Bluebonnet, Local Drop Off Packing Tips

[Guerra]

I had someone ask me about dropping off Bluebonnet Entries at one of the local drop off points. So I thought I would pass on some recommendations I have made in the past.

Please keep in mind that the local drop off point is not the final destination for your entries.

Your entries will be picked up from the drop off location, by fellow homebrewers. Loaded into the back of someone’s pick-up or car and hauled to the Bluebonnet Log-In location. So even if you drop your entries off at the pick-up locations, they still need to be handled/shipped to the log-in venue.

For this reason YOU SHOULD NOT DROP OFF YOUR ENTRIES IN LOOSE SIX-PACK HOLDERS. Six-Pack holders are hard to manage for the people transporting the entries, and you run the risk of loosing your paper work/payment or worse your entries being damaged in transport.

If you are dropping off your entries at a local drop off location, I would recommend that you pack your entries in some sort of a sealable box (i.e. case boxes work great). This way the entries and paper work are protected in a sealed box TOGETHER. I will be using case boxes with minimal-no packing material.

One of the toughest challenges during log-in is to unpack the entries, verify payment, and then put them together with the entry paperwork. To ensure your entries are processed quickly/accurately and to keep it easy for the folks processing your entries. I recommend the following:

1. You should pack your entries into a sealable box with the Entry Form(s) and payment or proof of payment.

2. You should label the outside of each your boxes, with the "name you used during registration", and also number your box(s), (even if only have one, i.e. “1 of 1” or in the case of multiple boxes "1 of 3", "2 of 3", “3 of 3” etc). This will help ensure that if your boxes become separated during transportation they can be easily reunited.

3. If you require multiple boxes you should include inside of each box a copy of your proof of payment and the entry forms for the entries packed into that box. In other words, if you are using multiple boxes, it is very important to pack your entries and the associated entry paper work into the same box. The paperwork and the entries eventually have to be reunited so keeping them together in the same box helps the log-in process. If you don't, kept them together then you will have to trust that someone at the log-in will find the correct paper work put them and your entries together. Which is allot more work.

[kingsbrew]

When you print your labels read the instructions printed with the labels.