Fall Band Picnic
Description
The Fall Band Picnic is an outdoor event for the members of the band department, hosted by Kappa Kappa Psi at Slayter Center. It generally takes place on the Sunday evening after the first week of class. Burgers, chips, and a drink are sold for $1, very much like Lunch-for-a-Buck or Jazz on the Hill. This first Sunday of the semester will be the first time the freshmen cannot get a meal from the dining hall.
List of Stuff You Need
- Cash Box
- Grill
- Charcoal (If using charcoal grills)
- Burgers
- Buns
- Cheese
- Ketchup
- Mustard
- Chips
- Bottles of Water
- Large Trash Can
- Large Bag of Ice
- Plates
- Grilling Utensils
- Paper towels (1 - 2 rolls)
- Tables (2 or 3)
- Footballs and/or Frisbees
- Flyers
Before you doing anything else ...
TALK TO THE FINANCES HEAD. A large number of your supplies will be the leftovers from Lunch-for-a-Buck. Don't go out and buy everything you think you'll need before you talk to the Head of Finances. This whole event is a lot like Lunch-for-a-Buck. In fact, go read Lunch-for-a-Buck right now. Done? Ok, now you can continue ...
Grill
Unlike Lunch-for-a-Buck, we do not rent a grill for this event. Instead, we beg/borrow/steal grills from brothers, advisers, and anybody who will let us get away with it. Mo Trout has a large charcoal grill at Slayter that he has let us use for Jazz on the Hill. Grilling utensils were purchased in Spring 2007 for Jazz on the Hill and should still be available.
Preparing Food
While you should start early, there's no time crunch like for Lunch-for-a-Buck. If people have to wait a few minutes for a burger, it's OK. So there's no need to be cooking for 45 minutes before the event begins. However, you should leave time to get the grills heated up and ready to cook, especially if using charcoal grills.
Water
Just like Lunch-for-a-Buck. Use the Kappa Kappa Kan with a large bag of ice as a giant cooler for the water bottles, after you've cleaned it out.
Amount of Food
The numbers attending the fall band picnic can vary widely from year to year, so it's extremely difficult to predict the amount of food you're going to need. Ultimately, it's better to run short on some things (cheese, condiments, etc) that are not vital than to have a bunch of extra. There's usually no opportunity to use that sort of stuff if it's leftover from the picnic. Sometimes, if there are boxes of burgers left over, brothers will buy them from chapter for personal use. Bottles of water can be kept just about anywhere, and can eventually be used for Underground Swing Dance or Camping.
Location
The Fall Band Picnic takes place at Slayter Center. Make sure you reserve it at BOSO with an event planning form at least two weeks before the event. Just like the Welcome Back Bash, this means the paperwork will have to be in before band camp.
Games
Find some brothers with Frisbees and/or footballs that can be thrown around at the picnic. Usually we end up playing a game of Ultimate Frisbee on the hill. There's no need to organize anything formal; it'll pretty much happen on its own.
Advertising
The reason for unpredictable numbers at the band picnic is usually because of inconsistent advertising beforehand. One or two announcements on Thursday and Friday probably won't be enough for people to remember about the picnic on Sunday night. Put up some flyers (with Pat's permission, of course) around Elliott: the front doors, the locker room, the doors of Rm 015, the front of Rm 015, etc. Consider creating a Facebook group. Face-to-face reminders and contacts with as many people as you can will help the most.
More advertising generally means more people. If you expect to do an excellent job of marketing and getting people to the picnic, you'll be selling a lot more food. $1 for a burger, chips, and a water isn't enough to cover our expenses, but when attendance is low, the loss is manageable. With more people, it might be wise to set up a price structure like Jazz on the Hill, so we will actually make money on the event.