Delivering Essentials

I went to the garden work day this past Sunday, which was awesome! I met two community gardeners who were eager to work and help. They seemed excited for the event. They also want to purchase tickets, but I went on a whim so I didn't have any on hand...

The first picture above is the strawberry patch we weeded! Ahhhhhhhhhhh it looks so much better. You can see plants. And the gorgeous flowers that are around it. The next picture is from the (first ever!) community gardener-run workshop about planting in hay bales. It was pretty neat, and the benefits seem like they would be great for the Baltimore area. -- It keeps the Baltimore soil from infesting the plants, and the hay decomposes to give the roots room to grow, as well as food to eat. The last picture is just the gorgeous water tower.

Went to the networking event last night -- won a $25 gift card. Almost couldn't go so I'm glad I did!

Even better, I got to speak to Jen from Relay foods, and she has a few great contacts in the area, and she already made an email introduction with one of them. She gave me some great ideas on other organizations to contact as well. Fingers crossed!

Here's my ideas for the food, if we buy prepared food and don't have any catering help.

I'm guesstimating on what exact products we were to get, but for example:

Crab Cakes - $6.99 for 8 minis (Just a generic price I found online for Phillips). We'll need like 200 (ugh) = $175. But to be honest, we'll probably need more than that...

Chicken wings cost around $8.99 for 4 lbs. I'm guessing 4 servings to a pound. So for 200 people, it would be about $115. With spices and everything else, I'd guess it would end up being $140. Round up to $150.

Buying a smith island cake would be around $60 for 10 (regular sized) servings. That means 20, which means buying enough cake would be like $600. Not gonna happen. Making it would be some work, but if we buy other stuff, or you know -- get donations, it would be worth it. I don't even know how to cost this one out, to be honest. I guess $15-$20 / cake, that's supposed to serve 10-12.

I want to contact berger cookies and see if they would donate. I'm going to talk to a few grocery stores, but I may need help reaching out. I have work at the most inconvenient times for calling restaurants/businesses. I could ask UTZ too... Thoughts?

It's push week! I talked to Mercedes this morning and she said we made $60 yesterday, which doesn't seem like much... But it is. Any bit counts.

Okay so food -- I'm super worried about costing out food. Here's what I had in mind:

mini crab cakes or small bite crab cake sandwiches

authentic fried chicken

ham & biscuit sandwiches with a type of mustard sauce (I made these for a Maryland themed luncheon for WCR in high school

some type of boardwalk-like fries

small snacks like utz chips

berger cookies

smith island cake

I contacted one catering company about donations and I'll be doing more later today....

Ugh.

Now that the first push of our ASKS have gone out, I think it's time to bring up the day-of logistics. I am going to be emailing my group Steve Bradley's layout of 2640 (below) and my suggestions for what we can do about decorations and how we can set up our booths.

The pictures of this location are absolutely beautiful. I can't wait to take advantage of it. I think, to start, we should consider keeping the food area closer to the kitchen. I suspect, with a long event, we're going to have to keep the ovens on and food rolling out at different times, so not having to carry hot food through a busy venue is probably the best plan. I'd like to keep some area in front of the stage open for music fans (and anyone who wants to dance!). The left side of this floor plan, after the food, could be the historical information and walking tours. It would be a nice way to lead people to the bar (or back to the food from the bar) and they'll be more inclined to take a look while waiting in any lines.

On the right side, I was thinking the auction would take up a lot of space, alongside the art exhibit. The lounge area could be used for the kids games. TAHDAHHHHH!

The countdown begins.

In 7 weeks, we have to:

Find food for the event

Find decorations

Find kid's games

Find items for the silent auction

Convince people to attend the event

Compile our research

Create pamphlets, maps, take-homes for the event

and a bunch of other stuff...

It seems less frightening after discussing everything in class. A lot less.

To start, I'd like to say that the way Mark Steiner's parents influenced him into becoming the social advocate he is today. It seems to be the perfect balance of nurture vs. nature... Reminds me of my situation: my mother is a nutritionist and my father is a doctor, and I want to start a non-profit teaching kitchen... to help people. Sound familiar?

"Everyone has something to teach us... If you listen." That resonates with me. I have been very concerned (I'm a worrier, in case you can't tell...) about the interview process and how that will go for me. I have no problem speaking with people, but I would be afraid to misinterpret someone's story. I like the thought of just ... listening. It's calming to realize that you don't need to comment or keep up a conversation, but rather let them tell their story so you better understand how THEY want to be perceived, and how they want to be heard.

Feasibility studies are the worst. I have had to write them for entrepreneurship classes in the past, and they are so draining -- but completely necessary. Our goals have to be event specific, and we have to have clear and concise timelines for what we do and how we do it. Planning events is not an easy thing.

Prior to this final draft, our study only focused on the main event at hand, but part of this class is having on campus fundraising and outreach events. We're adding a bit more information in order to cover all of our bases.

