That's the question, of course, when faced with an uncertain number of people who will show up that night. Do we dream big and hope for a huge turnout, but then overbuy? Or do we go cheap and conservative, but then also set ourselves up for a situation in which lots of people will be disappointed (and hungry)? The latter is not an option and certainly not one of our values.
Thankfully, we have some perspective we can bring to this problem since we've done this barbecue thing several years now.
Last year, we bought, marinated, and grilled 800 lbs of Korean barbecue short ribs. Unfortunately, we also ran out before the half hour was over, and a dispatch was sent to Berkeley's finest, Top Dog and we started grilling sausages, frankfurters, and hot links. The guys didn't mind so much, but it was still a real learning experience.
This year, we're projecting 1000 lbs of meat. That's right, folks. 1000 pounds. I've heard male arctic polar bears stand 11' tall, and, if they're really well fed, can weigh upwards of 1000 pounds. Now that's perspective.
Aug 14, 2007
Aug 9, 2007
With the postcards arriving in the mail and the emails sent, maybe people are finding their way to this site. And for sure, some of you Koinonia and a2f-ers out there are looking on too. So what's the point of this site?
Not only is the design cool (it really is, at least the top banner is), and not only is this a good place to post our trailer, but it's about telling people all the work that's happening in preparation for New Student Welcome Night, and that we're looking to put on a production and welcome program that'll bring laughter, high energy, and maybe even some thought-provoking stuff, ideas that might lead to an early morning epiphany or late-night conversation in the hallway with some friends.
People wonder who we are, how we put on such a huge program, and well, some people don't wonder at all. They just accept it at face value. Either way, there's a lot that happens behind the scenes, and there's plenty of people to celebrate who help make the night of August 23rd happen! This site's a chance to demystify the whole thing, open up the play-by-play, and have some fun at the same time.
What do you think?
Wondering how many we sent? We sent 6450 postcards domestically (that includes the States, 
That's a darn lot of postcards.
Aug 8, 2007
Each year, when New Student Welcome Night rolls around, the burden of handling all the administrative stuff for the evening falls on the club Council. But which club? Koinonia or acts2fellowship? The two Councils alternate each year, and this year the Koinonia Council is at the helm.
One of the things we talked about last night was tabling, which Brian's in charge of. "Wait a second," you're thinking, "What's tabling?"
The first two weeks of school, everyone's out on Sproul Plaza, flyering their events, setting up their table with all the pamphlets and photos and (if you're lucky) candy, telling people about their club or organization, and it's just plain crazy! Of course, we're all into joining the fun and hustle on Sproul Plaza and we hope one of our flyers finds you!
Aug 7, 2007
It's a New Student Welcome Night tradition to have an uproariously hilarious skit. Generally, we get there. But it's not without logging serious hours, jumping up and down, putting on costumes, taking them off, moving props around, and repeating some lines over and over and over again to get it just right. It's a high bar to reach NSWN-readiness, and by the end of all the practices, pretty much everyone on the skit team can recite each other's lines just as well as they can recite their own.
The inestimable Josh, theater arts major, is skit director, and taking the stage is James, Annie, Steve, Jacob, and Angela. Of course, it's about the behind-the-scenes peeps too: Sang on music, and Wanda taking care of props and costumes. The plan, as far as I know, is they're scheduling about 18 hours of practice in the next two weeks so they'll be stage-ready and funny. The first won't be a problem. The second... well... we'll have to wait and see...!
Aug 6, 2007
As the publications machinery starts cranking, we got aspiring designers, Photoshop gurus, Photoshop peons, and everyone in between putting stuff together. It's a ton of fun on Friday nights seeing people put their heads together and try their hand at being artsy, creative, and innovative. That doesn't mean we are. It just means we're trying!
Yesterday, after eating at Asian Ghetto, a bunch of people spent 3 hours (yes, you read that right: three hours) putting labels and stamps on postcards so they're ready to get dropped off in the mail.
But for every design that gets the stamp of unanimous approval, there's always a bunch that got the ax, that just didn't quite make the cut. Here's a sampling of those that didn't make it... but we're still appreciative of all the work! Good job guys!
Aug 2, 2007
Every year we try to greet new students the old-fashioned way: with snail mail. After all, in a world of emails, IM, blogs, and text messaging, few things are as pleasant as getting something handed to you by the U.S. Postal Service with your name on it.
The tough question is: What's the final product going to look like?
Jul 27, 2007
After several weeks of coding, tweaking, and finding bugs, at last this NSWN website is done! Hooray for Jon! He did all the hard work
Time to let everyone else in on the fun and spread the news about this site. We're hoping it'll be a great way for people to find out what to expect the night of New Student Welcome Night, and also to provide a window into all the work that goes on behind the scenes.
