Give-Away Follow-up

I know that after a poll or something similar, I often like to know the results.  In that spirit, I offer a brief summary of last week’s give-away. 

Overall, I consider it to have been a great success.  Many people were interested, and I am happy to put things that I like in the hand of others who will enjoy them.  On the downside, there were too many interested, and thus a few are going to be sad. 

One other motivation in this project was to see how easily I could use a form with a Google Spreadsheet.  Answer: extremely easy.  Something like this would have been very beneficial several years ago when I conducted the IBEX alumni survey of nearly 1,000 people.  I tried to use Google Spreadsheets, but it didn’t seem to work unless everyone got a username and logged in.  Instead, we did the whole thing by email, and had to convert everything over.  The more recent forms approach solves this problem beautifully.  I don’t know if I ‘ll have any uses for it in the future, but now I know how it works.

As far as the specific items, I ‘ll note first that there were 27 people requesting 7 items.  But because of I have multiple copies of some, 16 people are “winners.”  The biggest winner, of course, is USPS.  But these are all coming by media mail, and I ‘ll send them when I can, which may not be super soon.  So don’t plan any parties around them.

I enjoyed many of the comments that were written.  I think every single person wrote a comment of some kind, and some were nice, some were informative, and some were humorous.  A couple of people gave me their address but not their name (that would be you, if you live on 12th or lindenwood, but neither of you “won”).  One person who did win told me they were a “past student” and for their address wrote, “I think you have it, but I can give it to you again in an e-mail, if you need it.”  Well, if I only I had one past student, I would likely know your address.  But trying to guess both your name and address is tough; maybe if you told me your age and weight, I could narrow it down. 

Here are some specifics on what was most popular.

Bible Atlas and Companion – This was requested by four people, all of whom will be receiving this book.

Insight’s Archaeology Handbook – If you lost out in this give-away, it was likely because you went for gold (see the next item) and fell short.  If you ‘d asked for something I have more of, like this one, you would have been one of three to have their dreams fulfilled.  (One of the three is the mystery student.)

Archaeological Study Bible – I can’t blame the five who desired this, because it is not only a great resource, but it also costs more than any of the other items on this list.  However that means that four (HG, 12th St, GG, and PP) missed out this time.

Christa Wells, Frame the Clouds. – This is my favorite album right now, but apparently it only appealed to one person.  If that’s you, our family would like to see you in early August.

Sovereign Grace, Sons and Daughters.  This was another one where I was sorry that I didn’t have more copies.  The good news for JD, AL, and ED is that this is not expensive to buy and it is well worth it.  Let me just add here that the video “The Prodigal” that I linked to last week is a good example of how art (music and images) can communicate more powerfully than words on a page.

Visual Guide to the New Testament.  Only really smart guys requested this, all either in doctoral programs and/or more knowledgeable than myself.  Since I have three copies, there are no losers here.

Food in the Time of the Bible.  Surprisingly, to me at least, this was the most requested item.  I’m not sure if there was some psychology going on here, with some of you trying to choose what would be least popular in order to be more likely to win, but seven people expressed interest in this book.  The three winners all happen to be present or recent PhD students.  If I had more copies, I’d have been delighted to send them to lindenwood, DP, SZ, and AD.

As you can see, I’ve noted here the initials (or addresses) of those who won’t be receiving anything this time around.  I’m doing this so you don’t have to remain in suspense (ok, even a teeny weeny bit of suspense), and because I didn’t request your emails on the form by which to notify you.  I assume that all who entered the give-away are regular readers and will see this post.  Thanks for playing.  I hope to do it again sometime.