Project Description

This semester, the Officer Retreat was held at Yosemite, or more exactly, a lodge outside of the Yosemite National Park. Officers carpooled to the lodge on Friday and spent two nights in a suite of rooms called Cedar Lodge. Most of the officers spent Saturday inside Yosemite and all 19 officers who tried to scale Half-Dome in a day (17 miles round trip!) succeeded. Saturday night, everyone was back at the lodge where a planning meeting for the semester was held. Officer expectations were laid out and the overall framework of the semester was planned.

Event Preparation

After being elected Chapter President at the end of the previous semester, B. Love fielded suggestions for where to go and what to do for the retreat. Most of the officers wanted to go to Yosemite for the retreat, so B. Love looked into where a large group could potentially stay. Getting the necessary equipment and permits to camp in the park with a group this large was not practical. Plus, it would hinder being able to hold a meeting at night. From previous experience, B. Love called the Cedar Lodge (http://www.yosemite-motels.com/cedarlodge/) about a suite of rooms he had stayed in before and booked the suite for the first weekend after school started. B. Love then asked the officers who could go, what time they could leave on Friday, who could drive and if so, how many they could drive. Rides were arranged based on the responses so that people were able to leave as early as possible. The Activities Committee was tasked with arranging the food necessary for the retreat. Activities Chair K. Wong went to Costco and purchased the necessary food for the retreat. This included, food for all three meals on Saturday as well as Sunday breakfast. People were expected to either get their Friday dinner and Sunday lunch on the road, bring something to eat, or own their own somewhere near the lodge. Food included lots of cereals, sandwich materials, and the dinner was make your own burritos. After B. Love arrived on Friday around 4pm, other cars showed up throughout the afternoon and night until the last car arrived around 11pm. Drivers who could not leave before 3pm, were told to consider waiting until 6 or7pm to leave Berkeley to try to avoid traffic. After people had arrived, those who wanted to do Half-Dome made their lunches for the next day, got settled in and prepared to wake up really early. Saturday was a free day that most of the officers spent climbing Half-Dome. People got back to the lodge for dinner and resting and then an officer meeting was held. People woke up fairly early again on Sunday to clean up and checkout of the lodge. In the end, staying at the lodge was not all that costly because it was split 35 ways. All told, after room, food, and gas, the price per person was about $35.

Problems Encountered

B. Love should have called Cedar Lodge in advance (like the day before) and asked what room number the suite of rooms was to let all the other drivers which room to go to. Not doing so resulted in B. Love having to make many last minute calls to other drivers after arriving at the lodge and cell phone reception was spotty in some spots so not all the calls went through. Eventually, everyone made it, but it was more difficult than it had to be. We, as always, had some trouble with the food planning. While much better than it was last semester, especially for dinner, we did not get quite enough food for people to make their lunches on Saturday to eat while in the park.

Improvements Suggested

Older officers who have been on multiple retreats need to work with the activities committee to plan the food buying better. People need to have a better idea of how much people eat and what kinds of food are easy to prepare. In general, the simpler, the better. Dinner foods like spaghetti or make your own tacos/burritos work well. Breakfast and lunch should be simple, which means cereal and sandwiches. Also, remember to buy enough beverages for the entire trip.

Enjoyment

The officer retreats have always been fun and this one was particularly satisfying for those that did the Half-Dome hike on Saturday. It was a little cramped, because of how many people we had there, but it worked out. If the officers ever want to go to Yosemite again, they should consider staying at the Cedar Lodge again.

Appendix

Members participating: Ramak Asgari, Menzies Chen, Yu-Han Chen, Nathan Cheng, Shawn Cheng, Thomas Cheng, Gregory Chew, Peter Chien, Jeffrey Chung, Ryan Doan, Joe Epstein, Sarah Giddings, Arthur Hebert, Robert Hennessy, Bonnie Huang, Jen Hwang, Chia-Lyn Lai, Cindy Lee, James Li, Bernie Lin, Brian Love, Peter Masatani, John Meehan, Diana Nguyen, Andy Pascall, Amar Patel, Priam Pillai, Mike Schou, Sunil Tellis, Bill Trac, Carl Wang, Eddie Wang, Hongkai Wong, Kathy Wong, Christina Yau

This report was submitted by Brian Love (President) at blove@tbp.berkeley.edu on Friday, May 07, 2004 at 00:56:30 (PDT)