FALL FESTIVAL REVIEWS!!!!!!

I only got to experience it from the working side, but I think it went well. People seemed happy, but then again... free food... so yeah. Personally, I think if next time we gather some data, we could make things a lot easier in the future. Like maybe keep track of how many bowls/plates we give out, so we know roughly how much food to make, because though we had plenty this time, It got a little random at the end. We were just giving out rice with anything we had, even on it's own for a bit. That way, we could pre-bowl rice so wouldn't need three people just to plate (It was kind of rough trying to scoop out rice with plastic forks, and getting it into the bowls definitely slowed us up a bit) and the extra two could be used elsewhere when needed.

It also got a little disorganized at some points, because people kept coming up to the back of the food booth to see what was going on when cooking, and we gave them food, so other people started lining up back there at one point. There wasn't a line out front at the time, but if there was it probably would have been a little more chaotic. Next time we should probably put up signs behind to tell people where the line starts.

Overall though, considering all the things that went wrong (losing power, rain, late start), I think everything went a lot smoother than it could have.

And for the next event, maybe post any items you might need or would be good to bring, because I have a lot of stuff we probably could have used throughout the whole prep. time that could have made it a lot quicker (again, serving would have been a lot easier if I had a wooden spoon instead of a plastic fork... there was something else I wanted to bring too that would have made things easier, but I can't remember what it was right now...).

I think we got off to a rocky start, but the overall event ran very well. I know ICC had a great time and is 100% behind us for any future events.

In terms of food prep, this year's fall festival was hugely better than last year. We had enough (too much, even!) rice, a fair amount of yakisoba, enough gyoza and edamame, but too few drinks. By controlling drink amount and food portion size better, I think we'll have an even better year next year.

I know we already talked about this, but we definitely need more of the hotplate that you bought for this year. If we have more hotplates, it would be easier to get the food out to people quickly and we might be able to efficiently serve more food types at once.

If we do chicken again next year, more money needs to be allotted. $60 was not enough, even though the portions were small and the cuts we bought were inexpensive.

I was really impressed with all the helpers - everyone truly did help a lot, and I think everyone who said they could help out came to help out. That, in my opinion, was the BIGGEST triumph of the event. Having so many people work together and have a good time was wonderful.

castellik1 wrote:

Personally, I think if next time we gather some data, we could make things a lot easier in the future. Like maybe keep track of how many bowls/plates we give out, so we know roughly how much food to make, because though we had plenty this time, It got a little random at the end. We were just giving out rice with anything we had, even on it's own for a bit.

Counting up how many bowls we give out is a good idea.

castellik1 wrote:

That way, we could pre-bowl rice

Pre-bowling the rice just means more things to store and carry. Counting the bowls we hand out to approximate the amount of food we're giving is a good idea, but pre-bowling may not be a likelihood.

castellik1 wrote:

It was kind of rough trying to scoop out rice with plastic forks....And for the next event, maybe post any items you might need or would be good to bring, because I have a lot of stuff we probably could have used throughout the whole prep. time that could have made it a lot quicker (again, serving would have been a lot easier if I had a wooden spoon instead of a plastic fork... there was something else I wanted to bring too that would have made things easier, but I can't remember what it was right now...).

Did you try asking an eboard member if we had serving spoons? Japan Club has its own stock of servingware, cookware, etc. I know I brought an ice cream scoop for that exact purpose. I think the problem was less that we had a deficiency in the equipment, and more that people just didn't know where it was. The biggest problem with people bringing their own personal supplies is that they often get lost. Sandy, for example, almost lost her dad's orange extension cord because the person who brought the electrical equipment back to the student center didn't realize she brought one from home. People have also lost servingware. I'd hate to see the same happen to you.

castellik1 wrote:

It also got a little disorganized at some points, because people kept coming up to the back of the food booth to see what was going on when cooking, and we gave them food, so other people started lining up back there at one point. There wasn't a line out front at the time, but if there was it probably would have been a little more chaotic. Next time we should probably put up signs behind to tell people where the line starts.

This was our first year experimenting with the signs, so your feedback is especially salient. We should consider making signs that say "Helpers only, do not enter" or something like that.

Kirei-chan wrote:

Pre-bowling the rice just means more things to store and carry. Counting the bowls we hand out to approximate the amount of food we're giving is a good idea, but pre-bowling may not be a likelihood.

Maybe, Kind of depends on who we have doing what. Carrying everything wasn't that bad, and if we could serve a lot faster and with less effort I think it may be a fair trade-off. As for storage, yeah. I don't know. We were able to fit 12 bowls of rice in a single tray, I have a fridge that could probably store a good 7-8 trays, and that number could be increased a lot if maybe we used cups instead of bowls (It seems weird, but when you have to walk with food, I'd imagine cups are easier to use) and no more expensive (plus, simple psychology, less food looks like more in a smaller vessel... just saying). Even if we can only pre-bowl less than half of what we need, that still gives us something to put out while we work on making more. But again, I suppose it depends on who's helping, and who can store stuff. But even members who can't help out with the event may be able to store stuff and just drop it off on the way to class the day of. And that way people can feel more involved without having to do any of the more difficult work. Win/win. Again, just an idea though.

