EWI New Member's Event Recap

Well, after looking over my blog I realized that I made the egrigious error of not commenting on the New Member's Gala.

Every month I try to put together a new member mixer to give other people the opportunity to come meet the group and see if it is something they would like to be a part of. Thus far the events have had modest turn-outs, usually around 5 new members. Well, this month the response was tremendous. My thread got so many hits on seriouseats.com that it was featured on the home page of Eater. The responses kept rolling in, in fact they are still trickling in! My list of yes's, no's and maybe's kept growing. In total I had almost 100 responses, 58 of which ended-up rsvping for the event. It got to the point where I dreaded opening my email. I was somewhat terrified!

Where could we possible have an event of this size? I thought about contacting the James Beard Foundation about borrowing a space, but then I realized that I worked in a potential location already. I asked The Boss if I could use our office for "a little meeting of my culinary club", she agreed.

By the end of the week I had submitted all fifty-some-odd names to security and sent out the final instructions to the group. The magnitude of the response made me realize how special this group of mine is and how many people are out there in New York, seaking connections with people who share their special passion. The core members were a bit concerned about growing at such a rapid pace, not wanting the group to become impersonal. We scheduled a core members meeting for the following Tuesday to discuss.

As the event appoached, my nerves were on fire. I was so nervous! I have never conducted an event of this magnitude by myself.

I prepared a dish of stuffed mushrooms-bacon, cheese, marsala wine,which were fabulous, gathered two bottles of wine and ran out the door with my heart beating a mile a minute. I was flustered and finally stumbled into a cab. I arrived, checked in with security and headed up to the office. Upon walking into the office I saw a light had been left on, then someone came around the corner. I nearly had a heart attack! My coworker was there working overtime, after I composed myself, I invited her to join the party. One of my dear group members arrived shortly and helped me set-up.

I arranged food in the conference room, overlooking the east side of Manhattan, and set-up the bar in the reception area. Then they began to arrive. Thirty people came in all. I greeted and mingled and drank and drank and drank! I met an amazing group of people and five hours later stumbled home with a few of them in tow. They were so enthusiastic, and they liked me, they really liked me!

I added 20 names to our permanent roster, sadly one of them requested to be removed as she already had a club of her own which conflicted with our events (I am such a pussy, this really bummed me out!).

We are off and running again! We will mix and come together and some will become core members as well. The group has decided to stop the monthly new member events until we see how it goes at our current size. I agree. Tonight is our first event since the mixer, an Afghani tasting in Kips Bay. I am already scheming on a Tamale Demo event for next weekend with E. demonstraiting and one of our new members SY hosting, I'll discuss it with them tonight. Ah, the Great Equalizer does it again! Who knew that bringing people together could be as easy as offering a place to meet.

Oh, and I still am going to talk to the James Beard House, I happen to be going to another event there on Wednesday. Who knows, maybe they have a soft spot for young broke culinarians!