Whooooooot, we finally pulled through!
Thank you to the whole leadership class for being so supportive of us. It really made a difference and Social truly appreciated your help. Now, before we say goodbye to Winter Formal for the school year we want your thoughts!
-What went well/not so great
-how was the volunteer system
-preparation/decoration/set up/ clean up
-what could we do to improve
-anything else
Thanks!
ASB Social
What went well:
ReplyDelete-Beautiful venue
-Good promoting before the dance (Countdowns!)
-chocolate fountain :')
-Student DJ played a good mix of slow and fast songs
-Photo booth was a big hit
Not so great:
-Venue was very big, so it felt quite empty
-Aside from the photo booth, chocolate fountain, and dance floor, there wasn't much else to do
-To be honest, I didn't know any of the fast songs playing, so it was hard to dance to that
Improvements:
-Set out a few cards or some small game ideas for groups to play!
-Maybe a smaller venue, or maybe a joint Winter Formal with another school? (I don't know if that's really difficult, but I think it might attract more people to come!)
Rooms for improvement:
ReplyDelete-The ending of the dance was very abrupt(the lights just turned on and the music stopped). It'd be nice to have an announcement or some sort of hype for the last song since we did have a mic.
-I don't know if the pillars were worth the time/cost put into them. Although I wasn't one of the people who officially signed up to work on a column, the time requirement seemed large, and at the actual dance the pillars just faded into the background.
- I feel like organization of clean up had room for improvement. It was last-minute to have to ask for rides from people to carry decorations out, rides could have been figured out during 3rd period before. I also felt like there was no volunteer organization, as a clean up volunteer I just started taking things down. It'd be helpful to have a social commissioner at the next event call everyone together and explain what needs to be taken down, where things are being stored, etc.
- We should look into getting more racks for coat check next time. The rack we did have was much too crowded and things were falling onto the floor. In addition, there was no marked off area for other accessories like purses or shoes, something to have next time. The rubber band/number system worked our relatively well, but in the dim light it was difficult to discern numbers.
- During set up we weren't utilizing our time super effectively. It'd be nice to have a commissioner explain the broad plan to all the volunteers at the very beginning, and then assign tasks to different people. I feel like volunteers had to continuously ask what to do after they finished each task. Also, since hours needed to be kept track of for volunteer discounts, a sign-in sign-out sheet might've been helpful.
- Also for set up, extension cords could have easily been figured out beforehand. Next time a giant list of all the supplies needed would be helpful.
- The DJ didn't seem to be very responsive to the crowd or interact with the crowd very much. It's not something he has to do, but it definitely helps!
- When requesting for songs, the DJ should have a google form shared with social instead of relying on Facebook messages.
- There isn't a good atmosphere for dancing. I think this is one of the biggest rooms for improvement. Dancing is really what makes the dance - people don't come necessarily for the food and photos. It's the experience/letting go that they look for. Some specific things that would've made the dance floor better: lower lights, pop music that got people excited, or dance-classics (teach me how to dougie, low), a specific time when everyone had to be on the dance floor/encouragement from the DJ. I agree with Elin - the venue was very spread out, and that meant that a lot of people were just on the second floor. I don't necessarily think they everyone's adverse to dancing - people just wait around for some other group to start the crowd. Once you do get started though, people have fun.
Overall, It does seem like a lot of deltas but I had a great night. The downtown venue was beautiful(albeit a little big). I think the easiest improvement that could be made is organization of volunteers and just letting us know which social commissioner is in charge of which portion of the dance(set-up, clean-up) so we know who to go to for questions.
COMMENT PART 1 (TOO LONG TO FIT IN ONE):
ReplyDeleteI was only there for half of the dance, so instead, I'll give some observations about Homestead's winter formal (probably more interesting comment!):
1. VENUE - HHS has its winter formal at the Historic Del Monte Building every year. It is a smaller venue, two stories, with a much smaller dance floor (think maybe a little larger than the Leadership room?) surrounded by tables. There is a soda bar next to the dance floor. Because it was much, much smaller, it felt like there were more people there, even though we only had slightly fewer people.
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THIS:
-If we are to keep doing a Lynbrook-only formal or even a formal (to be detailed later), we NEED to find a venue and keep going there every year. I may be biased toward the ASB-for-life crowd, but I honestly do not think the venue matters at all. Whether it was the Tech Museum or the Decathlon Club, year after year we struggle to make a profit. We need to grow a relationship with that vendor so that a) we're not scrambling to find a venue every year, and b) we can bargain for lower prices.
