[ST] Report from Staff Den

[Crystal M. Huff]

First and foremost, this won't really be of interest to most folks.   
And it doesn't sound professional.  :P

Second, I have been commissioned to bring cookies to the debrief.   
Yes, there will be some without nuts.

Third, this is my report-like-thing!

> What did your department do?

We fed the staff!  I liked this; I got to see a lot more of my  
friends this year than I have in the previous 6 or so years.

> What went right?

There was food, often it was hot, it often seemed to be the "right"  
amount of food (not too much extra, usually not too few portions),  
and it made nobody sick (so far as I know).

The food was labeled with all ingredients on little stand-up plastic  
photo frames, which I thought was very clever of us.  :)

To my knowledge, we have received no complaints from the hotel about  
damages done.  I think this is in part because we covered all hotel  
furniture with large sheets & tablecloths, which were occasionally  
changed.

Having a crock pot of hot chai available throughout the con was a  
huge hit.  Huge.

The Indian dinner Thursday night, while much delayed, went off with  
reasonable success.  The food was incredibly popular, and lots more  
folks showed up than I was expecting, so we did run out of nearly  
everything (and started out minus a pan of vegetable korma because it  
got filed with the chicken flats by mistake).  But in all, it was  
*my* favorite meal, and that made it worth the two days of cooking.  :)

Conor and Julia serendipitously made us crab rangoons, by hand, for  
Saturday night.  Just because.  This was a hit with everyone who  
heard the tale.  Even my mouth watered, despite the fact that they  
were made with *real crab*.

We always had a hot soup available, and it was always vegan.  This  
satisfied nearly everyone's needs, other than the odd folks who  
couldn't eat garlic.  (I made 10 gallons of vegan chili, 6 gallons of  
root soup, 5 gallons of squash soup, and 5 gallons of garlic-tomato  
soup.  I think we could've done with one more flavor of soup, about 5  
gallons of it, and it still would've been welcome.  There was a  
single quarter-gallon of garlic-tomato soup left over at the end of  
the con, and I think the staff den will get more traffic next year  
than we did this year.)

We often had meat available in cold and/or hot forms.  This was the  
single most requested thing, and the single most expensive thing to  
provide, so I think we did reasonably well with it, especially given  
budget constraints.

Folks who were in the staff den to be fed were often willing to help  
out while there.  In particular, the folks from tech, Crash, and  
Rachel Darman earned a gold star each for awesomeness.

Lisa Hertel and Merv also made us awesome cakes, which was a great  
relief for me, because I sometimes tend to have no brain left for  
desserts.

Pat V, Persis, and others dropped off equipment for us to make food  
with, since Arisia apparently didn't own any stock pots or little  
hotplates or sandwich grillers.  I've left my cheapo stock pot for  
next year's staff, should they need it, and I highly recommend  
acquiring a high-powered hotplate like Pat V's -- that thing was  
awesome.

The hotel staff was also really sweet about making sure they picked  
up our trash every three hours, once I got ahold of a manager in the  
hall and tipped the subsequent trashpickers handsomely.  Our trash  
pickup was *damn prompt*.  :)  In the future, that should probably be  
stated on the hotel resume, as well, which is something I forgot to  
mention pre-con.  But it worked out well.

> What went wrong?

The budget was much too small, by around $500, and next year's staff  
den is only likely to need more food.  I ended up going nearly $200  
over, and there were three reasons why I didn't blow the budget much  
more than that.  a) I used a lot of organic veggies from my farm  
share to supplement the budget, which were free to the con because I  
got them essentially free from the farmer.  This made the root soup,  
squash soup, pickles, and a number of the Indian food dishes.  It  
would've cost us at least $200 to buy those veggies in a normal  
store.  b) The consuite purchased about half of the bread we used,  
all of the sandwich meats & cheeses, half the eggs, a couple of  
cantalope, and a couple of plates of cookies that didn't come out of  
our budget.  That was probably another $150 that should have been in/ 
from our budget.  Also, c) the leftover plates/cups/silverware/ 
napkins from last year's staff den basically outfitted us for this  
year -- we only had to buy a package of plates and forks.  Next  
year's staff will likely have to buy more of each of those, with the  
possible exception of hot cups.