In other news, Ben and the publications people are hard at work trying to produce an as-close-as-possible-to-final-as-we-can-get design of the postcard, which we're going to send to all of the new students welcoming them to Cal and introducing our group. Be on the lookout for some of the early drafts which I'll be posting once we figure out how this photostream thing works...
Jul 25, 2007
Big props to Andrew for finishing the video trailer for NSWN! We posted it to youtube, and put it on this website over there at the top of the column on the right. The video makes us look almost cool. Now Andrew just has to finish editing the NSWN video itself...
The other stuff rumbling in the NSWN machinery:
- Brainstorming for Welcome Week activities
- Sieun and Myra working on the postcard design (I'll put up some pictures soon)
- Angela applying for our NSWN bbq permits (Thanks, Angela!)
- Kenton reserving Lipman Room for Koinonia Welcome Night ( Aug. 30)
- Bunch of people working on the a2f Welcome Night video... I think they're storyboarding now
- Got ourselves a table at the Summer Bridge Club Fest on Aug. 6
- And, of course, the Deathly Hallows...
Jul 20, 2007
Yes, we said the Barbecue would be next up for discussion, but first things' first. These days it's all about reserving rooms.
Got to get the room for New Student Welcome Night, reserve the Campanile Plaza and Memorial Glade for the pre-NSWN barbecue, and what about the acts2fellowship Welcome Night and the Koinonia Welcome Night the week after? We want to make sure there's enough time to hang out afterwards, so we need another room for that. It's endless! We haven't even started talking about rooms for weekly bible studies and small groups.
Thankfully, the two Councils have been doing a lot of running around on campus, talking to administrators (really nice, great, wonderful and lovely administrators!... in case they're reading), getting permits (we need a food permit and an outdoor amplified sound permit in order to do our NSWN barbecue), logging in hours on the UCB room reservation website, and overall just making sure there's an auditorium for people to show up at.
Reserving rooms: who'd 'a thought it'd be so tedious and time-consuming? But thank goodness buds like John, Paulina, and Jasper (mighty seniors!) have been so willing to run ahead and pull the NSWN 2007 cart.
Jul 17, 2007
Each year, we mail something to the new students, some way to say hi and introduce our group. It used to be a letter, and then that seemed too frumpy, so we changed it to a postcard. It was cheaper that way too and coincided with the entire revolution to print stuff in color.
This year, we thought we'd do something a little different. If we can, of course we'd still like to send a postcard welcoming new students. It's a small gesture for us to say hello, congratulate new students as they prepare to arrive to Berkeley, and introduce what our group's about. It's also an invitation for them to join us at New Student Welcome Night and some of our welcome week activities. It's something like 3000 postcards we'll be mailing out so Ben's making sure we get the ball rolling: design, printing, and then mailing.
Additionally, however, we thought we'd start by making this website (which is still under construction), and also jump on the web where many of our members already currently live, breathe, and eat. Seeing as how Youth Trends notes that 69% of women and 56% of men ages 17-25 are on Facebook, we're going to set up a Facebook NSWN2007 event (which will be connected to this site) so we can invite our friends and new friends that way too.
Trying new things, and rethinking some old ones. Next up: the NSWN barbecue.
Jul 12, 2007
Thankfully, NSWN is not a solo effort. There's plenty of people to help, and good thing too. Take this website for example. It may be hosted on blogger.com, but we felt the templates offered were a poor selection. Frankly, they hurt our eyes. So all our flashy designers being tagged to projects already, we thought, "Hey, there's plenty of good stuff out there. Why design from scratch when there's templates for us to modify?" After a little research, we found elegant themes and beautiful ones too.
So here's the question: Having chosen the design, who's going to do the hard work and cut up the template, modify it for our needs, and then put it into a language blogger can understand?
Good thing Berkeley has a stunning CS department (although their webpage isn't anything to look at), and good thing there's people on the NSWN crew who hail from that stunning department. Koinonia web-man Jon Yen is tackling the redesign and putting this site together. Next step is to think about what info, videos, and pictures should occupy this space. But, of course, that's another conversation for another day.
Jul 11, 2007
July 11 might be the official launch date of this blog, but it's ain't the beginning of New Student Welcome Night 2007 planning. That started some weeks ago. The old councils met together and did the handoff, and the ball started rolling. This website's just playing at catch up.
One of the first things on the table as we were planning were ideas for different videos: a new NSWN video and a NSWN ad. For those of you who worked on the last NSWN video, you're probably thinking, "That's a lot of work! Do we have enough time?" And others are wondering, "What's a NSWN ad?" Both questions are good. And answers are going to be vague, because part of the fun is that the whole night is looking to surprise: not only new Berkeley students and friends attending our event, but also our own Koinonia and acts2fellowship members! Awesome.
Stay tuned. We're just getting started.