BFR Board Meeting

BFR Board Meeting

Tuesday, September 20th

5pm-6:45pm

1942 Broadway

3rd floor conference room

Agenda

1. Welcome Cliff [all] (10 minutes)

2. Feast numbers and afterthoughts [Janice, Hana] (60 minutes)

- how did it go, e.g., attendance, food, drinks, vibe, band

- how much did we bring in overall and from tickets, silent auction, paddle raiser?

- in general, what went well, what didn't, thoughts for next year

Feast Feedback

REVENUE

ITEM / QTY / TOTAL
Ticket Sales / 258 / $7,429
Merch / 1 / $25
Paddle Raiser / 15 / $840
Pledges / $175
Silent Auction / $4,310
TOTAL / $12,779

EXPENSES

ITEM / EXPENSE
Venue / $1700
F&B / $371.49
Printing / $91.08
TOTAL / $2162.57

NET: $10,615.93

Compared to 2015 –

2016: 258 people + volunteers
Ticket sales were better this year
Silent Auction – almost the same as 2015
Pledges – monthly giving – the same as 2015
Lower this year was the one time gifts
Expenses overall a little higher
Space, food, music was better

Hana killed the ask!

Reg desk

Possibly use a different ticketing system, or explore Eventbrite capabilities for checking in, adding guest names, etc.
non profit pricing; Eventbrite replacement
Minimum purchase qty – forces print tix
QR/scanner capability
Tables should block the entrance more
Group text – so we could easily round up additional help
Volunteers could potentially wear BFR shirts, to be more visible at door
This got crazy very quickly! We didn’t anticipate the # of people who weren’t sure who they were under, and the sign up sheet for those folks/on arrival attendees was one in the same.
Does the email confirmation allow for additional text? Include info that all guests must check-in under “group leader” name?
Have a sign out front that mentions attendees should go to the line that corresponds with the last name of the person purchasing tickets.
Have more volunteers from 6-7:30ish, to correspond with alpha list of name of person purchasing tickets. Include additional tables.
Have one volunteer with master list, to take walk-ins, and look up people that aren't found on printed lists
See if we can put signs (just sheet of paper) above reg desk with letters
See if Jim is willing to let us print up the list onsite about 30 prior to doors, or see if someone has a printer to lend.
Table for wristband people
Tables should block the entrance more
Also not a huge line out the door - maybe a group text or walkie talkies
Need to have Alphabet signs - for name of group purchaser

Avalon

Publicly thank Jim next year!!
Couches/tables worked
Get more donated tables
Check with Jim if we can use the other side of the wall – additional rental
Longer lines at taco bar?

Silent Auction

Silent auction preview – for the bigger stuff; show logos/list of gift cards
Ruth rocked it the last few weeks
This was pushed back way too late; Ruth saved the day
Stressful to have the asks this late. Need to set a goal to have these set up X weeks out.
Some silent auction places need a longer lead time to approve by corporate
Follow up – thank you notes for donors; let them know we are planning for 2017
Check items that are sitting in office/donated
Half price “bid up” for expensive restaurants? If a gc was $50, the price donor paid was $50.
Instead of $50 gc, ask for 2 $25 gcs?
Can we do value vs. items brought in
Add an estimated retail value to silent auction sheet
Start bidding higher, and include higher increments to avoid $1 above bids
Raffle tix – 50% off price last year ($5) but sold double the amount. Agree that $5 is a good amount
Silent auction item – fermented products in a basket?
Lindsey had a plan in place, but suggest she have a second in command who also knew what was going on.
For gift cards - can we files these, so we can easily find them at the end of the night? Perhaps one volunteer filing these/writing winner on master list?
Ruth walked around Pearl Street and mentioned she didn’t initially have luck, but went out a second time and got a lot of items. Perhaps for items like this - just schedule teams to hit the street to get as many items as possible?
Start earlier - which we’ll be able to do if we secure a location earlier. Don’t see this as an issue for 2017 if everyone liked the Avalon.

Lindsey:

Silent Auction took up lots of Lindsey’s time which was because of the exceptions where people brought up things late -
Different system for gift cards

Ruth:

Start way earlier so it isn’t 2-3 days worth of work straight
A good percentage of the places had 1-3 month lead time
We ended up with 4 items after the event because it came in late
Would be nice to know where to go and plan it out week by week

Target of how many items in what price ranges would have been good to know how to do the outreach, as well as target for items overall
Gift cards got a lot of attention and they were easy to get
Ruth spent 25 hours and got 50% of the places
How many people we have working on it → board members plus Ruth there may have been some overlap. No issues on our end but may have looked weird to people we were approaching
Ruth is going to look at which items are popular, what did well and what didn’t, and how much we made so that we can plan for next year
Display
Having bid prices on the silent auction sheets were really good- things that didn’t have a price on it, people started really low.
Hang things, bring tape, so that we can put things up
Get a picture of the items that we don’t have the physical items for
Names on items afterwards

Point person with different goals: 100 items?
Don’t list the retail item
HAVE to put in increments

Music:

They sounded great!
Was there enough room to dance? It seemed like there was, but perhaps reserve tables in front for BFR folks, so we can move these at a certain point in the night for more space.

Food

Need volunteers to help Jordan. They need to know what’s going on, be able to assist/provide Jordan
Jordan looking for additional kitchen space
Would like to start donation requests from grocery stores further in advance
Fermented products that were donated worked well
Pre chef meeting before cooking starts
More skilled kitchen volunteers
Food procurement
Asking grocery stores/farmer’s market for gift cards worked well – allows for flexibility
Fermented product donations made this easier (so Jordan didn’t have to prepare)
Home brew? They possibly brought a lot of people. Anyone who submitted got a ticket, and likely brought someone with them.
Might shift to a homebrew feature vs. competition
Bottle of homebrew isn’t necessarily worth $45 free tickets; perhaps offer a reduced ticket instead. Perhaps “$20 off of ticket” would still bring them in the door
Water station – need to clearly identify or get large jugs. Needs to be more obvious.
Consider moving bar; silent auction – taco bar
Food labeling would be better, gluten free/vegan
Labeling food, providing a map, etc.
Seemed like the right amount of food, but needed more tempeh, taco toppings
Can we get Jordan + 2 restaurants to handle the food
Strive for presenting and/or host sponsors
Food trucks? Permitting issue outside? Would that break up the energy flow of the event too much?
What is the overall capacity, and can we buy out the additional space (in particular, the hallway)

Homebrew:

They brought a lot of people
Call it a feature not a competition
Bottle of homebrew, $45 is a lot to get - discounted ticket instead of $45 ticket ($20 off your ticket!)