make some sort of master list for the host.
Anyway, all is well.

Next time I'm going to print TWO copies of my "Send To" list. Last year and this year I cut my one copy into "packing slips" that went into each person's baggie of packets.

If I save an uncut copy of my "Send To" list (sorted by people's names), then after I have a table full of baggies, I can check each baggie off against the master list to see if any got lost before I seal my mailer going back to Libby.

I did lose one person in the last swap! I still don't know where that packet went, but my living room probably has enough lost seeds in it to start another Global Seed Vault (with carpet lint).

The only way I can think to get a full-up list of every member is to go to "Access the full tradelist for this swap" and then take screen-shots or retype each name in the "View items only from: " pull-down list.

I like both ideas:
1. Confirm that each person still plans to participate, shortly before trading starts.
2. DON'T make participants follow every thread

The "Important Notices" group email is very good.

Maybe there are some "Helper" tasks we could do to take some of the work off Libby. For example, say Libby asked "who's still committed? Please reply to the 'Important Notices' email thread". Many of those who dropped out would not read it or reply.

Rather than ask Libby to chase after all of them, she could give some of us names to email privately and ask again. Of course, they might not answer those, either!

I'm not sure at what point "invisible and silent" should be considered "they must have dropped out".

If the "Swap Profile" had an optional field for phone number or personal email address, we could contact people who might not otherwise come back to NGA or remember that they joined a seed sap. Rayanne must have been serious at first, because she listed a bunch of nice seeds!

I've suggested it in the past, but you're right, I should say something again. Now I have a clear and distinct situation in which it would be highly beneficial to have one. Before, it seemed practical, but I didn't have a situation where I could prove it's use.

Rayanne had even sent me a tree-mail asking if she could simply donate seeds to the swap prior to putting all of her seeds in it, so I really think this was simply a misunderstanding of some sort. My best guess is that life happened and something came up on her end that she forgot to mention to us or at least to notify me.

I'm not sure it's an entirely preventable situation because, even if someone were to say 'yeah, I'm still in', something could still happen. I'll think on the issue, though, and see what I can come up with.

Honestly, I don't think any of you need to do anything more to make things 'easier for me'. Rick, you're very sweet and thoughtful for saying so, but there is a certain responsibility as a host(ess) that I'm fully aware of and take on. I don't think it will be practical to look at each page in the "access the full tradelist for this swap"...that would be an overwhelming undertaking. It was quite time-consuming in the last two swaps just going through 10-15 members' checklists for each individual to make sure that the number of bags matched what they had on their checklist. I did not do that for this swap because we had double the number of people and I wanted to get everything out quickly, so I decided to simply trust each member to be responsible for their own checklists. Unless it causes problems going forward, I think I will maintain this method for the sake of sanity and timeliness of shipping the seeds back. By and large, you guys do really well with making sure to use your checklists and create accurate groupings of seeds for each member. I would say it has been better than 95% accurate.

RickCorey said:but my living room probably has enough lost seeds in it to start another Global Seed Vault (with carpet lint).

LoL! Now there's a thought... Well, maybe the seeds thought THEY needed more fiber (read: lint) in their diet, too! Mistakes happen and I don't think there were any hard feelings whatsoever, so no worries. Most of us are busy trying to figure out how we're going to fit all of the seeds that DID make it to us into our gardens....