Board & Vellum Company Retreat 2017 – Team pointing at the camera.

Firm Culture

B&V Retreat 2017: Recap and a Competition-Winning Recipe

For the 2017 B&V Company Strategic Planning Retreat, we packed up and hauled off to camp at Rasar State Park. Even through sickness and rain, we not only set out our 5 and 10-year goals, but we wrapped up the day with an Iron Chef competition. And bonus, we’re sharing one of the winning recipes with you!

Jeff Pelletier

June 20, 2017

Hands down, my favorite part of each year at Board & Vellum is when we escape for the weekend, heading out of town for the company retreat. This usually involves renting a cabin and hashing out our goals for the next year, but in the last 12 months, we outgrew the amazing home we stayed in last time around! So, I took a chance and booked us a group camp site at Rasar State Park in Concrete, Washington. While the side story of how I discovered Rasar State Park involves an amazingly horrific tale of arriving at North Cascades National Park at 11:30pm with a car full of screaming kids, whining dogs, two exhausted dads, no site reservation, no cell service, and absolutely no campsites available – the reality is that it is a beautiful campground, even if it was originally found as a second choice. So, with reservations booked nine months in advance, we set out to plan the agenda for the 2017 Board & Vellum Strategic Planning Retreat.

Back up for a minute. I may have been born on the East Coast, but I’ve been living in Seattle since 2001. I know the Northwest. Somehow, though, I decided to book a campsite west of the Cascades in June. Summer, as we all know, doesn’t start until July 5th. So, obviously, rain appeared in the forecast and it looked horrific.

I’ll add, that in preparation for the trip I decided to get hit by wicked allergies, which turned into a sinus infection. The sinus infection decided it needed to achieve more in life, and so, therefore, decided to evolve into bronchitis.

Then, of course, I got pneumonia. A day before I was to lead our company retreat. In the rain. While camping. We all kept saying, “What could go wrong?”

Turns out, when you have an awesome group of people who are driven by some sort of unreal passion, the answer is, “Actually, not much at all.” Despite it all, we managed to set our 5 and 10-year goals, and have an awesome time together. For most of the time, the rain held off, our group campground was well-suited for large and small group activities, and everyone stayed dry (enough). I even managed to summon some sort of otherworldly energy to push forward and stay alert the whole weekend. (Although, I’ve been paying for it this week. I'm currently writing this from my house where I’ve quarantined myself as the cough has come back in an epic way.)

Board & Vellum Company Retreat 2017 – Company Group Photo Montage — **board_and_vellum_retreat_2017_recap-group_photos**

I mean, we can take a serious photo if we have to…

What, you may ask, are our 5 and 10 year goals? Just like every year, we’ll be wrapping them up and putting them in our “painted picture,” letting the world know what we’re working on. They’re not ready yet (see Exhibit A: Pneumonia), but I can say that we’re really excited by what we want to do. Mainly, however, we want to keep refining our client experience to be the best in the industry, regardless of city or state. We don’t want to outgrow the smaller projects, but we want to do them with the absolute best customer experience. We all feel passionate about the combination of great design with a process that delights.

Business aside, a true highlight of the retreat was our annual Iron Chef contest. While we may have a flat structure with a lack of hierarchy, we are, nonetheless, a company composed of highly competitive designers. Grouped into our three studios, the teams this year BROUGHT IT. There was singing, dancing, costumes, decorations, crazy cocktails, back-stabbing, cheating, and even a man with questionably short jorts. While some of those are best left to the imagination, some of the recipes are worth sharing. Until we get to corralling our painted picture, you can whet your appetite (groan) with my favorite bite of the retreat, the B&V greens, which won for my favorite bite:

B&V Greens

Ingredients:

2-3 bunches of greens
8 ounces of European bacon
1 medium onion, diced
1 tablespoon garlic, pressed
1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
2-3 tablespoons brown sugar
¼ cup apple-cider vinegar
½ cup chicken stock (add more if required)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

Prep the Greens: Rinse off the dirt, rip off the stems, tear up the leaves, spin off all the water.
Cook & Combine: Cook the bacon until browned. Add and saute onion, garlic, pepper flakes. Add sugar, vinegar, and chicken stock. Heat to boil, then add the greens. Stir and work around until the greens settle down (add more stock if necessary).
Finalize: Reduce heat to low and stir occasionally for about 15 minutes, until greens reach desired tenderness. Season with flake salt and freshy ground pepper. Present and eat!

Even with us all being a little damp from the rain, you know us – we all had a fantastic time anyway! Check out are a few of the (tamer) pictures below.