Pan Macs,

No apologies for the long email, please read it thoroughly as this will save time before our meeting next week.

Please read the following information carefully as there are requirements that will need to be actioned before our meeting on Wednesday 3rd of April.  We will need as many people in attendance as possible. 

It is evident that after the Paniyiri meeting on Wednesday night (last night), we have an incredible amount of work and organising to do in a very short period of time.  In between now and the Paniyiri we have public holidays (Easter and Anzac Day), Greek Easter with holy week starting on 1st of May (2 weeks before the paniyiri), and the next and final Paniyiri committee meeting may be moved forward to the 24th of April.  We will only have around 3 weeks to get fairly well organised and then only have a couple of weeks after that to finalise our preparations. 

Menu items and quantities needed for each item.  We will need to decide at the meeting, how many items we will need of each of the following, who will be purchasing them and by our next committee meeting, we will need confirmed pricing. 

Menu items so far:

• Chicken Souvlaki (first quote from Georges Chickens $1.30 each) How many?
• Lamb Souvlaki (first quote from Georges Chickens $2.20 each) How many?
• Diced chicken thigh (for wraps) – to be discussed – how much?
• Diced Lamb (for wraps) – to be discussed – how much?
• Pita Bread (Samios $25 for 10 pkts - How many breads in each packet?) – how many?
• Tomatoes – how many kilos?
• Lettuce – how many cartons?
• Onion – how many bags?
• Tzatziki – how many tubs?
• Chips (Samios $17 for 10kg) – how many cartons?
• Calamari (Samios $8 per kg) – how many kilos?
• Oil (Samios – no price) – how many litres?
• Dolmathes (Samios – price?) – how many tins?
• Sweets (and types of sweets) Loukoumia (Samios – price?)
• We haven’t decided on spanakopita (Taki) and how many we may need?
• Menu will include chicken & lamb souvlakia, chicken & lamb yiros, chips, calamari, dolmathes, sweets (baklava, kouriambedies, loukoumia (Samios), ravani?). No haloumi, no loukoumades.     

Resources.  In the lead up to the Paniyiri, we will need people to pack sweets and dolmathes into tubs.  We will also need people early on Saturday and Sunday morning for preparation of vegetables and cooking.  Number of staff needed on hand at all times in the stall needs to be a minimum of 20.  Volunteers will need to be able to assist in replacing existing staff.  2 team leaders in the stall need to co-ordinate the running of the stall.  Delegate tasks to volunteers and duties required.  At least 5 to 6 people needed to serve, 5 making wraps, 5 cooking, and more for re-stocking, rubbish removal, removing and counting money.  We are allowed to leave 2 x cars behind our stand and we should lock the money in one of the cars. Money will have to be taken to someones home on Saturday and Sunday night, and then during the week, Apostoli and a couple of us will have to count and reconcile the monies. 

Who is available for set up (from 12 noon on Friday), and Saturday morning?  Festival opens at 12 noon on Saturday.  Who is available for pack up on Sunday night (till 10pm) and then to go to Tas’s house to unload the equipment?  At least 6 people required as volunteers.  How many people will you each have available?   

Other requirements. Menu Banner with our menu items and pricing (preferably in colour with graphics).  This needs to be done straight after the pricing is finalised.  Allocate someone to get quotes for requirements.  4.5mtre by approx. 1m.  Type of banner or menu board needs to be large so that it is clearly visible.

Equipment. Number of fryers, hot boxes, grill (for wraps), gas bottles, power requirements, other equipment (maybe tills at least 3). 

Other items. Packaging including chip cups, lunch wrap, paper bags (for chips with cup), salt, small plates, forks, napkins, some plastic carry bags, gloves, garbage bags

T-shirts – if we have no sponsors, use George Kosmidis contact to get them for free.  Possible design attached as an idea.  Simple, but effective.  Need to decide on how many shirts and what sizes and need to order them asap. I have attached an idea for a design which I got off a website.  Just a thought.  Obviously the writing and logo would have to be different. 

Delegation of duties.  As we are pressed for time, if a task is allocated, it needs to be followed through.  As one person, I cannot be liable if someone doesn’t complete something.  Everyone needs to take responsibility and complete tasks by the set deadline. 

