Other Tangents, The Business of Design

10 B&V’ers + Remote Cabin = 1 Surprisingly Productive Good Time

Ben summarized all the fun things these B&V'ers learned about themselves while taking a break over a couple of days at the annual Board & Vellum summer retreat.

Jeff wrote a pretty thorough recap of our office retreat and all the things we discussed and decided to initiate as part of Board & Vellum’s strategic plan, heading into the future. But, what is missing from that is a comprehensive run down of all the things we learned from each other, locked away in a remote cabin for 48 hours. Most of the staff is relatively new to the firm since the beginning of the year, so there was a lot to get caught up on.

(Clockwise, From Top Left...) Me, my uke, and bubbles; Ryan, Matt, & Brian share some spicy hummus; Bossman sets a good example; note: party poppers are a good way to unleash the happy hands.

The following is a collaborative survey of what we learned about each other:

• Jeff has a mini-van and he LOVES it! (It surprises him too but this is perhaps because it isn't his daily driver.)
• Despite being junk food, Jeff is obsessed with the veggie burrito at Taco Bell (conveniently located in Monroe, WA – he looked it up). We learned it is completely vegan if you leave out the cheese and sour cream. Which might be true...
• Matt and Ryan were patient to wait for us at the cabin without any cold beer – the cooler was stowed in the mini-van at the last minute.
• Everyone who works at Board & Vellum is an amazing cook. Seriously.
• Jesslyn makes a damn good chicken adobo, which celebrates her Filipino heritage. Similarly, Alev makes an amazing tabbouleh which caters to her Turkish upbringing. Matt makes super delicious tacos with his special shell frying regime which likely has nothing to do with any kind of Mexican ancestry. (Actually, further discussion on the matter resulted in speculation that Matt is actually a Mexican woman trapped in a man's body. Stranger things have happened.)
• Brian owns a pair of white Crocs. We have been trying not to hold this against him.
• Anne doesn’t like the sound of her voice, even though I could listen to it all day.
• Everyone has shocking stories about their past experiences working at other firms. (We played “Never-Have-I-Ever”, work version) It was a really good overview of what-not-to-do, while planning for our firm’s future.
• Alev seems really sweet, until you put her in front of a Foosball table. Jeff is also insanely competitive in front of the Foosball table. This came to the surprise of no one.
• Cheryl and I are both fans of Janelle Monae. But Jesslyn can’t stop talking about Beyonce.
• Ryan attended wilderness leadership training, which is good because Jeff got stuck crossing the river over a log bridge and needed to be rescued.
• Anne can’t eat any sushi, which makes me really sad.
• Jeff’s husband Chris makes an excellent Manhattan.
• Related: Four bottles of bourbon were not enough.
• Brian is really good at shuffling cards. This was helpful since, apparently, we’re all compulsive gamblers.
• Related: Matt is no fun when it comes to gambling, which might have something to do with having grown up in Vegas.
• Anne likes day drinking on a Saturday almost as much as I do.
• Robert can improvise a whole lotta breakfast scramble out of nothing.
• Brian’s wife, Abby, can sleep through ANYTHING. Or was a really good sport about it.
• Too many veggie burritos from Taco Bell do not make for happy digestion.
• Jesslyn can do the “single leg instability pumps” in any condition.
• Alev says that I am super photogenic and can spend hours in front of the camera. (What she doesn’t know is that I was a child model.)
• Everyone is exceptional at putting up with my ukulele playing.
• We can fit a lot of us in a single hot tub.
• Cheryl doesn't know why we don’t have a taco-making competition on a weekly basis in our office. In fact, that’s a really good point, Cheryl.
• Robert was surprised by how easy it is to startle Jeff, who unleashed the happy hands in addition to some screaming. “I never knew that was a naturally occurring phenomenon,” he said.
• Four people in a car, homeward bound, can agree to stop at Dairy Queen. However, they each chose different toppings.



(Clockwise, From Top Left...) Tabbouleh, Brussels, adobo, delicious; Matt demonstrates his taco shell frying technique, Foosball for the win!