Appreciation Banquet

Appreciation Banquet, also often referred to as Appreciation Dinner or Graduate Banquet, is a semi-formal dinner that commemorates graduating officers and members for their efforts with the UCSD Tzu Ching chapter. The event traditionally has a semi-formal dress code; thus, the dinner normally takes place at a restaurant with a formal atmosphere. Along with dinner, the event can also include the presentation of gifts, speeches, toasts, and other activities for the graduates.

Time/Duration
The scheduled meet-up time for Appreciation Banquet is usually somewhere between 5:30PM and 6:30PM on a Friday night, about an hour before the reservation time in order to give attendees enough time to get together, take pictures, and arrange rides. Start time depends on a variety of factors, such as attendees' class and work schedules, restaurants' available reservation times, and the group's desired end time for the event. This means that in the early stages of planning an Appreciation Banquet, it is a top priority to get attendees' opinions and finalize the date and time of the dinner before anything else. Organizers should use any means of polling the attendees (such as using a Doodle poll) to manage this ASAP, preferably no later than two to three weeks before the expected date of the event.

Appreciation Banquets typically last about three hours. This roughly takes into account the following items: arranging seating, ordering food (if meals were not pre-ordered), waiting for food to be cooked, other event activities such as presenting gifts to the graduates, collecting money from everyone for the bill, and boxing leftovers.

Location
If holding the event at a public restaurant, Appreciation Banquet often takes place at restaurants with semi-formal or formal dress codes. Larger restaurants and/or restaurants with private rooms (that do not require reservation fees) are ideal for this event, as the attendance is usually around 25-40 people.

Vegetarian options
Restaurants with plenty of vegetarian/vegan options are encouraged. However, it is of current opinion that attendees of Appreciation Banquet are welcome to order meat dishes, and are simply encouraged to order vegetarian. This stems from the idea that Tzu Ching is not a club that forces attendees of its volunteer events to adhere to its principles and beliefs, but rather simply shows members the merits of adhering to said principles and beliefs. The fact that the dinner is not attended in Tzu Ching uniform also allows for officers who are typically expected to adhere to the Ten Precepts and other Tzu Chi values at volunteer events to partake in non-vegetarian meals.

Past Locations

 * 2014 - Leucadia Pizzeria & Italian Restaurant
 * 7748 Regents Rd., San Diego, CA 92122
 * (858) 597-2222


 * 2013 - Cafe Milano
 * 711 Pearl St, San Diego, CA 92037
 * (858) 454-3806
 * 2012 - Leucadia Pizzeria & Italian Restaurant
 * 7748 Regents Rd., San Diego, CA 92122
 * (858) 597-2222
 * 2011 - Tzu Chi San Diego Service Center

Graduate Gifts

 * 2014 - Personalized photo collages turned into puzzles


 * 2013 - Personalized Stuffed Tzu Ching Bears


 * 2012 - Picture frames with graduate collages


 * 2011 - Senior Video