From The Contest Queen

I interviewed many people for my books and I know, without their help, my books would not be as interesting. It turns out I helped another author make his book much more interesting. My story was selected for I Should Have Stayed At Home: Hotels.

My section is entitled Carolyn & Louise. No spoilers here, but I will give you a quick glimpse by reprinting the entry I used in a recent contest describing my worst vacation: 1991, travelling alone, Bora Bora, Club Med, manic-depressive post-op transsexual roommate, cyclone.

Should I have stayed at home? No. Bora Bora was the most beautiful place on earth I have ever been, regardless of the weather and, the trip has provided me with one of the best cocktail hour stories, ever.

In 1999 we went on a crazy road trip.

My husband Craig had been working on a large technology project that would take him to Philadelphia on a Thursday, a different U.S. city on a Friday and return him to me Monday night. So that year, his weekends were Tuesday and Wednesday. Every Thursday morning, on his way into work, on of his local Philly co-workers would stop in at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and buy several dozen for the morning meeting. Craig would eat six! After every trip he would rave about these amazing doughnuts.

At that time the closest Krispy Kreme Doughnut location to us was in Scranton PA. He wanted me to try one of their doughnuts so we packed up the car and headed south east. He had never had one of their doughnuts hot and I thought the seven hour drive was worth it!

Fast forward to 2001. At that time, I had over 15 years marketing experience all in the technology industry. I found myself caught in the dot.com crash and unemployed for the longest period of my life. While seeking out new career opportunities I discovered Krisy Kreme as planning to open stores in Canada. I wrote the Canadian franchisee describing my passion for their product and our road trip. I was hired to write the Canadian FUNdraising marketing plan. It was during that project I had an opportunity to speak with the Vice President of Marketing in their U.S. head office. I suggested they sell their famous Krispy Kreme flavor shot syrup. At time was told that the idea was not viable.

Fast forward to 2008. On our recent road trip, we took a break at a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. When we walked in a noticed they had bottles of their flavor shot syrup on the counter. Hey! That was my idea! I was told they had been selling the syrup for a few years.

That shows how long it’s been since I have been in a Krispy Kreme Doughnut shop. Sadly, the Canadian franchise expanded to quickly and there are only six stores left in Canada, one in Ontario. If you ever get a chance to visit a store when the “Hot” light is on, go in. There is nothing like a hot doughnut melting in your mouth.

Make sure you check out the production line through the glass wall and watch the icing waterfall.

Back to our U.S. adventures. After a wonderful Saturday in Warren MI hanging out with heaps of our sweeping buddies, early Sunday morning we headed down to Payne OH to visit with The Affadaisies. (If you don’t know who The Affadaisies are, read the book or watch the movie; The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio.)

We arrived just in time for lunch. Being the grandmotherly figure she is, Dortha would not allow us to take her and her husband out to eat, instead she served us lunch. After lunch, one son, his wife and two other club members: Alice and Betty arrived. Just like the “good old days”, the men retired to the living room while the women stayed in the kitchen. We drank lemonade, ate cookies and chatted about contesting vs. sweepstaking.

I did find out what happened to the now defunct National Contestors Association. Once contests disappeared in favour of sweepstakes, the association folded. Dortha had attended a few of their conventions and told me the word sweepstakes in that circle was a dirty word. I don’t know what year they folded exactly but it was sometime after 1982.

We headed back through Defiance OH. As we drove around town, I imagined what like must have been like for Evelyn Ryan. We took a picture of the home she lived in on Washington Avenue for most of her life.

I find it amazing that two women I never met, Evelyn and Terry Ryan, could have changed my life so much. It was through reading Terry’s book about her mom Evelyn, that lead me to met Dortha and all her friends.

My intention today was to write more about our weekend road trip to the U.S. and all the wonderful adventures we had. Yesterday I got a letter from Chrysler Financial so disturbing, I had to write about it first. I believe they wrote the letter only, because of the current privacy laws. I am sure if this incident had happened in the past, I never would have heard a word from them.

One of the highest priorities at Chrysler Financial is our focus on your privacy and the protection of your personal information. It is for this reason we are writing to you today to notify you of a recent incident we had with the transfer of certain customer information stored on a data tape to a licenced third party credit reporting agency. On March 12, 2008, we were notified by United Parcel Service (”UPS”) that a data tape (the “Data Tape”) sent by Chrysler Financial containing certain customer information was destroyed or lost in transit and never arrived at the agency. The Data Tape cannot be easily accessed and requires specialized software and equipment to read, but it did contain some personal information that Chrysler Financial had obtained from you (most importantly, name, address, and social insurance number).

Chrysler Financial, in co-ordination with UPS, is conducting a thorough investigation but at this point in time the Data Tape has not been located. Having said that, we also have no reason to suspect that an unauthorized individual has actually retrieved and is using the personal information contained on the Data Tape, which we reiterate is not readily accessible. Nonetheless, as a precautionary measure we are alerting you to this recent incident so that you may be watchful for signs of any possible misuse of your personal information by an unauthorized recipient.