Other information:

As part of our fee, we have the following included:

• Flooring
• 1 x flurorescent light
• 4 x 2.4mtr banquet tables
• 2 x chairs
• 1 x 4.5mtr sign

We may need to organise extra flooring (about 2 extra metres) behind the stall as working on grass can be difficult and we will need this area for prep.  We are allowed 2 x vehicles directly behind our tent, and I suggest a couple of utes so that we can bring equipment and bbq’s directly to our marquee and store other items in there if necessary (eg. Charcoal).  Also, the utes will need to be used to secure the monies during the event.  Before the Paniyiri can continue, Brisbane city council will conduct a site inspection.  We will also need a 20metre extension cable per appliance (tagged and tested).  I have attached an equipment rental price list for your reference. 

The equipment hire company will deliver and collect the equipment directly from our tent before and after the event.  We may also need to hire tablecloths, mobile fridge (cool room), flat plat bbq (with gas bottles also available from the Cretans and we will need to change the bottle on Sunday morning), 2 x 6 half tray hot boxes, 2 x deep fryers, maybe a pie warmer (depending on whether or not we will be using spanakopita), display panel. 

Also, can someone please print and give a copy of this information to George Kosmidis as his email is not working.  Tas, can we please have the minutes of the last meeting distributed prior to Wednesday.  Maria D, in the menu items anything with (Samios) after the ingredient, can you please bring confirmed pricing for items not priced and confirm that I have the correct pricing for the existing menu items. 

Thanks team and see you all next week.

Regards

Nick

Team,

Thank you all for your input at last nights meeting.  We received the Invoice today for the stall and will be paying it by next week.  I am looking forward to making the event a success, but, will rely heavily on EVERYONE’S input and support.  

We have a lot to achieve in a short period of time.  Last nights meeting was disjointed, but, in saying that, we weren’t sure even if we were voted in until we received confirmation.

Now that all is approved, we really need to step it up, and make some firm decisions.  We can’t get bogged down in small details.  We have enough information to move forward on creating our menu. 

In summary, in light of the fact that we received some new information, our menu will consist of:

1.     Calamari – approximately 100gram serves in a chip cup or clear plastic container, cost price of $8/kg and a sell price of $7 per serve. 

2.     Chips – a 12oz chip cup, cost price 10kg @ $17 per carton ($1.70/kg) and a sell price of $4 per serve

3.     Chicken Souvlakia, cost price of $1.30each, sell price of $4 each

4.     Lamb Souvlakia, cost price of $2.20each, sell price of $4 each

5.     Souvlaki Wraps (chicken or lamb) – ingredients to include 1 x chicken or lamb souvlaki, sliced or diced tomato, sliced or diced onion, tzatziki, pita bread. (no lettuce or chips)  approximate cost price of $3.50.  Sell price of $7 each

6.     Dolmathes – 6 each at $0.86 cents per serve + container.  Cost of around $1 per serve.  Sell price of $3.50 or $4 per serve (I wrote down two options and we hadn’t settled on a final price)

7.     Greek Sweets - $4 per serve, cost price of $0 as they will be donated.  Need to get back to us regarding what we are all making.  I can commit to baklava & kouriabiedes  (maybe 2 trays of each).  Please get some idea of what you are able to bring before the next meeting. Also discussed loukoumia & Maria has priced them. 

8.     Spanakopita – still undecided.  Cost price of $2.50 per piece, sell price of $5.  Don’t know how many we will need.  Each pita is $25 each and if we need 100 we will be looking at $2500. 

According to last nights decision, we are not doing Honey Puffs.  So we still have to make a decision on the Spanakopita & what sweets we will be supplying.  That’s a run down of the menu.  We still need to decide on quantities of each item. 

We will need to think about a running sheet of what equipment we will need for the event and I should have a lot more information after the meeting on the 27th of March.  Start asking people for commitment now as we won’t necessarily get everyone turning up. 

The next Paniyiri Committee meeting is on Wednesday 27th of March and I think we should have a meeting on Thursday the 28th of March as we will have a lot to get through. 

With the right planning and structure and commitment, we will have to make this a success as I don’t want to risk losing our place in the Paniyiri in the future. 

A few concerns are the lack of people we will have available as some won’t turn up, others won’t be available and some will only come for a small amount of time.  It is up to us to make sure that we have enough volunteers and helpers to make the weekend a success. 

Start sending out the sponsorship letter straight away and see what we get back.  The cut off should be in two weeks from today as we will need 3 to 4 weeks to get the shirts designed & printed.  As of next week we only have 8 weeks to go until the event so we will need to get cracking. 