2. DECORATIONS - Minimal. There were a few balloons on the dance floor, some candles on the tables, but that is absolutely it. When the lights are turned off, who cares about decorations? People still had fun! To be very honest, I am extremely upset at the price of those columns -- I have absolutely zero clue why we would spend so much money (someone told me $1500?!) when we KNOW that are going to struggle to turn a profit, just like we do every single year.
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THIS:
-Forget decorations. Social's first and foremost priority is not to make the venue the prettiest it can be. It's to a) get a venue that provides the right atmosphere for a good time, then b) get people there. My strong college body will probably collapse if I hear of Social in future years spending exorbitant amounts of money on decorations that no one sees nor cares about.
3. DJ, MUSIC, DANCING - I'm not the best judge of this, but I thought he was fine. Not mindblowingly amazing, not horrible. However he kept the music going (and honestly quite ratchet, but it was fine), and he put in a few slow dance songs here and there to space it out. He called out Homestead a few times, which was cool to get people grounded in the idea that this is HOMESTEAD'S winter formal, no one else's. There was minimal grinding, a few dance circles (the ones where you watch someone do some breakdancing) every now and then, but mostly it was smaller friend groups pressed up against each other (because of the small space) having fun. Nothing else to report.
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THIS:
-I think that whether the DJ is a star or just alright doesn't matter -- as long as he/she can play music that gets people dancing, and the atmosphere is one that gets people up and moving (meaning peer pressure, so many people are dancing that you have to), people will dance.
4. FOOD - Chips, cookies. It was in downtown Sunnyvale, so everyone ate before coming. Food was right next to the venue. **In your debrief, please mention how much our fondue machine costed.**
5. COAT CHECK - I got an actual, formal coat check ticket. I thought it was much more professional than the rubber band. Small detail, don't know if anyone else would have caught it. They didn't have enough space on the racks so they left all purses and women's jackets on the floor.
6. FLIP FLOPS - They provided free flip flops so girls in high heels could take them off and dance. I thought that was great, and definitely an idea to bring back. Cheap flip flops, everyone takes them (not reusable of course, just to be more clear).
ReplyDelete7. VOLUNTEERING/SETUP - I wasn't there for setup, but some people in my group went exactly when they needed to. I know that at Homestead IDC, the volunteers had clipboards and new exactly what to do. I think you guys will get enough feedback on the organization of setup/cleanup, but I just want to emphasize that one person needs to know what needs to be done and who is doing it at all times.
8. VIDEO - This relates more to Tech, but they did not spend nearly as much time on their promotion video (I don't remember if my date told me if they even had one). It's romantic and cute, yes, but at the core, does it get people to go to formal? No. So then what's the purpose? At HHS people still came, and they promoted in ways like having people ask in class/having a page with everyone's asking. Much less time, much less energy, much more return. Something to really think about. I can try and find out other ways they promoted the dance.
8. SOME OTHER THOUGHTS - This idea may be perceived as totally radical and oh-my-god-what-are-you-doing, but what if we don't have a formal next year? Is this going to ruin everyone's high school experience? Monta Vista doesn't have one, and they just go to everyone else's. We end up losing money or barely breaking a profit every single year, and I really think that Social's and Tech's and PR's time and energy can be put into something much more useful.
At the end of the day, we don't put on these dances to have fun and help people make their romantic teenage dreams come true. We put on dances to **make money**. So if we didn't make money this year, we haven't made good money in the past four or five, and we are wasting months of our time on it, do we really need a winter formal?
Pros:
ReplyDelete- great video
- pretty venue
- countdowns were great and attracted attention
Cons:
- There needs to be better organization in terms of people fulfilling their duties because I know that in the end many people had to finish the columns regardless of who signed up to do the columns
- I feel that the columns were too expensive and there was a lot of labor included with constructing the columns. It was also very messy because of the glitter. However, I hope that you are able to use them again for another social event! I also think that in the future there shouldn't be much money allocated for decorations because people don't come to winter formal for the venue and decorations.
FOR THE FUTURE: This may seem like a very different idea, but I think we need to change because in the past couple of years ASB has lost a lot of money from winter formal. I definitely don't think it's social's fault in anyway, more that our school doesn't find interest in going to winter formal. In that case, I feel that instead of renting out an expensive venue it would be better to have winter formal at our school. You can allocate more money towards decorations at the dance and also make it a formal dance. This way winter formal prices can be possibly $20 rather than $55 which is a lot more reasonable, especially because I know a lot of people did not go to winter formal because they thought it was too expensive.
What went well:
ReplyDelete-the venue!
