Notes from previous events

Event planning for the 2008 Holiday Shindig.
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NWOGEO
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Notes from previous events

Post by NWOGEO »

GC179A4
After event notes from 2007 Holiday Shindig - Held at Olander Park, Sylvania. Large, very nice hall:
cheechgang wrote:Caches were placed by party amateurs who are no longer amateurs.
GoodDog wrote:We planned on 90 adults and 8 kids and ordered what I thought would be enough food (not counting deserts which were donated). We ordered:

30 ea. 10inch subs cut into 3 pieces. (I only see 28 on the bill, so we got a 2 sub bonus or were short 2 subs which we didn't need anyway. hmmmmm)

16ea. 14inch pizza (two and three toppings) cut into 10 pieces.

5 ea. tripple cheesy bread (150 pieces)

two large veggie tray. One would have been enough.
one fruit tray (pineapple, muskmelon, honey do , and grapes.

We used:

approx. 10 ea. 2liter pops
1/2gal. cider
1.5 gal wassel
undetermined amount of hot chocolate and coffee

undetermined (but John knows) amount of Grandma's Green Punch- hi test
undetermined amount of Grandma's red punch.-unleaded

M&M's snack item, 1lb, which were the first to be eated
Chex Mix- they ate about 3lbs.
1 bag corn chips and some salsa. Second stuff to be grabbed up.

Chocolate fountain 5lbs needed. Lynn brought banana's, apricots,
pretzels 2lbs used, and vanilla wafers, and towhouse crackers for the fountain. People used the pineapple to dip also.

The food order would have been a little short if we would have had the 20 people who didn't come because of the weather.

We had enough donated deserts.

All in all it was a good lineup of food for the amount of people who came. A little larger Vito's order would be necessary if everyone would have shown.
cheechgang wrote:We asked them to label them when they were ordered, but they must have "forgot".
BlackBrownDog wrote:I think we should have taken the food to the back, and then brought it out before the line started. I think a lot of the hungry folks grabbed their 3 pieces and got out of the way before the subs even came out. No one was going hungry in there, even with 20 more people. Perhaps making sure that people don't start before they are called to dinner would ensure they know what all will be on the table. I know that we were about 20 min late with the food, but no one in there looks like they've missed a meal.
GoodDog wrote:
BlackBrownDog wrote:I think we should have taken the food to the back, and then brought it out before the line started.
This is a good idea. Also, alternate the food. Pizza, sub, bread, Pizza, sub etc.
BlackBrownDog wrote:I think that we further demonstrated that Jay, Rick, and Chris rock!!!! (or at least pick) :)
[hr]

GCYYZM
After event notes from 2006 Holiday Shindig - Held at Oak Openings. Large, very nice hall:
GoodDog wrote:> more people showed up early than I expected. By 9;30 there must have been a dozen.

(This paragraph is being written in Oct. 2008)
[]This was our first and only catered event (to date), and it turned out well. It was nice to have someone fix a great meal. We had chicken, beef, veggies, twice baked potatoes etc. While the meal was great, the logistics were tough. It seemed like it took months of forum topics, emails etc. trying to get people to pick their meal, pre-pay for it, and keep the caterer involved. Either The Moop Along or Gizmo Guy set up a Pay Pal account, or used theirs, and checks were sent to me. If catering is a future consideration, don't underestimate those challenges.]]


Have a coffee drinker be in charge of bringing the coffee for the early crowd.

Maybe have some doughnuts for the early crowd. Eleanor got some for us in 06. 8)
[hr]

GCQVQT
After event notes from 2005 Holiday Shindig held in Carrs Grove Park, in Temperance Michigan -- Medium hall, very cozy:
GoodDog wrote:Here are some other things to record, as I'll surely forget them by hmmm. What was I typing? Oh, Oh,

This is a good idea for a topic

We figured 100 people would need 2 Mancino's party packs. (a party pack was two 18in. subs, three pieces of cheesy bread (27inches), and two (4topping) 16in. pizza. I figured this would feed 32 (moderate eaters). That left 68 people and I figured four people/pizza which meant 16 additional pizza (two topping, 16inch). This along with the chili and deserts, a veggie tray, and various chips and pretzels. This was WAY WRONG. We had too much pizzas left and lots of chili left. I estimate that if all the leftover pizza was combined we had 6 full ones taken home. This is going to be hard to figure, but I think that next time you should figure 6 people per pizza if there is other stuff to eat also.

The grinders went faster than the pizza. Next time figure only party packs. Everyone I talked to said the subs were great, but I never even got to see them. FYI the subs were Turkey, meatball, and I forget the other ones already.

We charged $5/adult for the food. The pizza bill came to $262 with the 10% discount for us picking it up (thanks John) and we collected $254. Pretty darn good.

