wild idea r.e. clean-up

[Caro]

This is Carolyn. I had a wild idea on my way home last night
regarding clean-up, which I offer up in the hope of sparking our
creative thinking on the topic:

1. Ask people to bring a bowl from home, which they will take home
and wash afterwards.
PURPOSE: less dishes to wash

2. Have a "bowl contest" at each table (the bowl contest is described
below)
PURPOSE: to make bringing a bowl from home memorable so that
people will remember to bring their bowls

3. Based on the results of the bowl contest, arbitrarily select one
person at each table to be on the cleanup crew (e.g., the person
sitting to the right of the bowl contest winner)
PURPOSE: to construct an on-the-spot rotating clean-up crew
comprised of one person from each table


The Bowl Contest:

Put a bunch of selection criteria into a hat such as:
- The most beautiful bowl
- The most pedestrian bowl
- The bowl with the most interesting story
- The shiniest bowl
- The best-sounding (most musical) bowl
etc.

At random, assign a different criteria to each table.

The people eating at that table select the bowl at the table that best
meets the selection criteria.


Potential problems:

Everyone wants to rinse their bowl before taking it home which leads
to a major kitchen crunch

No one wants to be the crew coordinator so cleanup is disorganized and
incomplete

The bowl contest takes up too much time and the event ends even later,
which makes everyone (especially the cleanup crew) grumpy

Someone has a knack for bringing winning bowls and over time it
becomes clear that this person will never end up on the cleanup crew
(until the night that the M.C. announces that the people who brought
the winning bowls are the cleanup crew that night!)

Everybody's creativity goes into adding new selection criteria for the
bowl contest instead of coming up with minigrant proposals