During con, we were often on the verge of running out of hard-boiled  
eggs, juice, bread, sandwich meats (which consuite had more of, but  
we had been told weren't available to us for a while), milk, and  
oatmeal.  This was partly the issue of shared resources with the  
consuite -- we didn't communicate well enough pre-con, and so during  
con we weren't able to access fruit, bread, chips, etc. that I  
thought were ordered in part for us.  (This was also a confusion  
because Tamar never got a couple of my emails.) This was also partly  
an inability on my part to accurately gauge how many staples we would  
need.  I think we managed, in the end, but it could have gone more  
smoothly.

The sharing of the convection oven with consuite was a difficult  
issue.  Again, not enough pre-con communication led to misconceptions  
and assumptions.  I was under the impression it was a resource  
available for all food-related folks, but the oven was overworked as  
it was by consuite's needs, so we didn't get to use it anymore after  
Friday afternoon.  We ended up resolving this problem by buying a  
smaller version for the staff den alone, but that was a bit too  
little, a bit too late for that problem.  I do appreciate what  
flexibility Tamar and Rachel were able to give us on this before we  
were cut off, since they hadn't scheduled time for me to use the oven  
at all, and it did represent a significant inconvenience for them.

I also had a few planned staffers not able to work the den at the  
last minute, which left me anxiously begging more friends to help  
out.  I think the staffing mostly worked out in the end, but Thursday  
was really light, and Sunday/Monday was mostly okay due to the  
kindness of strangers and the consuite staff.  I did request  
volunteers from the Volunteer Den, but given the situation with the  
elevators, I assume they didn't make it up to the 10th floor after  
Thursday -- none of them introduced themselves to me, at any rate.

Runs for food during con were disorganized, at best.  Communication  
between consuite, staff den, and green room was somewhat abysmal  
until the con started (which was partly that Tamar's email didn't  
always work, partly that Mike T didn't show up to the one meeting I  
could make pre-con, partly that Steve set the other pre-con meeting  
for when I was in Seattle, etc. ...)

Not being able to get into the BU room until Friday at noon sucked  
ass.  I was told we would have it by Thursday afternoon, which is why  
I planned Thursday dinner & Friday breakfast at all.  This was some  
sort of miscommunication between hotel & fixed functions, and it got  
resolved by using the conchair's personal suite as staff den for a  
while, but that confused some folks seeking food, and it sucked for  
moving food around, making things foodsafe, etc.

The fridge went oh, so wrong.  There was no fridge for me when the  
con started.  I distinctly remember being told there was a fridge,  
and seeing a fridge in storage, but apparently it was re-appropriated  
by green room or something.  Oh.  My.  God.  Ad nauseum.  Only by  
going onto Craigslist and finding someone with a free fridge, and  
then sending out Logistics, did this get resolved.  Thank God for  
Noel and Sibyl, who both saved my ass on this.  Let's not have that  
kind of oversight again.  The fridge we got should work reasonably  
well, but the seal should be looked into before we use it next year  
-- it had trouble staying shut toward the end of con, which means  
that we should proactively make it work before it frustrates the hell  
out of next year's staff.

There were two weird women and one weird man who came into the staff  
den.  Well, we're all weird, but these folks were particularly  
special.  Luckily, they didn't cause too much trouble.

An underattended child tried to eat ice from the soda bucket, choked  
on it, and started to throw up all over the soda bin and nearby  
chair.  This sucked for all concerned, but luckily the tech crew was  
in the house at the time and helped deal with it.

The hotel didn't like the idea of us using hot plates.  We cut down  
on their use after Thursday night and hid them in the back room when  
we needed them, in order to avoid having further issues.

> What should definitely be done differently next year?

Rent a large convection oven for staff den and a separate one for  
consuite if they want it, I think.  It was an incredibly useful tool  
(when not overburdened), but not able to be shared easily,  
particularly with the multi-floor difference between the two  
departments.

