MACS anniversary and May, Part 2, 6-6-09
Upon returning back to work, I had a little more than 3 weeks to plan a celebration for the Chicago participants in the MACS. Our funding award letter came late, and we didn’t know if we could do anything for our participants at all, but when it did arrive, I had to put together something very quickly. There are approximately 500 active study participants at the 3 sites in Chicago – Howard Brown Health Center (we have nearly 300), the CORE Center (part of Cook County’s health system), and Northwestern University. There are also at least 50 staff people associated with the MACS currently, and lots of past staff that needed to be included.
Initially I thought that I was going to have a lot of help with planning this event, especially because I had so little time to do it, but as it was, I did a lot of the work, with help from a special events coordinator and some staff volunteers. We managed to get out more than 500 invitations (designed, printed, and mailed) in that first week. Then we ordered 500 t-shirts with our new MACS logo (created by a graphic designer that I had contacted from Chicago), and ordered 500 really cute coffee mugs with cute built-in teaspoons with the Howard Brown Health Center logo. The special events coordinator and I spent several hours just trying to find the right gift bags and tissue paper! I decided then and there that I never want to be a major event planner for any other reason....
We spent the next few weeks handling RSVP calls and emails, complete with people being offended that we were also honoring the first Principal Investigator in Chicago, the man responsible for bringing the MACS to Chicago. I had no idea an event could become so dramatic and controversial when it's just a party!
Anyway, in between all this planning was Memorial Day weekend. Steve actually managed to get a few days off and came home on that Saturday. We had a relaxing day hanging out at home catching up on tv shows because he never has time to watch any tv while on the pipeline. On Sunday, we drove up to Milwaukee for my cousin Paulie's graduation party, and then back to Chicago to greet my brother Mike and his girlfriend, who came in for a visit.
On Monday Steve had to leave early in the afternoon to get back to the job site, and Mikey and Kara and I braved the rain and spent the afternoon at the Field Museum of Natural History. We then had a most amazing dinner of Indian food in Chicago's Little India, Devon Street. Tuesday saw me back to work and Mikey and Kara went exploring the city. We had leftovers for dinner that night, then enjoyed fancy martinis on top of the Hancock building! It was amazing - a thunderstorm rolled in but we were above the lightning - and the clouds were so thick that the Sears Tower completely disappeared!
Mike and Kara left on Wednesday and I went back to all-out work. The drama and the panic of things not showing up on time or showing up wrong was about enough to drive a woman mad! I even had a participant show up 9 days early to the venue for our celebration, the Palmer House Hilton, intoxicated and looking for the "MACS party". The Palmer House was very nervous about "what kind of event we were planning here" that someone would be harassing staff 9 days early! Talk about damage control....but hey, what's a little excitement....
Anyway, on June 3, my dad's 59th birthday, I bought pizza for about 10 volunteers from the research department to help stuff gift bags. We stuffed about 350 gift bags before discovering that we had only received 2/3 of the mugs that we were expecting. Good thing I only had RSVPs from 225 people! It was great to have all the staff come together, though....
On June 4th I headed to the hotel at 2:30 to get set up. I ended up setting the whole event up by myself....
The room we had for the event was called the Red Lacquer Room - it had super high ceilings, dark red painted walls, beautiful chandeliers with red and clear crystal - it was gorgeous. I am totally in love with it. If it weren't for that whole swearing off event planning thing, I would have everything and anything in that room if I could....
The Palmer House staff were wonderful - h'ors d'oevres were carried around ("passed") by waiters, open bar, it was great. We had 4 speeches and they were very good and everyone who was there had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, there were maybe 125, possibly 150, people who actually showed up. Considering I had had 225 RSVPs, and was paying for catering for 300, I was a little disappointed, but everyone who was there was very happy.
There were tons of gift bags leftover. Two volunteers and I tore through the gift bags for 2 solid hours, and somehow managed to fit 9 giant boxes of gifts into my little Saturn!
Overall though, it was a great night, and I took the day off on Friday to reward myself!
Initially I thought that I was going to have a lot of help with planning this event, especially because I had so little time to do it, but as it was, I did a lot of the work, with help from a special events coordinator and some staff volunteers. We managed to get out more than 500 invitations (designed, printed, and mailed) in that first week. Then we ordered 500 t-shirts with our new MACS logo (created by a graphic designer that I had contacted from Chicago), and ordered 500 really cute coffee mugs with cute built-in teaspoons with the Howard Brown Health Center logo. The special events coordinator and I spent several hours just trying to find the right gift bags and tissue paper! I decided then and there that I never want to be a major event planner for any other reason....
We spent the next few weeks handling RSVP calls and emails, complete with people being offended that we were also honoring the first Principal Investigator in Chicago, the man responsible for bringing the MACS to Chicago. I had no idea an event could become so dramatic and controversial when it's just a party!
Anyway, in between all this planning was Memorial Day weekend. Steve actually managed to get a few days off and came home on that Saturday. We had a relaxing day hanging out at home catching up on tv shows because he never has time to watch any tv while on the pipeline. On Sunday, we drove up to Milwaukee for my cousin Paulie's graduation party, and then back to Chicago to greet my brother Mike and his girlfriend, who came in for a visit.
On Monday Steve had to leave early in the afternoon to get back to the job site, and Mikey and Kara and I braved the rain and spent the afternoon at the Field Museum of Natural History. We then had a most amazing dinner of Indian food in Chicago's Little India, Devon Street. Tuesday saw me back to work and Mikey and Kara went exploring the city. We had leftovers for dinner that night, then enjoyed fancy martinis on top of the Hancock building! It was amazing - a thunderstorm rolled in but we were above the lightning - and the clouds were so thick that the Sears Tower completely disappeared!
Mike and Kara left on Wednesday and I went back to all-out work. The drama and the panic of things not showing up on time or showing up wrong was about enough to drive a woman mad! I even had a participant show up 9 days early to the venue for our celebration, the Palmer House Hilton, intoxicated and looking for the "MACS party". The Palmer House was very nervous about "what kind of event we were planning here" that someone would be harassing staff 9 days early! Talk about damage control....but hey, what's a little excitement....
Anyway, on June 3, my dad's 59th birthday, I bought pizza for about 10 volunteers from the research department to help stuff gift bags. We stuffed about 350 gift bags before discovering that we had only received 2/3 of the mugs that we were expecting. Good thing I only had RSVPs from 225 people! It was great to have all the staff come together, though....
On June 4th I headed to the hotel at 2:30 to get set up. I ended up setting the whole event up by myself....
The room we had for the event was called the Red Lacquer Room - it had super high ceilings, dark red painted walls, beautiful chandeliers with red and clear crystal - it was gorgeous. I am totally in love with it. If it weren't for that whole swearing off event planning thing, I would have everything and anything in that room if I could....
The Palmer House staff were wonderful - h'ors d'oevres were carried around ("passed") by waiters, open bar, it was great. We had 4 speeches and they were very good and everyone who was there had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, there were maybe 125, possibly 150, people who actually showed up. Considering I had had 225 RSVPs, and was paying for catering for 300, I was a little disappointed, but everyone who was there was very happy.
There were tons of gift bags leftover. Two volunteers and I tore through the gift bags for 2 solid hours, and somehow managed to fit 9 giant boxes of gifts into my little Saturn!
Overall though, it was a great night, and I took the day off on Friday to reward myself!
posted by Kate @ 7:01 PM
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