The most critical component of the Fourth of July BBQ is the shopping list. The list is crucial because there are so many things that have to be bought in the right number, and so many trips to Costco are required that you have to know exactly what you are buying each time in order to keep it straight. So I have included the list in my report, including everything that was purchased for the 2002 GSC/GSPB BBQ with approximate prices and numbers. I personally made five trips to Costco accompanied by one other person each time. We used a truck for four of the five trips and completely filled the truck each time. If I were going to do this again, I think I would rent a moving van for a day and do it all it one trip. The major problem with Costco though is that it only accepts American Express and debit cards which made purchasing about $2500 worth of supplies there difficult. I would make a few changes to the list for next year. First, I would eliminate the turkey burgers. It is really difficult to tell when grilled turkey is cooked, and the turkey burgers cooked very slowly. They also weren't very popular. We probably had 200 extra hamburgers, but I think if we had eliminated the turkey burgers, we would have had about the right amount of food, assuming the turkey burger eaters would have eaten hamburgers and veggie burgers instead. We also ran out of hot dogs fairly early on. I would probably buy another 100 hot dogs. We also had 400 extra slices of cheese. The watermelon was very popular. I bought seedless watermelon at Costco and seeded watermelon at Safeway. The Costco watermelon was excellent, and people really preferred the seedless. It was difficult to cut the watermelon though. I set up a card table in Willis Lounge with a few cutting boards and bread knives. We bought individual bags of chips rather than large bags to share. This made clean-up much easier. We had some cookies and chips left over, but I think we had just about the right number of drinks. I think we could have even bought more drinks, especially water because we ran out of water earlier than the other drinks. I "reserved" Willis lounge by speaking with the Head CAs of Rains and then posting flyers saying that the Rains CAs had reserved Willis for the 4th of July BBQ since they are technically the only ones allowed to do so. I contacted Betsy Del Sarto to have the sprinklers turned off around Willis for July 3 and 4. I bought squeeze bottles of ketchup and mustard and packets of relish. It was very easy to serve the condiments this way. We drank 1.5 kegs, and so half a keg was wasted, but I wouldn't buy less than two kegs. Beverages and More delivered the kegs with two taps and two buckets and 240 lbs of ice. That seemed to be about the right amount of ice. Getting the kegs and ice delivered is key. One of the buckets was stolen (so we lost a $15 deposit). We only tapped one keg at a time. If you are going to only tap one keg at a time, you should only get one tap. I was worried about the extra tap getting stolen (I think it's a $65 deposit for each tap.) The BBQs at Willis were replaced during the past year, and they are much smaller than they used to be. They are no longer sufficient to cook for so many people, so I brought three Weber type grills from my department. They cooked the food quickly, and five grills was sufficient. I think about 500 people attended. The line for food looked long, but I heard it moved very quickly. I was convinced that the hamburgers should have been defrosted before grilling so that cooking would go quickly, but it wasn't really necessary. Instead I should have defrosted the veggie burgers. The veggie burgers burn easily, and I heard from some people that they didn't cook through. Overall the BBQ cost approximately $3000. We used the GSC DJ equipment for music. I would recommend just burning a few mixed CDs that you can play without having to worry about it. Chris Griffith reserved the facilities truck in order to move the supplies from the Deli to Willis. This was a huge help. I think we got all of the supplies over in less than half an hour. Chris and I cut 240 tomatoes the night before. It was about the right number. I bought bagged Romaine lettuce that we washed the day of. I bought about 30 bags with three heads in each, and we probably could have used 15 more. Aluminum serving trays were very helpful for the watermelon, lettuce, and tomato. Lots of people just pitched in during the event, offering to grill and cut watermelon. It was really neat. There were six volunteers for each hour of the event (five to grill and one miscellaneous person to restock the tables.) I think we should have also had a sixth (and even seventh) person just to cut watermelon and wash lettuce, but it worked out OK. We advertised on the mass email list for volunteers, and I think about 5 people volunteered because of that advertisement. The other volunteers all came from the GSC/GSPB/Rains CAs crowd. We advertised the event on the mass email list, gsc-events, Rains, and EV email lists. Amit also posted flyers around campus (only on bulletin boards in Rains and EV though since flyering there is no longer allowed). Lots of people also hung around to help clean up. It was difficult for me to distribute gift certificates to non GSC/GSPB volunteers during the event because I was trying to do so many things at once. I'm sure I missed a few people, but I sent out thank you notes to some of those I forgot with a gift certificate over the following days. Grill utensils were purchased at Bed Bath and Beyond, and lawn games (badminton, croquet, volleyball, footballs, a soccer ball, and horseshoes) were purchased at Target. (The soccer ball, footballs, and volleyball game were stolen at the BBQ.) Everything else has been stored in the GSC storeroom in the ASSU. We also borrowed some knives and BBQ utensils from Rains. I should have also purchased some tools to stir the coals with. I threw out the BBQ scrapers we used to clean the grills because they got filthy and were so cheap. I forgot to put out the plastic forks to serve the tomatoes with. We set the coolers with the drinks and the kegs out in the grass under the trees. We placed two tables on the patio parallel to the BBQs with the meat, buns, and condiments and the other two tables in line with the others out on the grass with everything else. I didn't realize the line would be so long as to go past the tables on the grass, so probably we should have put the plates and napkins first out on the first tables. Events brought us four tables and eight trash cans with extra liners. They wouldn't deliver on the 4th, so it all came on the 3rd and was picked up on the 5th. The total cost for that was about $60 and was paid for on a University account by Chris Griffith. Last year the BBQ was from 1-5 PM, but we think we had people coming for lunch and dinner, so this year we limited the hours from 1-4 PM to avoid the dinner crowd. I would recommend the same hours for next year. From 1:00-2:30 the BBQ was packed, and people came right at 1:00 expecting to eat. Around 2:30, the line started to taper. Here was the announcement for the mass email: ------------------------------------------- Graduate Student Council (GSC) Bulletin Representing the Interests of Stanford's Graduate Students 1) GSC annual Fourth of July BBQ!! - FREE event open to all graduate students! - Hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, and beverages will be served. - Willis Lounge in Rains Houses, 1-4pm 1) Fourth of July BBQ It's almost here, the annual GSC Fourth of July Barbeque!!! The Graduate Student Council and the Graduate Student Programming Board are co-sponsoring the the FREE event for graduate students. Hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, and beverages will be served. So come have FUN in the sun and play some games, or just relax and celebrate the Fourth of July eating FREE food with your fellow graduate students. Time and Location: 1-4pm in Willis Lounge, Rains Houses celebrate the Fourth of July eating FREE food with your fellow graduate students. Time and Location: 1-4pm in Willis Lounge, Rains Houses ---------------------------------------------