I also think the two departments should've been closer to each other,  
the better to share leftover foods and staples like salt and sugar  
and such.  Consuite often came up to use our microwaves, for example,  
which was complicated to do with the elevator problem.

Staff den should also be some sort of equitable distance between the  
lower floor departments and the art show folks.  I wouldn't want to  
leave the art show high and dry for food, but Ops and folks ended up  
being somewhat screwed this year, again because of the elevator issues.

All food-related department heads should have at least 3 pre-con  
meetings together, where all of the folks involved get together and  
talk about what they're making, how to combine food vendor orders,  
how to combine tool resources, what tools each department has in  
storage, etc.  This really would've been more efficient.

There should be an official quartermaster, and he/she should go  
around every 12 hours (10 am and 10 pm, in my opinion) to find out  
who has what extra or needs something, and redistribute what can be  
shared and go on shopping trips when necessary.

I had about 14 people on my staff, after 3 people flaked and two  
folks showed up like manna from heaven during con.  This was still  
not enough for most people to have a sane schedule.  I would suggest  
recruiting 20 folks for staff den staff, figuring that some might  
flake and others might join up once the con starts.

Also, if you're not me, you might want to have more pre-con helpers.   
I had three folks who helped me prep food pre-con, on only a couple  
of occasions.  That was only workable because I did so much of it so  
gradually, and had an extra freezer to store the food in my basement.

> Which experiments should we to try next year?

Maybe departments who aren't located near the staff den should call  
the staff den phone for an order of food and then send one person to  
go get it?  That seemed to work a couple of times for the Ops folks.

If possible, try to designate one person per shift as being in charge  
of cleaning up messes, making sure that the tablecloths get changed  
if dirty, that sort of thing.  This can also be the person in charge  
of keeping a rough count of folks coming in, if applicable.  Keeping  
count is an inestimable asset to the following year's crew.

  I would also suggest making more of the hot food be meat, at least  
once per day.  I had my menu set up such that there was a vegan hot  
soup/chili available during each meal, but the meat eaters rebelled  
on me once or twice when their only option was cold cuts.  Good thing  
there were chicken leftovers that could be reheated in a different  
sauce for a different meal!

> If your at-con schedule didn't match the schedule published in the
> program, why did that happen? (trying to figure out when's a good
> point to set a deadline for getting information for the printed the
> schedule)

I think the at-con schedule was reasonable, once we were moved into  
the BU room, other than the chicken dinner (which had heating issues  
for a while, solved in part by Jweiss and Pup, in part by Quietanne  
and the microwaves).  Thursday night's dinner schedule was a mess  
because a) we arrived to the hotel 3 hours later than I expected, b)  
the oven wasn't set up for use, which I had planned on using to  
reheat all of the Indian food, c) we didn't have any ability to have  
cooked rice for the meal until someone came up with the idea to go  
out and buy it from an Indian restaurant, and d) I was understaffed  
that night in a major way.  Never mind that e) we got something like  
50% more folks than I really expected for dinner.

For the record, the planned schedule was:
Thursday setup (beginning around 3 or 5 this afternoon), then dinner  
(~8 pm to 10:30 pm)
Thursday dinner meal = Indian food
Friday breakfast (8 to 10 am), lunch (1 to 3 pm), dinner (7 to 9:30 pm)
Friday dinner meal = chili, baked chicken
Saturday breakfast (8 to 10 am), lunch (1 to 3 pm), dinner (7 to 10 pm)
Saturday dinner = veg soup, pasta (rice pasta & normal pasta options)
Sunday breakfast (8 to 10 am), lunch (1 to 3 pm), no dinner scheduled  
because of the Dead Dog party (to which we will contribute food)
Sunday lunch = grilled cheese & tomato garlic soup
Monday morning from 7 to 9 am with whatever's left (all cold food)

