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Yeeee Ha! Another first for Texas…….!
George L. Vaught, President Elect-Texas Auctioneers Association
Hang on, here is a story really worth telling. Quite literally, Keith Landers (dba, Johnny Dee) and I just happened to run across each other at our neighborhood Austin farmers market one Saturday morning last April. I previously hired Keith’s band “Johnny Dee & the Rocket 88s” last fall to play at TAA’s 50th Anniversary Party during our annual June convention in Corpus Christi, Texas. Our kids went to grade school together, and we were reminiscing about family. During our conversation, Keith said “Hey, why don’t you guys try to set a world record for the greatest number of auctioneers calling bids”. In short he passed the ball (idea), and I ran with it.
The first thing I did was go to Guinness’ web site www.guinnessworldrecords.com and researched how to make an application for a Guinness World Record™ attempt. I downloaded their application and agreement to make an attempt which also included some general guidelines as to how they want an attempt documented and verified. After I submitted the application describing the TAA’s proposed world record attempt, when and where it would be held, etc., I was assigned an identification number and notified that it would take some 6 to 8 weeks for Guinness to reach a decision and notify me if TAA’s proposed world record attempt was worthy of consideration.
There was no previous world record for the number of auctioneers bidcalling simultaneously, so I figured we had a good chance to get it done. I had no specific guidelines before our attempt, so I carefully developed a strict protocol for registering Texas licensed auctioneers to participate just prior to the attempt (much like CE); documenting witnesses to the attempt; soliciting key witnesses who are recognized in our industry; recording by video and photos the actual attempt while it was in process, etc., etc. Subsequently, I received notice from Guinness that our world record attempt was worthy of consideration. Since there was no previous world record, Guinness also provided me specific guidelines which their Records Committee developed for us to follow in properly documenting the attempt. I felt we would easily comply with Guinness’ specific guidelines.
On 15 June 2007, we made the world record attempt between the convention’s evening activities which included TAA’s State Bidcalling and Ringman Contests and our Annual Fun Auction. We had 102 Texas licensed auctioneers participate in the attempt, and we called bids simultaneously for 10 minutes. In addition to a third party video documentation provided by Corpus Christi TV Station kiitv, documented witnesses to our world record attempt included Neal Davis (Auctioneer Extraordinaire), Tommy Williams (then NAA President Elect), Jeff Rinard (TDLR Lead Investigator), and Kristina Kaiser (TDLR Director of Enforcement). Moreover, the TAA’s Guinness World Record™ Committee included Brent Graves, Jim Morganti, Jim and Charlene Sample, John Sisk, Lisa Gay, Tommy and Pam Traylor, Renee Jones, Mike and Lori Jones, Scott and Carla Swenson, Ernie Croucher, Buddy Thomas, Myra Vaught, Vanessa Vaught, and Marguerite Vaught.
After the attempt, I gathered up all of our documentation to make a formal world record claim to Guinness. I forwarded TAA’s formal claim for our world record in late June. From time to time, I would go to the Guinness web site and check on the claim’s status via the indentification number I was assigned when I made application for the attempt last spring. On 18 September 2007, I went to their web site and found that our claim had been approved and a certificate from Guinness is in the mail….pretty exciting!
Texas Auctioneers and Texas Proud!