We apologize for any inconvenience or alarm this may cause you. Chrysler Financial can confirm that this has not happened before within our quality control processes and, since the incident, we have put into place additional measures with this and other third party agencies to ensure it will not happen again. Chrysler Financial has also, n a voluntary basis, disclosed this incident to the federal Privacy Commissioner’s Office and the applicable provincial privacy offices.

We appreciate your business and want yo assure you that Chrysler Financial remains committed to providing exceptional customer service while enforcing the strictest of privacy measures.

It is signed by their General Counsel.

Many people do not enter contests and sweepstakes, especially online, because they are afraid of identity theft. They do not want to put their personal information “out there”. You already are “out there”. You may not bank online, but your bank is connected to the Internet. Your sensitive personal information is being sent around by various financial institutions.

There is nothing on a standard entry form that some one couldn’t easily find about you in the phone book or via a Google search. I estimate I have filled out over half-a-million entry forms online over the past seven years and I have had no fear of someone using that data subvertly. This however is another case. Thankfully, late last year we purchased Identity Theft Shield (an insurance-type service protecting us from identity theft), so I have nothing to worry about, but what if we didn’t have it?

I will be contacting their General Counsel and I will continue to enter online, worry-free.

What’s on your plate?  When it’s full, what falls off?  Where do you find the time to enter?

This past month I have spent the bulk of my time finalizing my U.S. book and catching up on general business administration.  Mixed in there are all the things I do on a daily basis: be a mom, be a wife, be a cook, be a housekeeper, etc.  There there are the things I do less frequently such as: write my bi-weekly e-newsletter, blogging, etc.  Plus, I heaped more on to my plate, such as my blog radio talk show.

Last night I lay in bed fretting because I have not entered my daily contests in weeks, and have not entered my weekly contests in over a month.   The ones I do have left in my online folders are dwindling to such low numbers, if I don’t begin entering again soon, I will run of of contests to enter!  I have determined the only remedy is to stop all other activities for a day, catch-up and get back to entering a bit everyday.

The other thing I do while I am entering the dozens of new contests (to me) is say over and over, “It only takes one to win!”  Thankfully, that statment is true.

Many sweepstakes clubs have started holding their spring meetings. Sadly, I am not able to attend all the meetings I am invited to. Today, I have the pleasure of blogging “on the road” as I am in Warren MI. Yesterday, my husband and I attended the 2008 Michigan Wolverine’s Sweepstakes Club Spring Meeting. This year’s theme was Go Hawaiian and the MC was Al Sayward.

The club organized a great meeting as all the elements were there: friends, food, fun and PRIZES.

The meeting was held from Noon-4:00pm at the Gazebo. Just under 100 people attended and since we have been attending meetings in the U.S. since 2005, we saw many friends.

While we ate dessert, the winning began. There were all types of raffles, contests and draws including: a Super Sweeper Raffle, a 50/50 draw, Stamped Envelopes and a Decorated Envelope Contest. Everyone won at least one prize.

A great time was had by all. I hope we are able to attend next year.

Two years ago at the Northeast Sweepstakes Convention, Craig and I were introduced to NetWinner. I was immediately addicted, but I found it ate into my contesting time so I only played in spits and spurts.

That Christmas when we were at my in-laws, Craig introduced my father-in-law to NetWinner. Apparently I was not the only one that found it totally addictive. For the rest of the holiday, the two men sat in front of the TV watching movies and sports, laptops open, playing NetWinner.

Yesterday I got a newsletter from NetWinner. They had enhanced some of their features so I thought I would check it out. They had added two new games I had to try; a Wii Giveaway and a Louis Vuitton Giveaway.

I also figured out how to contest and play at the same time. I open my Internet Explorer browser and run one of the NetWinner games. Then I open my Modzilla FireFox browser and enter my contests. Then I just toggle between both browsers, merrily clicking away.

What sweepstakes games are you addicted to?

There is an interesting new contest site in Canada called WinFreeTickets.com. As the name suggests, you can win tickets to all types of plays, concerts and sporting events. (Full rules here.) Since offers are made by region, you only enter for events near you and for what interests you.

I knew Sandy was planning to retire and now it’s official. Patti and Kurt Osterheld are the new owners of SweepSheet. Patti is the editor. She was featured in an ABC Good Morning America Weekend interview.  She is very passionate about sweepstakes and I am sure that passion will shine through in future issues.

Welcome Patti & Kurt!

One of the most exciting ways to meet fellow sweepers is at a convention.

The 19th Annual National Sweepstakes Convention being held in San Antonio TX from August 28-31, 2008 is almost sold out.  At last check they had 922 registered attendees and their cut off is 960.  Get your registration forms in ASAP!

The 3rd Annual Northeast Sweepstakes Convention being held in Hershey PA from October 17-19, 2008 is now 50% sold out.  Get your registration forms in soon.

Updated information for the 2nd Annual National Contestors Convention can be found on the convention Yahoo Group’s message board.

I am attending all of them, so SEE YOU THERE!