The actual schedule was approximately:
Thursday setup (6 to 9 pm), then dinner (~9 to 11 pm)
Friday breakfast (9 to 11 am), lunch (2 to 4 pm), dinner (8 to 10:30 pm)
Saturday breakfast (8 to 11 am), lunch (1 to 3 pm), dinner (6:30 to  
10:30 pm)
Sunday breakfast (8 to 11 am), lunch (1 to 3 pm), no dinner due to  
Dead Dog (cleanup from ~4 pm to 9 pm)
Monday breakfast (8 to 11 am), cleanup (11 to 3ish)

Attendance at each meal was approximately:
Thursday dinner = 70, Friday breakfast = 30, Friday lunch = 50,  
Friday dinner = 70, Saturday breakfast = 70, Saturday lunch = 125,  
Saturday dinner = 160, Sunday breakfast = 60, Sunday lunch (extended  
time to 5ish pm) = 120, Monday breakfast = 25

The menus were:
Thursday night
rice from nearby Indian restaurant
spicy potatoes
vegetable korma
dal (garlic lentil)
shahi paneer korma
mutter paneer
potato-chick pea korma
masala mushrooms
vegetable korma
kheer
papadam
chutneys
chai (homemade)

Friday lunch
(minimal prep time)
froz pizza bites
squash soup
sandwiches


Friday dinner
vegetarian chili
shredded cheese (cheddar, jack)
baked chicken legs (herbs and garlic)
garlic butter peas
peach crisp

Saturday lunch
deli platter w/sliced meats
bread
leftover chili


Saturday dinner
vegetable soup
meatballs
non-spaghetti pasta
non-spaghetti RICE pasta
vegan pasta sauce
shredded cheese (mozzarella)
garlic butter peas
strawberry crisp

2nd wave of Saturday dinner (mostly tech crew post-Masq)
leftover chicken legs cooked in tomato sauce
blueberry crisp
leftover veg soup
homemade crab rangoons (the only thing utterly treyfe offered during  
the con) from Conor and Julia


Sunday lunch
deli platter of meats and cheeses
bread
tomato-garlic soup
grilled cheese sandwiches
blueberry crisp

every breakfast:
hard-boiled eggs
bagels & cream cheese
cereals
milk (2%, some whole milk)
soy milk
yogurt
blueberries
OJ
some apple juice
some cranberry juice

all weekend available:
PB&J
trail mix
Fluff
bread (white & wheat)
hummus
mayo
mustard
baby carrots
sliced deli cheese

beverages:
water (from Brita)
coffee
tea
hot chai in crock pot
soda
juices

> What "milestones" for your department should be placed on the  
> Arisia timeline? (for example, perhaps a Quartermaster needs to be  
> recruited by December 1, or Dealers' Room registrations need to be  
> closed by December 15)

I cooked all sorts of soups and chili to be frozen in the months  
previous to the con.  This was invaluable.  Cooking and freezing the  
chicken the week ahead was also brilliant, assuming that reheating is  
done in a smart way (like having another convection oven or using  
microwaves to better use, on multiple circuits).  This doesn't have  
to be done quite so far in advance as I did -- I started making  
pickles and soups in August, the summer before the convention.  But  
doing it more than a month in advance, while things are still  
reasonably calm, is a good plan.

Recruiting staff more than two months in advance is an excellent idea  
-- I only really got my act together a month prior, which meant that  
when people flaked, I was somewhat stuck and had lots else to  
accomplish.  Other pre-con things to do include: walk-throughs of the  
space (once to get general feel, once to specifically plan where  
you're putting what), writing your part of the hotel resume, having a  
couple of food-related meetings with consuite and green room, making  
sure there's a person devoted to quartermastering, taking a look at  
what's in storage for equipment and such, and meeting with the  
conchair at least once to make sure that you're fulfilling  
expectations in a meaningful way.

> Any comments about the rest of the con (other divisions, hotel, ...)?

Heh.  Elevators.  :P


> For extra credit, please answer the following question, drawn from  
> "Arisia A to Z" in this year's program:
>
> My DivHead was a:

d) My Husband, poor dear.  ;)  Next year, we work in orthogonal  
divisions!


Crystal