On our second meeting we had to decide on committee roles for each member of our group. We decided on these roles by looking at everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. These roles are listed below:
- Chairperson – Mathew Bayley. As the chairperson Mathew would have to make sure that everyone was doing their jobs right, and if they weren’t then they would have to tell them to try harder. We selected Mathew for this role as he is a strong minded person who everyone listens to
- Secretary – Krystle Larkin. As the secretary Krystle takes down notes from each of our meetings and turns them into minutes, then she gives them to us as soon as possible so we know what our weekly jobs are. We selected Krystle for this role as she is the most organised person of the group
- Treasurer – Ben Hall. As the treasurer Ben looks after all of our funds and receipts. We selected Ben for this job as he is good with money and knows how to budget money
- Marketing Person – Donna Hawkins. As the marketing person it is my job to market the event through invitations and/or posters. I was selected for this job as I have done marketing for 1 year in business and am also quite creative
- Staffing/Human Resources – Leigh Griffiths. As the person in charge of staffing it is Leigh’s job to recruit more staff members if we need them. Leigh was selected for this job as he is quite persuasive and also good at deciding on good workers with good character
- Health and Safety – Matthew Bray. As the health and Safety person it is Matthew’s job to do a risk assessment of the event. Matthew was selected for this job as he is good at finding out what problems could occur during events
We had a good marketing structure which meant we were all on the same level as each other and we were all given fair shares of the jobs. Our management structure is below.
I think that the group worked really well together, although there were a few problems along the way. We worked well throughout communication, although because of the stress of organising our event we did argue quite a lot. Mathew Bayley coped really well being our leader. He managed to keep us on track with all of our work and also our set tasks. We interacted well with each other, keeping each other informed on how well we were getting on with our jobs and tasks. There was some tension between myself and Krystle, because we kept getting in each others way and taking over each others jobs. But overall, we worked really well together.
As a team we really enjoyed planning and organising the event. Until the day of the event we helped each other with our tasks and also with any problems that occurred with the tasks that we were set. We managed to keep out of each others way most of the time, although there were a few problems and hiccups during the planning and organising of the event. However, apart from the few problems that occurred we all worked well together.
Moxhull Hall Hotel
I think that our visit to Moxhull Hall Hotel went really well. We had to dress smart to make a good impression on Andreas, the manager, and the rest of his staff at the hotel. We learnt a lot off the chefs at the Hotel, than if we had of prepared meals ourselves.
On 7th December 2005 at 11.30am we travelled to Moxhull Hall Hotel. This visit was to help us learn to set up covers and serve our guests properly and also how to prepare food properly. Our group was split up into two teams. These were the front of house team and the catering team. My team (the catering team) were taken into the kitchens and the front of house team was taken into one of the restaurants.
First we had to get acquainted with the members of staff who would be helping us. There was John and Neil, the two chefs. They then split us up into two teams of four. One of the teams went with John, whilst my team stayed with Neil.
We were allocated different jobs. I had to mix up the flour, butter and sugar to make the dough for the mince pies that we were going to cook.
My group also had to make a salad, potato salad and also coleslaw. We had to chop up the vegetables from fresh and then mix them up with mayonnaise to make the coleslaw and potato salad. We had cooked this meal for our and the rest of the group’s lunch. Once we had finished cooking for the group we then had to clean the side units and table tops that we had gotten dirty whilst preparing the food.
The day of the event
We started the day of the event by meeting up at our school at 8.15 and collected all of the equipment and accessories that we needed. We then walked up to the venue of our event and started to set up our equipment. The front of house staff set up the main hall and the kitchen staff, which consisted of me, Matthew Bray, Leigh Griffiths and 2 other helpers from a year 11 leisure and tourism class, went into the kitchen to set up.
We took all of the food into the kitchen and started to prepare the food. We all washed our hands first and also washed up the saucepans and cooking utensils that we would need. I had to prepare the parsnips, while Matthew and Leigh prepared the carrots. Reagan and Emily prepared the sprouts whilst Mrs Lavender prepared the potatoes.
Below is a photograph of me peeling the parsnips
After we had prepared the food and put it on the stoves to cook we had to tidy up and clean the sides. We also had to set out the small plates for the starter. We decided to do a prawn cocktail for the started and while the main course was cooking I prepared the prawns whilst the others tidied up and washed up any bowls and cutlery we had used.
Below is a photograph of me preparing the prawns
After preparing the prawns and setting them out on the plates the front of house staff came through to collect the starters and serve them to our guests. When our guests had finished eating the plates were brought back in and the main meal was served. It was my job to serve the sprouts, as the picture at the side shows.
Once the plates had been taken out then we had to wash up the starter plates and prepare the desert. Because 2 of our guests were diabetic we couldn’t serve them the traditional dessert of Christmas pudding and custard, so we served them a variety of cheese and biscuits instead.
