UPDATE!

It was my hope that we could actually get around to e-mailing and calling a number of people for sponsorships, but from the outset of the project we had not been dealing with the SOE recruitment officer, Jason, and rather with Murray Lyons and understanding the Gryphon Racing team and what they're about.

And that was good because it gave us a chance to meet the team, assess the situation, and clearly as a result we've been able to prepare a rough draft of a sponsorship package and a rough draft of what each sponsor would get for the various levels.

Jason will be assisting us with the selling of the sponsorships.

I've also brought on board a couple of people within the administration as per reccomended by Murray- who will also help assist us in a number of ways to get sponsorship money through almuni, past sponsors and what not. They can do some of the calling and knocking on doors for us.

There seems to be different opinions on how such sponsorship money should be raised- there was the suggestion of a contractual approach so that we can maintain relationships with our sponsors unlike we have done in the past. From some people I've talked to it is the belief point that we may have to have four or five big sponsors, while others believe that one giant sponsor could do it all and get us the $20,000. We will see what happens. But definetely sponsorship relationship management is crucial.

I've also picked out a list of ten companies that I think would be credible sponsors for approval by Jason:

1) Grey Power or Guelph Hydro or a hydro company
2) MasterCard or VISA
3) One of TD, CIBC, SCOTIABANK, RBC, BMO
4) Guelph Tourism
5) Honda
6) Toyota
7) Food Companies- Kraft, Unilever, Cara, Campbells?
8) A HOTEL- Delta, Best Western, Holiday Inn, etc.
9) OIL AND GAS- Shell, Exxon Mobil, Petro Canada Suncor?
10) HIGH-TECH SECTOR- IBM, RIM?