The Bay Area Country Dance Society Website

	BACDS Fall Ball "Dancing on Water" November 17, 2012

Call for volunteers:

The Fall Ball is a community dance.  What makes it work is the donated time, energy, and efforts of members of the dance community who help create the ball each year.  We welcome volunteers and have many different kinds of tasks with which can help.  Some tasks occur before the Ball; others the day of, during, or after the Ball.  Here are just a few of the them.

• Door and Welcome greeters
• Servers of water and punch during breaks
• Decorations preparation and setup
• Hall cleanup
• Kitchen cleanup
• Sound setup
• Food preparation and contributions to the after-ball potluck
• Name tag preparation
• Help out at the mailing party for our flyer
• Help with supplies
• Dust mop the floor between workshop and the ball

The Potluck - A Message from the Fall Ball Foodmeister:

Good potluck items are those which can be picked up and eaten easily.  Finger foods, and salads or things that aren't too messy are great.

GOOD finger food items include California Roll-type sushi (vegetarian), finger sandwiches, quiches, fruit such as grapes, mini-bananas, apples, pears, kumquats, etc., rolls, corn bread, chips, dips & salsas, baked tofu, tabouli, hummus, cheeses, crackers, salads (onion-free--we will be dancing closely with each other!) and cookies, cakes and brownies.

ALWAYS leave cakes and brownies unsliced, so that the kitchen staff can make them uniform in size, since several people usually bring them. Wheat-free items are always appreciated, as are low fat and sugar-free items.

Crudités such as broccoli, cauliflower or asparagus should be steamed slightly before bringing, to take the gassy edge off from them. Everyone will appreciate that.

Vegetarian food is a good common denominator, since everyone can eat it, and there are so many delicious and inexpensive vegetarian foods. Face it, cookies are vegetarian.

Lasagna-type foods, including spanikopita, are good, because they can be re-heated and served warm. Historically, warm foods get eaten up completely, so if you don't want to take home a bunch of leftovers, bring something warm and delicious. Contact me for more ideas on this.

BAD potluck items include soups (which require bowls and spoons), burritos, Sloppy Joe's, pizza (which gets cold too quickly & doesn't reheat well) Chinese food (gets cold, and the grease becomes painfully evident, and wilts upon reheating), anything with RAW garlic or onions.

Fish-sushi is dangerous at a pot luck; fish spoils very easily, and unless one obtains freshly-caught fish and makes the sushi themselves that afternoon, and refrigerates it during transport, the health risk is a little high for me to serve late at night to a bunch of fatigued dancers.  California rolls are the best alternative.

See you there!