Once all of the food had been served the washing up and clearing away had to be done. This was done whilst the front of house staff were setting up the entertainment equipment. The washing up and cleaning away was done by all of us in turn.
Below is a photo of me cleaning the sides of the kitchen
Once all of the cleaning and washing up had been completed we had to go and get changed into our front of house uniforms. We did this because we were going out the front to the guests to help with the entertainment.
Below is a picture of me in my front of house uniform
Our first lot of entertainment was a few games of bingo. Ben was the caller for the bingo, and the rest of us helped our guests with the games. After the games of bingo we had a few different quizzes that some of the group had composed. These were played in teams of two. After the quizzes had been completed we then played a game of catchphrase, which was performed by Leigh and Ben. The quizzes and the bingo went down really well with the senior citizens, as did the game of catchphrase. After the entertainment was finished it was time for the guests to go home. While Mathew Bayley and Leigh were seeing the guests out the rest of us started tidying away the tables and chairs and all of the equipment that we had used. This took about 20 minutes to do. Afterwards we had to take all of the equipment back to the school and pack it all away.
Overall the day went extremely well. There were a few problems, such as 2 people turning up early and uninvited. Also the cooking utensils from the venue went missing, so I had to go home to get some from my house that we could use.
All of the entertainment went down well and the meal was enjoyed by all of the senior citizens. The atmosphere of the venue was really good and Christmassy too, which made us and the guests feel good about ourselves, and also really happy with each other. This made us better people to be around and we worked better together because of this.
Improvements
If we were to do this event again then I would recommend making some improvements. We would have to make sure that people didn’t turn up uninvited. Because of this we had to make room for extra people and also share the food out more than we thought we would have to. I also think that we could have made more money from the fund raising. We could do two fund raising events to make double the amount of money so we don’t have to struggle so much keeping within our budget. I also think that we could improve the attitudes of the extra staff that we recruited. The year 11’s that worked in the kitchen didn’t pull their weight and they stopped working for a chat at anytime they could. We had to keep telling them to get back to work. I think that we could split them up and make them work with one of our group to keep them in check and stop them from slacking off.
I also think that we could improve the running smoothness of the quizzes. We did have 4 quizzes, so we had to do them quickly. However, some of the guests thought that the quizzes were read out too slow and the others thought that the quizzes were read out too fast. We could improve this by practising how to read out loud to guests properly. I think that we could also use a bigger venue. Everyone did seem quite cramped up and there was not much room to move about in the kitchen area either. The kitchen was small and there were 6 people in there all together. This made it very cramped and quite uncomfortable for us to work in. I think that we should also only have 2 courses instead of 3 if we do the event again. Originally we had only planned to do two courses, but the manager of Moxhull Hall Hotel gave us some prawns to make a starter as he knew our budget was limited. We thought that this was a nice gesture, but we should have checked if any of our guests were allergic to seafood. It turned out that one of our guests was allergic to seafood, so she didn’t get to have starter. She did state on her invitation reply that she was allergic to seafood but they weren’t checked properly, so in future we would have to make sure that we checked the invitations more than once.
I think that the project was successful. We kept to our objectives throughout the planning the event and also conducting it. We worked well as a team throughout the event, with only a few arguments occurring. We found solutions to possible problems, such as the arguments and also problems with decorating the venue. We provided our guests with a high standard of cuisine and entertainment. We know this from the witness statements that they produced for us. We all enjoyed the experience and we provided the elderly with a memorable event. We know that we enjoyed it from talking to each other and finding out what we thought went good and bad on the day. We know that our extra staff enjoyed themselves too, as we found out when we questioned them about it. We know that our guests enjoyed the experience from the positive comments we had, witness statements, our guests facial expressions on the video and also one of the guests took the time to write in to the local newspaper about how much she enjoyed the event. This statement was sent into the newspaper by Mrs Doris Robertson. These are all included in my work.
We came in on budget, but we had to keep things to a minimum and also add a few extra pounds ourselves to buy the prizes for the quizzes. I think that if this event is done again then more fund raising could be done. This way products will be brought comfortably without any worry of not having enough money to buy the necessities for the meal.
Customers were satisfied with the event and we have the proof of this from witness statements. Such quotes include ‘ very polite, willing and helpful. All cheerful and pleasant’ and also ‘ very good meal… efficient service all round’.
The ambience of the venue worked really well with event. We made the venue look Christmassy by putting up decorations and we also played Christmas music into the hall where the meal was to be served. All of the front of house staff were dressed professionally in black trousers, white blouse/shirt and a black bow tie. Once the kitchen staff came out, we also changed into smart, professional clothing.
Good things of the event included:
- Making the senior citizens happy and cheerful
- Giving ourselves the satisfaction of making other people happy
- Everything running quite smooth
- Positive feedback from the guests and members of staff
Bad things of the event included:
- Venue being too small
- Extra people turning up
- One member of the kitchen team turned up late
- I had to go home to get some cooking utensils as the ones from the venue were missing
