Thought that I would get the ball rolling after all our discussion yesterday about the NAC. Suggestions for alternative ways of hosting them and therefore avoiding the dreaded catering problem were: online NAC (blog or wiki), or teleconference. This would also save trying to find venues, photocopying and all that miscellaneous stuff that takes so much time and energy.
Thoughts, comments and additions welcomed as there has to be a better way to do the NAC!
10 comments:
Combining the Gawler regional NAC with a Blogging workshop was a good idea. The downside of this was that it was difficult to determine how many to cater for as it was assumed that not everyone would stay for the NAC that followed.
While we had 16 for the workshop, only 8 remained for the NAC.
Having a workshop also meant the need to source a computer suite that could cater for that number - not always easy and this could add to the overall cost of the event.
Luckily I work in TAFE and am finding that this gives me access to facilities at campuses that might not be possible for others.
Catering with a budget of $100 is difficult if you are going to use a commercial caterer. The only way to keep costs down is to do it yourself - shopping for biscuits, cheeses, wine and OJ which takes time and then getting to the venue early enough to prepare it.
I'm fortunate that the ALIA-SA group also helped by supplying the tea/coffee, etc pack that they use for events so that I did not have to buy those items.
Can you all let me know if you found the $100 limit for catering too difficult. Of if anyone has any other ideas about how to do it better. I'm just conscious that will at least 7 (or more NACs on) that the cost for catering will be around the $1000 and we need to budget for that.
The $100 limit is not realistic for WA, food is more expensive over here and I didn't use a caterer but bought food from Miss Mauds and Bakers Delight but this still added up. If you then include the time spent fiddling with it unfortunately it doesn't work out. Last year we used a caterer who was fantastic, but it was still over budget (by quite a bit!)
Even if I shopped for food and drinks myself by the time I got everything (tea, coffee, plates, napkins, milk, food etc) I would not be able to do it for $100 either.
The people in WA really appreciate having light refreshments and always comment about it, so for us anyway it is a must do to encourage any sort of participation. We had 14 RSVPs and 11 physical people turn up, pretty good for us. None of the food went to waste either.
People didn't relish the idea of a teleconference to save costs either as I asked!
natarsha
As our NAC was held immediately after the Top End Symposium, we had to entice members with lunch so $100 was definitely not enough. About 12 had RSVPed, but 18 turned up - a record for Darwin! I ordered for 15 so it was just enough. It was just sandwiches and juice and I had to get the venue to cater as there was just too much for me to do as it was.
Evaluation forms indicated that members liked the idea of the NAC immediately after the Symposium but it was a rush for me to take down the ALIA stall at SkyCity after the Symposium ended, rush down to the Sailing Club (we couldn't stay at the same venue as they wanted to charge 3 times as much for lunch), set up, get lunch and get the meeting started. Fortunately Roxanne was 20 mins late arriving so it gave me enough time to get organised, take a deep breath and be ready to take minutes!
Hope they change the venue of the Symposium next time...I thought I'd done well getting the air conditioned committee room at the Sailing Club free as a member, but of course one person had to have a winge...most were happy though!
$100 definitely doesn't do catering in Sydney. We did alright in the Riverina because numbers were small, and Damian provided CSU wine. Often Sydney venues require you to use a house caterer, and they are notorioulsy expensive. Responsible service of alcohol rules mean you can't even open the wine yourself in some places -- if you serve wine that is, and I didn't in Sydney. I also think there are better things for LLOs to do than catereing. Perhaps this is another reason why an alternative format for the NAC is a good idea. Virtual catering has to be cheaper!!
I coped with the $100 this year. Can relate to comments about venue catering being costly, and shopping time consuming though.
I got away with around $50 at Woolies for 2 of mine, with about half hour for shopping. Everyone helped me set up on the night, pretty informal and we do the half hour socialising before hand anyway. Townsville got sandwiches delivered for about $50 from memory and I just picked up oj on the way.
In the past, Quorum people have been generous with volunteering to do the catering which is good if you can get it.
I think venue selection is critical - being able to supply your own food or choose the caterer (or at least know costs will be reasonable).
I must admit wine is an enticement for people to turn up! Michelle actually contributed to the event as well so there is no way I could do it for the $100!
Does anyone have any ideas for an alternative form of NAC? My lot vetoed teleconference and I don't know of any other way apart from a virtual meeting in the Second Life building!!!
Catering is always on people's minds. It's hard to get clear heads when people are hungry at 7.00pm at nite so I think we really do have to feed them. But it's really hard on $100. I was really lucky - the Uni of Ballarat put on a great spread of hot food and wine. So everyone was really happy there.
The Melb meeting went on long and we went thru a lot of food. I had some wine left over from ALIW and used that - so it was initially donated by RMIT. I picked up items and made up platters myself and did some baking of muffins before I went (no charge as I has child rearing at the same time) Otherwise we would not have been able to afford such a spread.
Lastly the LT NAC catering was mostly supplied by RMIT yet again. They certainly ate/drank more than $100 worth.
Realistically I can't expect RMIT to keep footing the bill for our catering.
We need to come up with a really smart way of feeding people that is quick, easy and doesnt need heating up. Maybe we order pizza?
$100 was not enough for Hobart either - I went over budget by $24.
I only organised for a platter of sandwiches and an antipasto platter - which was just enough to tide people over the 5.30-7-30 timelslot.
Holding the NAC at the UTAS Library meant using UTAS catering services and being charged per head. I catered for 12 (11 turned up). Obviously if more people had RSVPed the cost would have been higher. Tea and coffee was provided by UTAS free of charge and I wasn't able to provide any wine within the budget.
I can't see how doing it myself would have worked out any cheaper since I would then need to be paid for the time spent running around the supermarket buying stuff and putting it together. Do members want to see their membership fees being used to pay us to run around supermarkets, cook, etc for ALIA functions? Does doing this enhance the role/image of LLOs or assist in ensuring that our role is seen by members as serious and contributing in a meaningful way to the profession? I think not...
I agree with you Jane. We want these events catered for at a reasonable cost, but also to be appealing too. I've certainly done pizza in the past in Adelaide (there's a lovely gourmet pizza place in Adelaide) and we'd get enough pizzas to give everyone 1 or 2 slices, plus some wine. I picked it up on the way through. I usually got about 6 or 7, which would come to about $100-$120.
I think the whole structure of the NAC needs reviewing - including the name and timing.
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