General Studies Lounge

Dear Student Council,

Lisa Fishenfeld, our Social Chair has been working to create an Orientation party for General Studies students. Like all expenditures over $200 this will require a council vote. As we are not yet in session that vote will happen over email.

I strongly support her efforts to create a great event to meet new students and reconnect with continuing students and am very happy about this dollar amount and how it focuses on food and venue over alcohol, something that I plan on making a theme for future expenditures.

There is no better person to explain the details of this expenditure than Lisa herself, so I have included the full details below, however, here is what I would like you to consider and vote on:

Support Orientation week with a GSSC sponsored social that funds rental of a venue and providing food while saving substantial funds by not subsidizing alcohol for a total allocation from the General Studies Student Council Budget of $5600, which as Lisa notes, is a substantial savings on last year's Orientation spending.

Like all email votes we do as council send your 'Yay' or 'Nay' vote to Michael Rain, VP of Policy (mr2593@columbia.edu). He will tally them and in accordance to the constitution announce the result.

One final note: Get your friends in GS out to this event! It will be exactly as fun as the number of our GS peers arrive to reunite ahead of the coming academic year. I hope I see all of you that are in town there.

Thanks and let me know if you have any questions,

Brody Berg

Details From Lisa:

As it stands, it costs $7000 to buy out Amsterdam Restaurant and Tapas Lounge (AmCaf). This means $7000 needs to be spent by our party during the two-hour period (not including tips). I will try to negotiate it down; I've already set the stage for that. According to our preferred vendor list, we get a 20% discount over $300; I will try to leverage that to advocate a buy out price of $5600.

We have decided to pay for food and allow guests to pay for their own drinks. The money they spend on drinks (not including tips) will be included in the buy out amount; for 200-250 people, I estimate about $2000-$2500 spent that way. They will also be free to order more food, or anything else they would like.

That leaves the food. I have picked out a menu of hors d'oeurves that I think will work. I purposely chose the dishes in the lower price range of $40-$55 per 30 pieces. The restaurant advised we order about 10 pieces per guest, which comes out to 2000-2500 pieces, or 67-84 platters. The menu is as follows:
Santa Fe Spring Rolls with Avocado Cream ~ $50
Warm Brie on Crouton with Strawberry and candied Walnut ~ $45 (V)
Goat Cheese and Caramelized Onion Tart ~ $40 (V)
Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Quiche ~ $40 (V)
Skirt Steak Skewers ~ $50
Chicken Satay ~ $45
Mini Cheese Steak Egg Rolls ~ $55
Mini Beef Empanadas ~ $45
Mini Cheese Empanadas ~ $40 (V)
Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus ~ $45

This comes to $455 for one order of each platter, or an average of $45.50 per platter. 67-84 platters would therefore cost about $3050-$3825.

We would still have to pay tip. 17%-20% would come out to $520-$765. Please do not advocate that we give a 15% tip; I would like to keep a good working relationship with this restaurant.

We may have miscellaneous costs, such as security or something. I will work out the details when the event planner returns to work tomorrow (she has been away). I would like to tentatively ask for $500 for miscellaneous costs.

This all comes out to an upper amount of $5100. I would like to ask for $5500 to cover our bases (including the possibility of guest spending at only $1500 and me failing to negotiate the price down). As you can see from my breakout, I hope to get this done with less money; I am asking for this amount so we're not screwed if something goes wrong. Possibilities include more than 250 people showing up, guests not spending enough money, or unanticipated costs. This $5500 figure means about $22 per person (at 250 guests), which is on par with the per person cost for the spring 2008 orientation event at Soundz lounge. This is much less than the $34 per person spent at Havana Central last fall.

Please give me a call if you have any questions or concerns about this budget.

Regards,
Lisa