I emailed WearMonument, a local clothing line who sells apparel for Believe in Music, asking if they'd want to attend/sell tshirts like they've done in the past. I wish there was a phone number for them, but alas. :(

Side note: I'm really excited to be working with a classmate on his video for the crowdfunding campaign. Dustin and I are going to visit the garden and do a short video inside to introduce the garden to potential donors outside of the area.

I'm afraid my blog post for today can't be as long as usual -- I already posted about MissionTix last week.

I'm the marketing intern for MissionTix, a ticketing provider in the Baltimore area, to give you a little background.

(Aka I'm the person who writes this!)

I finally had a chance to speak with my bosses and they are EXCITED to help us out with our event. Since they already knew the space, they figured we could sell out at around 500 people. That seems like a crap ton of people to market to and get to show up... That puts the ticket price at $20 a head, and we'd meet our financial goal if we sold out.

Keeping that in mind, I was reconsidering the ticket price a bit. I think we should shoot for around $30 or $35 tickets, and offer discounts for the community members. We can also consider tiered ticketing. Kids tickets cost one amount, community members another, sober tickets one and people drinking a little bit more expensive. Then we can also accept donations...

On Tuesday of this past week, our class finally split into committees, which is exciting and scary at the same time. I'm always worried about the parts of the project that I have to focus on, for fear of messing up or things not working out the way I want to, but they asked me to work on food & I have some fantastic ideas. 

I believe we mostly want to do hors d'oeuvres, because of the timing of the event. I think the best way to fulfill this would be to compliment the Maryland/Baltimore area food. Using flavors that are unique to the state, or from local restaurants & chefs would be a great way to show off our commitment to the area. Another neat idea that was brought up was to make dishes, sides, etc from the fruits & vegetables that grow in the garden, and offer recipe cards for people to take with them. This way, we have a bit of learning attached to our menu.

On Thursday, Mercedes and I visited Professor Bradley's class and got to speak with the IRC fellows. They had some incredible ideas, and we were able to elaborate a lot. We talked about potential money making opportunities, including bake sales and mini sales throughout the semester. Mai has friends who would be able to get us keychains that we could decorate ourselves for VERY cheap, and we'd be able to sell them to campus for ... a lot more. (We do have to let her know about 3 weeks ahead of time, though!) We also discussed selling herbs in small paper cups, where the students would be able to plant their own seeds and have them grow them at home or in their apartment. Various herbs are very simple to grow, and we could include the Filbert Street logo, or our designs with the plants, and tell the students to visit the garden as community outreach. We were thinking about selling mint (because it's super easy to grow), basil, sage and rosemary (because those three are growing in the garden now!).

I suppose when we do research and discuss a community, we paint a picture in our minds of what said area looks like, what the people are like and what their view of the world is. Visiting the places that we study in school breaks that fantasy very quickly.

Visiting Baybrook reminds me of my first time visiting my family in India. I got off the plane and the movies I had watched and the vision I had of where my family grew up were completely different than what stood in front of me. Baybrook was the same way. I stood at the top of a hill, next to this surreal water tower with gradient walls and a large white dome that overlooked the hill of row houses and the coal piers.

This past week, we talked a lot about how creativity and the arts intertwine with our social mission. This excites me -- I started at UMBC as a graphic design major, and I've been doing various forms of art since I was very young. I think this is a great way to accentuate our project, and it gives us leverage to market with.

I think the IRC fellows are going to be amazing resources for us. To start, I really enjoyed meeting everyone. It seems like a very relaxed group with a lot of talent. Certain skills that stood out to me were painting, graphic design, photography and cinematic arts.

I feel horrible about missing class last Thursday. With the ridiculously cold weather, my car had a little trouble running, and it stopped in the middle of the road. Nuts, right?!

Well, anyway, Tuesday's class gave me a bunch of inspiration and I wanted to relate our discussion to another one of my other classes. When we talk about human resource management, we talk about human capital, which is obviously really important in AMST 422. We have to consider what each student brings to the table, and distribute the talent and connections to where they would benefit the project the most. I think our talent and mindset in just our class is amazing, and I'm excited to meet the other class(es?) that we'll be working with too!

Speaking of human capital, I figured out an additional connection that I bring to the table: my internship at MissionTix! It's perfect. If we were to host an event that we sell tickets for, my company provides tickets for the Baltimore area and we would be able to set up an account with them under their 'Tickets with a Purpose,' where they donate a portion of their proceeds back to the cause.

This semester, through UMBC's very own AMST 422, my classmates and I will be helping the Living Classrooms organization in Baltimore. 

Our social mission this semester is to encourage the growth of knowledge for both the world outside of Baltimore, as well as the students of the Baybrook garden. Not only is fresh produce scarce in Baltimore city, the knowledge of fresh foods and nutrition is too. Helping to keep a program like this alive is an incredible experience.

Our goal this semester is to raise $10,000. Daunting, yeah? I'm worried. That's a lot of money, and we don't have a lot of money in the first place to plan with, comparatively. We've discussed hosting an event, and I can't wait to see what it turns out to be.

This blog is going to be for AMST 422. We are so excited to work on this project, and I can't wait for you guys to read about our progress.