Project Description

We went to Pyramind Brewery in Berkeley where we had a private room. We had a 3-course dinner, presented candidate awards, thanked all the officers, and watched the semester slideshow.

Event Preparation

VPs Amar Patel and Peter Masatani organized the banquet. Based on recommendations of previous VPs, Amar started early in the semester and found several possible locations for the banquet. Based on location, cost, type of food, and the restaurant’s flexibility with count, Amar chose Pyramid Brewery (901 Gilman Street, Berkeley, CA 94710). The banquet coordinator was Maia Wanlass (phone: 510.527.9090 ext.223). The contract of a 3 course dinner (Mixed Green Salad for 1st course, Chicken, Meat Pasta, and a Vegetarian Pasta for entrée and 1 brownie per person for dessert) with beverages (soda and water) was agreed upon. The price was $27 dollars a person (TBP would subsidize $2 per person) for a count of under 80 people. The flexible count made the restaurant very attractive because it is difficult to approximate the number of people who would attend. A projector screen was provided by the restaurant and the projector was borrowed from the ME department (2nd floor Etchevarry). Andy Pascall, the historian, brought his laptop and speakers to play the slide show. Amar kept in contact with Maia about any changes and the day before the banquet he gave her a final count.

Problems Encountered

It was difficult to get a final count because people kept on changing their minds about going or not going to the banquet. I suppose this is unavoidable so make sure the restaurant knows your situation and the possibly of changes up to the day of the banquet. Another problem was that the bill had to be paid by credit card. Luckily Treasurer Hong Kai agreed to use his credit card to pay for the banquet and then get reimbursed later. Another problem was that the room was too small. I guess this could be avoided by having better spatial acuity to estimate the maximum number of people that can fit in a room. Usually the restaurant will overestimate their actual capacity because they make more money that way. hahhaa, I actually have no idea, different restaurants do and say different things.

Improvements Suggested

Next time have a bigger room, but I still thought it was pretty cool to have the banquet at a brewery. The beer at pyramid is really good and I think it nicely complemented the meal. Also, I think it is key to get started early before everything is taken.

Enjoyment

The banquet went really well. I had fun and I think everyone else did as well. The essays were awesome, especially since the writers read their own essays out loud. The highlight of the night was my victory over Menzies (good job Sharon).

Appendix

Members participating: Menzies Chen, Yu-Han Chen, Nathan Cheng, Ryan Doan, Arthur Hebert, Robert Hennessy, Jennifer Hwang, Cindy Lee, James Li, Brian Love, Pascal Martin, Peter Masatani, Diana Nguyen, Andy Pascall, Amar Patel, Mike Schou, Eddie Wang, Hongkai Wong, Bill Trac, Bernie Lin, Gregory Chew

Candidates participating: Naveed Ahmad, Anthony Azevedo, Heather Bischel, Eilyan Bitar, Jason Chan, Liang (Ryan) Chen, Po-kai Chen, Philip Cheng, Eileen Chu, Yue Jack Chu, Sanjay Dastoor, Philip Godoy, Germaine Goh, Vikram Gowrish, Amy (Yu-Ching) Hsiao, Dennis Hsu, Wensheng (David) Huang, Sophi Ionova, Emin Issakhanian, Laleh Jalilian, Wayne Jay, Alexander Kan, Irene Kang, Liliya Krivulina, Lin Kuang, Daisy Lee, Xiao Ming Mabel Li, David Ta-Hsiang Lin, Jacqueline Luk, Jin Luo, Nam Mai, David Mason, Austin Minnich, Sahand Negahban, Adam Neugebauer, Marowen Ng, Serouj Ourishian, Heena Patel, Ta-Ming Shih, Jeff Heng-Wen Shiue, Grace Chen Ling Soh, Jue Sun, Mihir Tendulkar, Gregory Thorne, Anna Tsai, Gareth Pierce Williams, Angela Wu, Karen Yang, Hung-liang Yen, Sharon Yen, Ying Peng Yeo

This report was submitted by Amar Patel (Vice President) at apatel@tbp.berkeley.edu on Wednesday, January 14, 2004 at 00:58:05 (PST)