Hey, if the stores can put christmas stuff out this early then I can plan this bugger now. We did this last year and I know a few people weren't able to get in on it even though they wanted to. So I'm giving people plenty of time.
This year I'm going to try use the site
Elfster to make the selections and send out the details to people. This way I get to be suprised by who has my name. So hopefully it all works out. If not I can always go back to the names in a hat thing.
And now the details.
This exchange is for christmas cards. If you decide to participate and get a name, you must send one. You can send gifts if you like, but this is not required by anyone. If you send a gift, do not expect one in return.
The exchange is open to all our members (well, excpet newbs that sign up just to join this). This includes people from all over the world, so be prepared to spend a little more on postage if you get someone far away. Dont be a grinch and back out.
How to sign up: Post or PM me your first and last name plus email address. I will plug it into Elfster and they will send you an invite to the group. From there...I'm not sure. You might have to sign up on the site. If you put your mailing address into your Elfster profile people can look it up. Or maybe that gets mailed when names are drawn....not sure. I did test it out by inviting a dummy account of mine and I can see other peoples profiles/addresses, so at least we can do that.
One cool thing about Elfster is the ability to ask questions without giving away who you are. For example if want to send someone a PS2 game and dont know if they have a PS2, you can ask and not spoil anything.
Sign up deadline is Dec 1st! On this day the names will be drawn and automatically sent out. So be sure to sign up by then. That should also give you plenty of time to get something sent.
So there we go. Hopefully it all works out with the site.