[Home]HowToRunFunball

MacKenzieStuart wrote this document in 2006th; RichardBowen is (with her permission) putting it on FunWiki as a helpful resource. I plan to import it as faithfully as possible first, then go through and modify stuff to bring it up to date, so that an originalish copy exists in the page history for posterity.

This page is unfortunately outdated at the moment, and will be altered soon to better reflect current realities of the Funball process. MattRichman, XandaSchofield, and KarenBeaty have such details.

Steps for Registering, Planning, and Executing a Nonalcoholic Mudd/Scripps? Party Part One: Before the Party: February 16th, 2006

Step One

Timeframe: ASAP

Figure out who should register Funball. They don't need to have gone to the party planning seminar because Funball is not alcoholic. Have this individual go to the LAC and find DeanChris. In order to register a party, Dean Chris needs to know the following:

Dean Chris is a fan of non-alcoholic parties. He's given us $200 (or more) for Funball every semester for a long time, so ask. You'd be surprised at how difficult this registration step is, so get it done early. Funball should be registered as early in the semester as possible since we want a very specific date.

At this stage it is good to solicit help. In addition to the Person Throwing Funball, it is useful to have (more than one may be filled by the same person):

Step Two

Timeframe: ASAP

E-mail your dorm Social Rep with the same information you gave DeanChris. East's Social Rep is HelenFitzmaurice (2009-2010). Ask the rep to e-mail the head of Social or mention it at the next Social meeting. Doing this helps us avoid scheduling large parties over each other. Also, if you're planning on using the Social speaker equipment, and you are, mention that. Make sure that you'll be able to get a mixer, appropriate cords, subwoofers, and speakers. The social mixer has a tendency of being lost, so ask around other places if needed. East has a large number of XLR cords, which live in EDC storage, and two XLR/quarter inch adapters, which float around (but should probably be given a proper place).

Step Three

Timeframe: No less than a month before

Prepare a budget. Be as inclusive as possible. Don't lie about what you're spending money on, but overestimate. Money goes really quickly and you'll be shocked at how many little things get forgotten. Once again, include all the information about your party on your budget. Old budgets can be found at HowToRunFunball/BudgetHistory.

Some things, like candy, cost a lot more than you would expect. For a party like Funball, where the entire point of the party is to eat a lot of candy, get really hyper and dance, you're going to spend a lot on candy. Smoothies are also more expensive than you'd think, and another big part of Funball is to just drink smoothies. Show your budget to a couple of people, especially those who have thrown Funball or other parties before. Here are the people who have thrown Funball before:

Once you feel good about your budget, make 10 copies of it and tell your Social Rep that you want to request money at the next Social meeting. You'll walk in, hand out your budget, answer questions and then leave. Once you're gone, Social will vote on how much to fund you for. You'll receive an e-mail letting you know what they decide, or the Social Rep will tell you.

I'm working on putting old Funball budgets on wiki - RichardBowen

Step Four

Timeframe: No less than three weeks before

Talk to the Dorm Presidents about holding a dorm meeting. At the dorm meeting, announce when the party is and how much money you received from Social and Dean Chris. Then ask the dorm for more money. They'll vote and you now have a very definite idea of how much you have to spend. If you are a DormPresident?, you can do this step yourself.

I'd advise asking the dorm for money (standard $150) at an earlier dorm meeting. When submitting the budget to Social, you need to list how much money you're getting from the dorm and Dean Chris, because Social is expected to pay the lion's share of the bill.

Step Five

Timeframe: No less than two weeks before

Call Jump Connection to reserve the bouncy castle and cotton candy machine. They're located in Azusa and their phone number is (626) 969-8192. They know us as a dorm because we've done this every semester for a number of years. Ask for 100 servings of cotton candy and 150 cones. They know us, so they'll throw the extra 50 cones in for free. The dorm address, if they ask for it, is 445 Platt Blvd. Keep in mind that Platt Blvd. used to be called 12th Street, so their maps may say that if they ask.

Call Eden Audio in Anaheim to reserve the lights. Drop the name of the last person who ran Funball, because we get a very, very nice discount. Start working out transportation for the lights, too. The power spots come in a large 4'x4'x2' traveling case that will not fit in a sedan. If possible, find someone with a minivan willing to drive to Anaheim and back twice. Alternatively, find a Mudd Van driver and reserve the Mudd Van immediately. The power spots are a nuisance to transport, but produce excellent effects.

Step Six

Timeframe: No less than one week before

Start putting together a playlist (these days, we usually outsource the playlist to someone who is different from the party planner - RichardBowen). Funball and most parties last for four hours and your playlist should be within a minute or two of this time limit. The goal of a Funball playlist is to put together a lot of bouncy, fun, danceable music, but not so much of it that you exhaust your attendees. Copies of previous playlists exist on the network. If you can find someone to 'mix' the playlist, which will make the transitions much better, this is good. They will need lead time, though, so see how much they need.

Step Seven

Timeframe: No less than one week before

Make a poster with all the essential data about the party, including the fact that it's a nonalcoholic. Standard posters exist at HowToRunFunball/Posters. Making a few different varieties of posters is never a bad idea. Go to Dean Chris and have him approve the posters. Once you've got it stamped, make copies. Buy bright, multicolored paper in light colors and print posters off one of the school printers. 100 copies should be plenty. Get blue tape from F\&M for postering. Find a Scripps student with dorm access and go wandering the dorms to poster. She'll need to be with you at all times. Poster both campuses relatively thoroughly, focusing on visible places. We're had some success with doing postering directly after a dorm meeting, so asking the Dorm Presidents to hold another meeting the Tuesday night before Funball might also be helpful. Don't put up posters more than five days in advance.

Step Eight

Timeframe: During the week before

Go shopping! Get candy, water, drinks, salty snack foods like pretzels and chips, salsa. Here are the stores we've shopped at before and what we've gotten there. I've found it helpful to go to the stores in this order, but how you do this is up to you:

Step Nine

Timeframe: During the week before

Send out a whole bunch of e-mails!

The Day of the Party

(Note from RichardBowen: this section appeared in the TeX source commented out). If there are still a lot of bikes left during set-up, send another e-mail out to the dorm and tell people to move their bikes. If it keeps getting closer to partytime and the bikes are still there, start going door-to-door.

Make sure DormPresidents? knows to clear out the media equipment by Friday afternoon. If you give them notice, this goes better.

Get the lights out of storage/rented and program them if they need to be programmed - HowToProgramFunballLights and use a climby person to hang them around the Lounge and second story of the dorm.

Clear the lounge of furniture that you can fit through the doors, making sure you have a ratchet for the Louch.

Line the funball pit with couch cushions and tarps. Fill with funballs.


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