Project SPUD Special report

I just received photos of a Baked Potato vendor that worked a County fair in our area. These are excellent photos of what our customers expect, and I am thrilled to have these photos to present at our weekly project SPUD leadership meeting this evening.

This is no laughing matter. Helping a volunteer effort to sell baked potatoes requires top-notch intelligence that includes photos from competing potato baking vendors.

(Yeah right. After all, this is a volunteer project, although the photos are extremely helpful in planning to the Project SPUD leadership team).

If you can be a project manager, when ...

I have just recorded the project manager version of "IF" - Rudyard Kipling's famous poem. Take a few minutes to listen to this episode of "The Outsider's View" and see how you measure up to being a project manager when all around you are ....

Project SPUD Week 4

The kitchen crew coordinated, and held the supremely successful dry-run this past Sunday. We determined that we can bake a maximum of 90 jumbo potatoes in the ovens at a time. It takes 90 minutes to bake a batch of jumbo sized potatoes.

We also discovered that the toppings that we will offer to customers at the Wapping Community Fair, are totally delicious. (We elected to eat the sample potatoes and toppings after the dry-run). We also estimated the total amount of supplies that will be needed for the big event.

This week, we order the aprons and hats for volunteers.

The project is moving along nicely, with just over 2 weeks left until the big event. Progress to date is due to the enormous number of volunteer hours that have already been donated to this cause by good people stepping up and taking the lead on small tasks.

We still have open questions that we would like to have answers to. These seemingly simple answers have proven to be elusive so far.

1. How many potatoes have sold at similar events in the past? If we expect 20,000 fair goers, how many will purchase potatoes?
2. When will customers purchase them? At lunchtime on Saturday or on Saturday evening?
3. Which toppings have proven to be winners in the past?

Without these answers we are moving forward with our best estimates. If you have run a baked potato booth at a fair ground, please share your thoughts as a comment on this posting.

Only 2 months to go

Only 2 months to go before our trip to South Africa. We are looking forward to seeing the family after 3.5 years.

Project SPUD - Week 3.5

Wow!! Time is really flying now. In three days we have the dry-run for the booth. On Sunday at 3 PM we fire up the ovens and start the timer to see how long it will take to bake a sample of potatoes.

Then we will run them along the makeshift assembly line and add delicious toppings in our mock-up tent booth. After the dry-run we will adjust our plans and review the lessons learned to refine our schedule for the big event on Sept 11 - Sept 13 at Wapping Community Fair.

I am also glad to report that volunteers are signing up at a rapid pace and this project has all the indications of a monumental success.

Wish us luck as we cross the half-way mark of our community project.

Life Without Limbs. Get up, don't give up.

Take a few minutes to watch this inspirational video clip. Nothing I can say will enhance Nick's message.

Project SPUD Week 3

Time flies when you are having fun.

Last week, people volunteered to fill the remaining roles for our lead team, and now we have people in all of the chief positions. We have an marketing chief, cooking team chief, booth workers chief, treasurer, booth hospitality chief and between the chiefs all the manifold responsibilities are taken care of.

We identified the ingredients that we need to purchase and voted on the price list. Customers can purchase the "Naked potato", or add delicious toppings all the way up the food chain until they arrive at the loaded "SPUDnik".

We got prices for the utensils and and supplies needed to run a successful food booth at the Wapping Fair.

This week we are planning for the dry-run event on this coming Sunday where we will put our plans into practise and see how everything turns out. Our dry run will go all the way from baking a potato through the assembly line to a final product.

I am looking forward to the activities this week, and after Sunday we will be making final adjustments and getting ready to print our menus. Only a few weeks left now, until the big event on the weekend of 9/11 - 9/13/2009.

A place for eveything, and

A place for eveything, and everything in its place. Good housekeeping is appropriate for project administration .

Project SPUD Week 2

Ahh!! The early phases of a volunteer project.

This week we recruited three chiefs for our leadership team. We now have a treasurer and a hospitality hostess to welcome customers at our food booth at the Wapping Community fair. We also have a "Booth setup and break down chief" to erect the tent, transport all the equipment to the booth and then take it all down again after the fair.

I clarified some of the roles and responsibilities based on our meeting last week and the email exchanges among the team leaders this week. We found out that potatoes are graded in counts. A restaurant serves 80 to 90 count size potatoes. Larger potatoes are in the 50 to 60 count range. Who knew?

Tonight we will discuss the open issues at our lead team meeting:
1. Where will we find a chief cook and "booth worker team" chief? These are critical lead roles for our project to be successful.
2. Where are we going to get potatoes? What size of potatoes are needed?
3. Are we going to support a local charity with the profits from our food booth? I have come to learn that food booths are more profitable when they support, in part, a charitable cause outside of their own main cause.

Watch this space - more to come on project SPUD.

Experimentation. This is a test

Experimentation. This is a test message to facebook and my blog in parallel.

The Black Swan

I am currently listening to "The Black Swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

I have it on audio because I am an auditory learner and personal efficiency expert. Listening while walking on my treadmill allows me to exercise my brain and body at the same time. (Both need the exercise).

The Black Swan is a thought provoking book. I recommend that you pick up a copy, and add it to your personal library. It should come with a label "Warning: This book will stretch your mind".

I identify with the discussion about war unfolding in Lebanon, having watched history unfold in South Africa in the 1980's and the so called "free and fair" election in 1994. Writing about war looking back, and documenting history so that it sells books is very different from having lived through it, day by day.

I also identify with the value of having a personal library, including an "anti-library". I can't wait to tell my wife that great people keep unread books in their library.

5 Signs You're Not Cut Out to be a Project Manager

I was recently quoted in Project Management Planet "5 Signs you're not cut out to be a project manager ".

Take a peek, and become aware of the skills you need to learn to boost your career.

Project SPUD Week 1

We held the project kickoff meeting on 8/2/2009 at 9 AM. Our first task is to fill the roles of "Kitchen chief", "Booth setup chief", "Marketing chief", and so on.

We have created a structure for weekly meetings to ensure that we communicate frequently and build relationships within the team. We will be meeting at Wapping Church on Sunday evenings.

The project is off to a good start, with enthusiastic and knowledgeable leaders. Watch this space for further updates.