After next week, and the meeting Thursday meeting on the 28th of March, please block of the next 4 Wednesday nights for planning and co-ordinating the Paniyiri.  Obviously on the weekend of the event due to my music work commitments, I will be very limited in my availability, but, I will help with as much of the organising and preparation work as I can prior to the event to ensure we all know what we are doing on the day, who is responsible for tasks and that we have adequate resources to guarantee success. To do this, I will need a couple of people during the Paniyiri to be organisers or co-ordinators to ensure smooth work flow and trouble shoot as we need it.  At our next meeting, we will need to appoint a couple of committee members to take a lead role and have responsibility for the running of the stall over the weekend.

Other things to think about are set up on Friday afternoon, pack up on Sunday night, transport of our equipment on Sunday night and Tas will need assistance in transporting, cleaning and storing the equipment.  Speaking to a few people, most of the stalls have packed up by around 8:30pm as after 6:00 on Sunday night we will either be sold out of food or people won’t be eating.

As discussed, we will also need people responsible for money collection and storage and someone keeping an eye on our stock levels of products.  I will be sending a lot of correspondence via emails as things come up so this will reduce the amount of time we will need to spend in meetings talking about small things.  Attached is an idea of what was previously rented with prices by the Pankoakos Association.  I will also forward the shirt quote.  If George Kosmidis doesn’t have access to emails, is anyone able to print this and hand it to him so that he is also in the loop.  That would be great. 

If anything else comes up you want to add, please send it through and remember to hit “REPLY ALL” so that we are all able to see the communication. 

Looking forward to it. 

Thanks  Nick 

           Hi Nick

           A full colour sublimated print on a plain white t shirt will cost .........$15.00 + gst

           A full colour sublimated print on a plain white polo shirt will cost....$20.00 + gst

           ( front club logo and back sponsors logo's )

           Kind regards

           Nummy 

           OZWEAR PTY LTD

           4B-38 Kingston Rd
          (cnr Ferguson St)
          Underwood Qld 4119
          07 38412240
          07 38412250
          0415647726

“ Greeks, Greek Australians, and all friends of Greeks.  We need your help!!  Please click on this link and vote “YES” to Macedonia being Hellenic.  For those of you that aren’t aware, Hellenic means “Greek”.  This is the only way to vote.  Your vote is anonymous and it counts towards confirming Greek history.  History will be made again when we overwhelming relay the truth about the origins of Macedonia.  Every vote counts.  Without your help, the association between Greece and Macedonia will not be recognised by the U.S. Government and eventually the United Nations.”  

http://www.topix.com/forum/world/macedonia/TAAAAFN23PMGMJ147

I have drafted the above information.  Please read below and let me know what your thoughts are. 

Pan Macs,

Just so you know, I was given an email which has come from a professor in Greece H.M. Moutsopoulos  regarding a serious situation which has arisen in the U.S. by the U.S. Skorpians.  They have created a site and voted against Greece having any association with Macedonia.  The U.S. government has asked for a vote to decide on whether or not to call FYROM, Macedonia and recognise it as an independent nation. 

Eventually, this will lead to the United Nations taking them on as a nation, and the on flow would be catastrophic to Greek history.  This will have a global effect and at every international representation (Olympics, United Nations, Global Summits ect), the Skorpians will claim Macedonia as their country. 

I have drafted the above message, but, will need your help to make it easier to understand.  The first place I will post it is on our Facebook site, mine, and then ask everyone to share it and link it and post it to get the message across.  I will then co-ordinate with the other Pan Macs across Australia and ask them to do the same thing.  It is very simple, all we need are “yes” votes.  I am still of two minds whether or not to include the U.S. Government information, as in Australia, it may not matter.  Let me know your suggestions. 

There are 4.5 million Skorpians and they have managed to get 18,457 no votes.  There are 11 million Greeks in Greece alone and about 10 million outside of Greece.  We outnumber them 5 to 1 and yet the Greeks in Greece and outside of Greece have hardly made an impact.  This is an awareness campaign.  You can vote every 24hours. 

Firstly, I would recommend that you click on the link and see for yourselves, then secondly, let me know if you would like to amend my draft before this goes national.  I will also organise support from other Associations and may even get it printed on our shirts for the Paniyiri.  It is not about having a political agenda, but, making people aware of our plight.

Your thoughts on this are important to me and to the Association.  Guys, this is why we are all here.  To make a difference.  This is a way we can all help. 

Once we decide on a course of action, spread the word to everyone.  Send to everyone on emails, facebook, twitter, and everywhere else we can get exposure. 

I have a copy of the email, however, it is in Greek and most people would find it a struggle to interpret.  Happy to scan it and send it to you before we proceed. 

I won’t do anything unless we all agree and we have something simple and solid to send out. 

Thank you and I look forward to seeing what your thoughts are. 

Nick