I'm guessing, since some guests also brought deserts, but I think we had about 12.

I don't have a handle on the pop or punch. I brought 7 two liter and it was gone. Others brought pop, punch, Grandma's Green Punch (a big hit Jen) and a whiskey slushie ( another big hit. Thanks whoever)

Next time, depending on the building, bring extra tables. Include a full size table:
for TBs
door prizes
registration,
electronics (maybe two if more people bring lap tops),
sig item table
coffee table
drink table
and 3-5 food tables. (pizza took up a lot of space and we couldn't display all them properly)

Bring extra garbage bags, paper towels

Get a couple of different color raffle tickets (we now have orange)
Hydnckr wrote:..... I just wanna say thanks to all of you for doing so much work, everything looked fantastic!

** By the way, for reference, the event logbook contained 76 names.

OK, suggestions...
- We keep it on a Sunday, I know that helped a lot of folks be available to come.
- I believe the event could have been longer, maybe Noon-5 with the food still being served around 3, there were lots of things for folks to do to keep themselves occupied.
- I kinda think we could have had LESS activities. People love to talk. The County Game was a great idea as was the Scavenger Hunt as well as the 12 days of Caching and the other things. They were all great ideas. I guess what I'm getting at is that we likely don't need to feel like we have to entertain people with a lot of stuff. They'll talk, or go caching and come back or look at coins and Sig items or whatever.
- new permanent caches are always a great idea, I know some folks really look forward to that...as well as the temp caches for the kiddos.
- next year we need a bigger hall tho. Even tho everything "fit" at this one, there was no real extra room to go wander around. (course I certainly realize that we didn't anticipate so many people)

GizmoGuy411 I dunno how you come up with the ambition to make personalized name tags like those but they were awesome! And weren't those ornaments that Papade made really the best ? I love em!
What did the scrolling banner say ? I didn't even read it, there was too much else going on.
GoodDog wrote:
Hydnckr wrote:I
** By the way, for reference, the event logbook contained 76 names.

- We keep it on a Sunday, I know that helped a lot of folks be available to come.
- I believe the event could have been longer, maybe Noon-5 with the food still being served around 3, there were lots of things for folks to do to keep themselves occupied.
- I kinda think we could have had LESS activities. People love to talk. The County Game was a great idea as was the Scavenger Hunt as well as the 12 days of Caching and the other things. They were all great ideas. I guess what I'm getting at is that we likely don't need to feel like we have to entertain people with a lot of stuff. They'll talk, or go caching and come back or look at coins and Sig items or whatever.
- new permanent caches are always a great idea, I know some folks really look forward to that...as well as the temp caches for the kiddos.
- next year we need a bigger hall tho. Even tho everything "fit" at this one, there was no real extra room to go wander around. (course I certainly realize that we didn't anticipate so many people)

.
The event log may have said 76, but I have to figure there were more than that. We had 98 chairs I think and most were taken and we still had 6-8 people around the kitchen etc. Of course if everyone did sign and with the correct number of guests, that would explain the extra pizza.

Suggestion: Next time have the persons doing the checking in actually count and ask the signers how many there are and how many of those are kids. Also for budgeting purposes we should only figure on adults for the $5. If we would have had 75 adults who paid ($375) we could have reimbursed the organizers for some out of pocket expenses or paid for a hall.


The event was actually longer. We had about 10 people there at 11 and probably 30 by noon. We had a note on the cache page that they could come early. We have to remember that at this shelter we were able to come in early, but at many they have time blocks for rentals and you can't come in early and you must leave on time or have extra expense. (you have to figure the clean up time in the time block)

A bigger hall would have been great this time, but if we have to rent a comparable or bigger hall we are talking in the $250 range. We are probably going to have to do this, but we are only guessing on how many. It's a gamble. Being in the hall rental business, sort of, I know that if we want to rent it for next year we have to reserve it soon. $5 covered the pizza, but would have done nothing for a hall rental. We need to generate more money, or have people bring the usual food and still ask for a $5 donation. I'll send a treasurers report.

Being on the Mich/Oh. border was a plus, but we are getting a pretty good rep. now, and maybe people will come to one of the Toledo Metro Parks now.
[hr]
GCKMP5
After event notes from 2004 Holiday Shindig - Held in Bowling Green at the Wintergarden Nature Center:
GoodDog wrote:Small room - 45 people- but very cozy with a nice fire. I don't remember the date, but we froze our a$$es off, and there was a LOT of snow, and many of the Cleveland people either didn't come or had to leave early, but we had a GREAT TIME, and a very fun sing along. This started a great tradition.
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Re: Notes from previous events (Read this 2nd)

Post by GizmoGuy411 »

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