Kirei-chan wrote:

Did you try asking an eboard member if we had serving spoons? Japan Club has its own stock of servingware, cookware, etc. I know I brought an ice cream scoop for that exact purpose. I think the problem was less that we had a deficiency in the equipment, and more that people just didn't know where it was. The biggest problem with people bringing their own personal supplies is that they often get lost. Sandy, for example, almost lost her dad's orange extension cord because the person who brought the electrical equipment back to the student center didn't realize she brought one from home. People have also lost servingware. I'd hate to see the same happen to you.

Yeah, keeping track of possessions is probably something that we need to work on, maybe put EVERYTHING in writing next time. But even then, can't account for accidents or mistakes. And yeah, I was asking, and I know we had them. I have no idea why we just didn't use some things, but I asked if we have anything else, and was told to use forks (I guess people didn't want to have to keep running back to the clubroom or were to busy handling other things). Well anyway, we serving the food never saw the ice cream scoop, and the wooden rice spoon ended up being used less for rice than it should have due to some...er, lack of common sense I don't feel like explaining), and for some reason I was told not to use a pair of tongs anymore that I had already used, and have no idea why, maybe they fell or somthing... actually, now that I think about it, A list of things to bring from the club would have helped as well. I think most the members helping knew already, being the club leaders, but I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to be bringing half the time. Having a list probably could have streamlined setup a bit, instead of everyone just waiting for CC to give orders.

Then again, all the above is hard to judge considering how much less time we had to setup. I'm sure things would have been a lot more relaxed if we started setting up when we were supposed to (we lost at least 1 1/2 hours).

Again, this is all just opinion, I'm very much the type that likes using planning to increase productivity and whatnot. But our kind of "just go with it' attitude that we went with after the schedule fell apart worked okay too, so whatever.

People were happy, we did good. Ultimately the rest is just me nitpicking.

Kirei-chan wrote:

In terms of food prep, this year's fall festival was hugely better than last year. We had enough (too much, even!) rice, a fair amount of yakisoba, enough gyoza and edamame, but too few drinks. By controlling drink amount and food portion size better, I think we'll have an even better year next year.

Agreed. Also, I know it wasn't a problem this time, but I was worried about the green tea latte all day. Milk based drinks and no cooling device. Could have been a little iffy. Next time I'll think of a way, or buy something to keep that cool somehow, especially if we need to make more of it.

Kirei-chan wrote:

I know we already talked about this, but we definitely need more of the hotplate that you bought for this year. If we have more hotplates, it would be easier to get the food out to people quickly and we might be able to efficiently serve more food types at once.

I'm going to buy one of those, I liked it a lot, so we'll have at least one more next year (even after I graduate, I don't mind letting the club borrow it if I'm still around the area).

Kirei-chan wrote:

I was really impressed with all the helpers - everyone truly did help a lot, and I think everyone who said they could help out came to help out. That, in my opinion, was the BIGGEST triumph of the event. Having so many people work together and have a good time was wonderful.

, I was really happy too when I thought we were going to be screwed setting up with like five people, and suddenly plenty of people came to help out. Imaginary hats off to everyone involved.

Manny is too lazy to write in large explanatory paragraphs so he's only going to write short thingies.

ぷりくら photobooth went along pretty well! It would be nicer to get a printer on time, but other than that (and a few snags with electricity and rain), it went pretty well. No real qualms on that, and I'm glad we actually got to do them this time around!

IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE THE FAIR READY ON TIME, yep. Though that was a tad out of our control as well, maybe. In any case, when we put up fliers for 1 o'clock, we should be ready by 1 o'clock.

also we need more drinks

that's p. much it. as a whole, this year went 50000000x better than last. i am proud of club です.

I just wanted to say that in the past we did have written instructions printed out and given to people to read to help the event setup go smother but it was totally disregarded so that's why we didnt do something like that this year.

and Manny about the printer, we were using it last night to create out signs and such but there was a difficulty bringing it back since it kept raining and it was hard to come back with a printer that is no box or cover in the rain. (as well as cassie holding it along with other things *-* )

I know that next year you guys will just have to alot more than a $600 budget for this event. Probably give this event $300 food or more and the rest we basically have so just buy more hotplates (if we dont buy more during the spring teehee), etc.


oh and canopies definitely are a plus whether or not there is rain. makes the events booths look better ~

first off, congrats. this year is only the 3rd year we've been running this event. It's a huge undertaking for a new eboard, and it's the best I've seen so far.

now onto the issues.

the biggest issue outside is the lack of electricity. the outside outlets are easily overloaded. which is a real shame since most of our cooking relies on electric methods. Because of this, the power strips would turn off every once in a while, which damages electronics. Next time, we should simply use both outlets, so each one only has to support half of the electronics.

a replacement for electronic cooking is cooking with portable gas stove ranges.
portable gas stove

These are pretty cheap and hardy. I've used these for years at work. Their safe indoors, and work solely off gas. They do produce a flame, so im not sure if they are allowed indoors. You buy refill bottles that just snap in.
refills plus stove

Rain is rain is rain. But if it is raining, there needs to be something to cover everyone or thing. Electronics need to be covered while it rains! Poor manny was sitting there with an umbrella, trying to cover everything.