-the chocolate fountain
what didn't go so great:
-the pillars weren't as impressive as we hoped but it didn't seem like there were any "missing" decorations
-I don't think the volunteer system for the pillars worked because I saw some people in the den making extra pillars and letting other people take credit for it
improvement: dj needs to understand the people a little bit better,
more games for people to play? or more activities in general
I was not able to attend the actual dance, so my response is mostly about the promo and what I've heard from non-ASB friends who did go.
ReplyDeletePros:
-video was cute, loved the soundtrack. It was short enough to watch without getting distracted, and to the point
-mistletoe was adorable! It was more out of the box than normal
-countdowns were nice and brought attention to the other reasons to go to the dance
Cons:
-columns were an unnecessary expense and workload. They made the den incredibly messy, and added very little to the dance
-i've been to the venue, and it is a very big place, better for a 300 person conference with tables and chairs filling the place than a high school dance
pros:
ReplyDelete- the video was beautiful and I still watch it as my guilty pleasure video tbh
- mistletoe was adorable and I give a huggee shoutout to PR for doing such an amazing job!
- idk if it was just me but my date and I may or may not have just drooled over the chocolate fountain all night. definite ++++++. it was soooo good and so tasty too :3
- coat check was very well-organized this year!! at least for me (maybe it was because I actually arrived to the dance on time) I didn't have to wait at all and it worked out really well for me. The rubber band idea was really smart too!
- I personally thought the DJ for Winter Formal was amazing but that could just be my bias because I follow Brandon on soundcloud and have the exact same taste of music as him HAHA. Even apart from that, I'm really glad that he played slow songs, and from what I hear a lot of people were grateful for that too - also there surprisingly wasn't a lot of grinding or dancing in general, I couldn't tell if it was choice of music or Lynbrook's actually changing.
to be continued
cons
ReplyDelete-Columns were honestly extremely unnecessary. I think they even took away from the overall environment rather than added to it. Rather, I heard a lot of negative comments about the columns, which is the exact opposite of what we were aiming for.
This kind of sounds dumb, but I feel like decorations should be things that people want to purposely take pictures with - if you noticed, that was very well-done with the Christmas tree and chocolate fountain. However, I didn't see a single person stopping and saying "wow, look at those pillars, they're beautiful and I would hate leaving without taking a picture with them." I don't really know if this makes sense LOL...
- what everyone else said about organization because the columns just took a lot of time and cost way more than they should have. I don't blame social because this was the first year they tried non-hanging decorations and this was the best we could do in such a little amount of time and our resources.
- venue was just really big and a little too awkward. It was absolutely beautiful, don't get me wrong, but I feel like we should have filled the space up with either more christmas trees or food or water or just things in general. I think it sounds like I'm going against my previous note on decorations but I think there's a difference between filling up space with practical things and the amount of time and effort we put into the sparkly columns.
- there was pretty much nothing to do. I know this is always a concern for dances, but I feel like for some reason this one had even little to do than typical dances. Maybe because homecoming had the auditorium with the movie and the cove where people really just sat down and chilled, but after walking up and down the stairs in the rotunda about 6 times in heels I just felt like there wasn't really much left to do. maybe it sounds dumb, but putting board games on the huge tables or just things for people to do in general seems worth it.
as for the issue of whether or not we should have a winter formal:
I think we need to tell students how much money we're losing. This is what we mean by increasing transparency, right? I think the biggest problem is that students don't know how much we're losing, so they take this dance for granted. "They're always going to have a winter formal, so I'll just go next year." and they never do. We need to make them realize how fortunate we are to be one of the few schools in the district to offer this dance, and if they won't appreciate it, we will stop offering it. We can't make that decision without informing our student body.
Its the same thing that happened to sadies - no one went, but once we got rid of it, there was this huge outrage and everyone said "if we had a sadies, i would go." (even though they probably wouldn't.)
as for the suggestion for the venue: i think it still has to be somewhere outside of school, or else it can't be considered a formal. It'd be another sadies/ homecoming/blue pearl.
I think maybe we should only offer the dance once every two years? I'm not even sure if that's possible...or fair for the social manager, but I think it would actually help with the attendance knowing that this dance will only be offered twice throughout high school. (of course, not even sure if it's possible, but just bringing it up)
overall i actually had a great night :') so memorable and so fun. thank you so much social!! <3
things to work on:
ReplyDelete-decorations (I know people have already mentioned this): I just didn't feel like it was worth the time, effort, or money.
-setup: Personally, I think this was my biggest issue. I didn't even signup to make columns and yet on the day of winter formal I was in the den making columns. I know this isn't that big of a deal but it was so last minute and disorganized. In addition, a lot of the columns were made incorrectly. If we're going to spend extensive amounts of money on the columns, we should at least be taking the time to make them nicely so we can potentially reuse them. I know a lot of people were just doing sloppy jobs because it was so last minute so maybe decorations should be ordered a little bit earlier? Also, at the actual venue when we needed to set up I feel like we wasted a full hour in the beginning and I'm not sure why? I understand that the people supervising us needed to be there but once they did arrive, we still had not started. I felt that Social was not ready with what needed to be done at the venue so we had people just standing around. Before the day of winter formal, someone needs to make an agenda of exactly what needs to be done at the venue. This way everyone has a job and we can get done with setup much more efficiently. I'm also not sure what other jobs social was doing at the time of setup but I do know that they all were not present when the rest of the group was fixing columns or putting the columns around the venue. This honestly seemed strange to me and I felt like our jobs should have been to help out not to completely take over and just do everything for social (Im not sure if that made any sense at all). I think there needed to be some leadership in social so they would tell us exactly what we needed to do.
atmosphere: from what I saw, there was literally no one dancing except for ASB (whoo!) but still. Because we were in the rotunda, people just went up the the second floor and watched all of us dance. Also, we couldn't request songs so when we wanted the DJ to play songs that were more "danceable" he didn't. I know this isn't entirely the DJ's fault so I think we should have a place where we can all request songs.
Sorry if I repeated what other people already said but overall, good job social! I actually had a lot of fun and the effort put into making this dance possible was fantastic.
Pros:
ReplyDelete-Mistletoe around the school was a new and interesting way to promo.
-Countdown on Facebook helped gain some extra attention.
-Very beautiful venue
Deltas:
-I know other people have said this, but to me, the columns didn't seem worth the money and time spent to make them.
-It would have been helpful to have another coat check rack, since near the end, we were struggling to fit everything on the racks. It was a lot more organized than last year, though.
-We can always do more and better promotion for Formal. The purpose of promo is to try to get people who are on the fence about going to go (and ask someone). For people who are going regardless and people who would never go, we don't need to promote as much because they've already decided if they are going or not. We have to focus our promotion on people who are in the middle.
-The Rotunda was too big for the amount of people that we had. There was just a lot of space everywhere and it seemed a little awkward.
Overall, I think Winter Formal is one of the harder dances to plan. Props to trying out new things; I just think there should have been some more organization in terms of volunteering. Good job Social!
Hi social!
ReplyDeleteThanks for planning such a great event. Although I was unable to attend the event, I do have some comments about the promo.
For one thing, I think ticket sales should be promoted earlier. A lot of people were upset that the tickets were so expensive. The video was great.
After talking to my friends who attended the event, they were disappointed the lack of additional during the dance. Furthermore, the venue made the dance floor seem tiny and prevented others from dancing.
Overall, hope we didn't lose to much money. In the future, maybe we can make decorations rather than buying them.
Thanks,
Rani
Hi Social! Before I get into the 2 things I wanted to say, I just wanted to say great job for getting a great venue (with a wonderful chocolate fountain) and trying out new things both in terms of promo and the new DJ.
ReplyDeleteSuggestions/Feedback:
1) Coat check:
- more light needed around the volunteers, it's pretty hard to see unless the numbers on the rubber bands and racks are organized well beforehand.
- more organized space/system for shoes or other things that won't fit on racks.
- might want to get more racks, as everything got pretty cramped and it was difficult to efficiently locate items to give back to people in the middle of the dance
- while it did work relatively smoothly given the conditions at this dance (i wasn't there for the end, so i don't know how the exit was), but i think if a group of volunteers at the next WF doesn't organize the bands well beforehand it could result in a disaster.
- as amit said, a slip system or some other system might be more professional than rubber bands.
2) Expenses!!!!
- I know everyone else already said this, but the columns were pretty unnecessary when compared to the additional costs. While your commission is still in the black due to good planning/events earlier in the year (as well as additional $$ given to you in the beginning of the year by me :) ), it's worth mentioning that we lost $3700 on this dance. If we do this dance next year, I think keeping Winter Formal as cheap as possible should be a priority.
- In fact, as Amit suggested, it might be a good idea to do away with it or have a joint Winter Formal with some other schools. Just a thought for Social next year.
All in all, great job, Social!
Pros:
ReplyDeleteBrandon was a decent DJ, would have liked more slow songs in the mix.
Decently attended.
Most of the usual stuff was there (Formal Photos, Photo Booth, Some sort of food)
Cons:
Price of columns, hours spent of making them.