Speaking of, only myself and manny were invited to the after party. I was pretty sure that someone was going around, making sure they acknowledged everyone helping. In fact, I heard "ok, I got everyone." So I'm not sure why 3-4 people who were helping me were left out. I tried to get a hold of them, but I don't have access to the japanc contacts.

A solution for the equipment might be to color code it. For example the gyoza station is red. There is a red placemat under the skillet, red tape on the tongs. You can even write on the tape, "Sandy's tongs". It also seems like whoever was manning some of the stations just needed to realize what they had available for them.


The canopies are awesome, and I wish there were more.

drink station was awesome.

Personally, I don't think we should be serving cold rice. We could have setup the sternos and kept the rice warm. It doesn't really taste good, and the rest of the food wasn't hot enough to make the rice warm. I know it's harder because we were working outside in rainy weather, but it really was just too cold to eat.

cc wrote:

I just wanted to say that in the past we did have written instructions printed out and given to people to read to help the event setup go smother but it was totally disregarded so that's why we didnt do something like that this year.

I see. That makes sense. I don't know. I didn't mind winging it like we did. But I feel like I could have been of more use and done a lot more if we had everything on paper, instead of Just having to ask people what I should be doing all the time (I also felt bad stopping people who were just as busy over little things). But whatever, if it didn't work before, then no point in doing it again.

Overlord Quel wrote:

a replacement for electronic cooking is cooking with portable gas stove ranges.
portable gas stove

These are pretty cheap and hardy. I've used these for years at work. Their safe indoors, and work solely off gas. They do produce a flame, so im not sure if they are allowed indoors. You buy refill bottles that just snap in.
refills plus stove

Are we allowed to use actual flames and gas on campus? I'm not sure about MSU, but at the other three schools I went to that was a big issue for insurance and safety reasons. If not, it's not a bad idea (except for having to buy replacement fuel on our own).

Overlord Quel wrote:

It also seems like whoever was manning some of the stations just needed to realize what they had available for them.

Yeah, I agree with that. It doesn't matter now because everything worked out, but I would be lying if I were to say I wasn't annoyed when I found out we were supposed to have a scooper and I was told to use a plastic fork to serve rice, and we couldn't use the wooden spoon because someone (who I won't mention) used it in a way it shouldn't have been used... Little things, sure, but over a few hours it means a lot more work at a slower pace...

Overlord Quel wrote:

Personally, I don't think we should be serving cold rice. We could have setup the sternos and kept the rice warm. It doesn't really taste good, and the rest of the food wasn't hot enough to make the rice warm. I know it's harder because we were working outside in rainy weather, but it really was just too cold to eat.

I don't think we really had a choice. I agree that serving cold rice with warm (but not hot enough to heat) chicken was not ideal. But between the rush and the power issues, we just did what we could. Though in retrospect, we could have probably spared someone to go microwave the rice. So yeah, that's at least partially my fault for not asking anyone if we could do that. It just didn't cross my mind, and when I was told to serve it cold, I did (again, I'm sure people were stressing a little bit, and didn't want to make people do more).

Oh well, at least we can improve even more next year (If I'm here... I don't even know when I'm supposed to graduate....)

I am sure you guys will improve it and it will be better next year :')

next year let's try to get these!

happi coats
http://www.alibaba.com/product-tp/120738012/festival_wear_of_cool_Japan.html
http://www.alibaba.com/product-tp/120904316/exhibition_wear_of_cool_Japan.html
http://store.japan-zone.com/happi-coat-matsuri-p-21.html

look for these type of lanterns in addition to the ones we got this year:
http://store.japan-zone.com/interior-paper-lanterns-c-4_24.html (but look for cheaper ones if possible)

I found a site that sells the balloon stuff!!!!!...well the bouncy ball one *n*;;

http://store.japan-zone.com/toys-games-games-c-15_23.html

these english stores sell them but i didnt look up the trustworthiness of the site yet:
http://madhattermagicshop.com/magicshop/product_info.php?products_id=8709

http://www.balloonsexpress.com/store/p/196274--100-ct-Solid-Color-Latex-Balloons-Yo-Yo-Balloon-Clips-100-Bag.html?feed=Froogle