Coat check looked like a mess. (Not enough room, not the people operating :) )
Venue was gorgeous but wayyy too big
Could be replaced with another date dance, maybe not formal? (A suggestion for the whole we don't need a winter formal dance thing)
Note about the video:
I find that as unnecessary and how much time we spend making a video that doesn't commercialize the dance is an issue, but it is the only time that Tech has the opportunity to stretch the boundaries of our filmmaking and truly produce a work of art. If there was an alternative project that we would be so passionate about, I'm sure we would be happy to phase out an intensive winter formal video in favor of a more "promotional" video. Until we have another outlet for creativity, I would still push a more creative video. And please let us know if you all have suggestions on how we should approach these kinds of projects.
Pros:
ReplyDelete-Promo: mistletoe and video both had a lot of work put into them, the last countdown was also cute and my newsfeed blew up
-Beautiful venue
-Chocolate fountain was amazing
Things to improve:
-Volunteer setup system: I really like what Amit mentioned about the clipboard system. If there was a tasklist given to a group or even each volunteer, it could be a good way to keep everyone on task, to get everything finished, and to keep track of who actually shows up and does their job. I know when I showed up, it seemed a little bit disorganized with the columns coming in and all the repair jobs that needed to be done
-Size of venue has already been commented on (even though it was amazing)
-Following instructions on the columns...especially because they were really expensive, they could've had a little bit more effort put into them instead of rushing to fix them and making them look presentable at the venue itself
-Song request system would be greatly appreciated, and also more slow songs/more spread out instead of three in a row!! although it was a cool to have a student DJ
Overall I really had an amazing night so thank you social for all your work!!
I KNOW YOU GUYS PROBABLY ALREADY GAVE A DEBRIEF BUT I DON'T HAVE FB AND JUST REALIZED THAT THIS BLOG POST WAS UP SO SORRY! :( I'll just put this here in case Social next year decides to look through comments.
ReplyDeletePros:
-Promo: Tech and PR did a phenomenal job with the video and mistletoe. The video was extremely well shot (much better than any other high school promo video I've seen- I'm sure other schools are jealous that their Techs can't compare) and definitely something to be proud of. Mistletoe was an amazing idea because it strode away from the usual posters and really got everyone's attention. (We're definitely going to try something like that for JProm) Also, they were all so beautifully made.
-Venue: I'm not much for the city, but it was beautiful!
-DJ: I wasn't at the dance, but trying out a student DJ definitely helped with the costs.
-Rubber band coat check system
-Central Location for Set up materials: It was such a relief to know where the tape or knives (the knives sound so bad goodness) were at all times because you had a set table for it. Very small detail, but having experienced a million people yelling about where the tape is at rally setups, it made me SO HAPPY.
Also, I just wanted to say from the point of view of someone who is trying to plan a dance and who kind of understands (Prom holla) that I think you did the best you could under many circumstances. Although costs came in the way, it was very obvious (from the decorations and chocolate fountain and beautiful venue) that you wanted to create a beautiful event for the student body (in turn truly serving them). There were other things you guys could have done, sure, but I honestly don't think that the loss or what came out of the dance was completely your fault in planning. There's been a declining trend in dance attendance, and if you guys had done all of this 3 or 4 years ago, I'm sure it would have been so incredibly successful because of your magical visions. Hopefully we'll see an IDC Winter Formal next year so you can really do what you want to. Also, major props to trying new things. :) We're planning on stealing quite a few things hohoho.
Cons:
-Video released a little bit too late- I'm sure it would have encouraged more people to go (or at least built up hype) if it were released earlier.
-Reasons to go released a bit too late- Again, because Formal is a dance that you need to prepare for, maybe doing it a couple weeks in advance would be more effective.
-Set up Materials: Scissors :( I cut my hand squeezing through the columns with a blade LOL but it made me feel useful for once as height challenged person so thanks!! Also, rubber bands in the den (poor Brian). Maybe have a checklist of supplies next year? I know it was a little difficult because last day of school this year.
-Set up: Try to have an exact idea of how set up will go (where things will go, what volunteers will do, etc.) because we were all a little bit lost. Also, I feel like we could have set everything up in 2 hours, but because things were kind of confusing and we were off task, some of us didn't get to leave until 6:30, 7:00 because we were taping the ground or whatever. (Especially Sarah because she actually had a date to Pre-Formal with)
-Ken should have eaten lunch (or at least the chicken and fries we brought him what the heck).
Props for planning formal even though you had your own finals to worry about. :)