Dinner with 12 Broncos

• Dinners usually last two to three hours.
• Remember to ask your guests to check in so that you can provide an attendance list to the Alumni Association after your dinner.
• Do you have a digital camera? If so, please take pictures and e-mail them to laurenhamilton@boisestate.edu. Also share on social media using the hashtags #BoiseState and #D12Broncos.
• Your guests will come dressed in a wide range of attire, from “business casual” to “Bronco wear.”
• Most hosts hold a short “social hour” before dinner. This enables guests to meet one another while waiting for everyone to arrive. Beverages and hors d’oeuvres (cheese and crackers, vegetable dip, etc.) can be served.
• Although you may prepare a gourmet meal if you choose, a simple, buffet-style dinner will be equally appreciated. Even ordering pizza for the group will provide these students with a memorable evening.
• Don’t worry if you don’t have a table large enough to accommodate your guests. At many dinners, guests sit on chairs in the living room and balance their plates on their laps.

But I live too far away.

Local hosts must live within a 30-minute drive from Boise State, but there is another option. Consider co-hosting a dinner at another person’s home. Or go to a restaurant. Dinner organizers at Boise State will help match co-hosts with hosts. Then the co-hosts decide how to share all aspects of the preparation, serving, cleanup and costs of the meal.

But my house is too small.

Can’t accommodate 12? How about 6? You can choose how many people you’d like at your dinner, depending on the size of your home and the style of your dinner.

But I can’t/don’t like to cook.

Students are just happy with food and great company.  Some hosts create delicious homemade meals, while others choose to pick up party platters. If cooking isn’t your forté, try a take-out theme. There’s really only one requirement – you should be able to accommodate vegetarians. Just make sure to have a few dishes that aren’t “meat lovers” only.

But I work late.

We’ve provided a weekday and weekend option to accomidate most schedules and your dinner can begin at any time. While 6 p.m. is the “default” start time, you may choose to begin earlier or later, keeping in mind that a typical dinner will last two to three hours.

But I don’t have a lot of time.

To best accommodate your schedule, we plan dinners every year — and you can choose the time of your dinner. If a late time works, great. If an earlier dinner works, great too! Students would just love to meet you. Most planning is taken care of by staff and students. We figure out where, when and who goes – you simply have to say what you want and then check for RSVPs. Easy, right?

While Dinner with 12 Broncos is a theme on its own, many alumni are taking their dinners one step further, giving a second theme to the gathering of Boise State students, alumni and professors.

The annual dinners give Broncos of every generation the chance to unite for a fantastic dinner, whether home-cooked or picked up at a local store. (Not being able to cook isn’t an excuse!) As some dinner hosts have found, theme dinners can help young Broncos feel more relaxed while meeting alumni and faculty in an informal setting.

There are several ways to spin a themed dinner. General themes, ethnic food themes and career interest themes are the most common takes on the dinner

“Two Truths and One Lie”
Each person takes a turn at introducing him/herself and then tells the rest of the guests three “facts” about themselves. Two of them are true and the third is a lie. The guests have to guess which “fact” is a lie.
Example
Hi, my name is Buster Bronco and…

• I’ve sang the Boise State fight song while standing in the middle of the Blue.
• I’ve met President Obama.
• I’ve never received a parking ticket on campus.

The guests unanimously guess correctly that the parking ticket scenario MUST be the lie. No one has ever studied or worked on campus and escaped the long arm of the parking office!

“I Want to Know”
Ask each guest to write down a question that they would like someone else to answer. The questions should be the type that would provide insight about an individual’s personality, tastes, values, etc. The host collects the questions and puts them in a container that is passed around the room. Then, as each guest introduces him/herself, s/he pulls a question out of the container that s/he has to answer.
Example

• When and why did you decide that you wanted to attend Boise State?
• What was your most memorable Boise State experience?
• Have you ever had a brush with a celebrity?
• Have you ever been on TV?
• If you could go back in time and make one decision differently, what would it be?
• If you could have lunch with anybody, living or dead, real or imaginary, who would it be?
• If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you do?

“Celebrity”
This game can be played after dinner if time allows. Using scraps of paper, each individual writes down the names of 10-15 well-known figures. The assortment of names is put in a container.

The group is then divided into two teams. The first team selects one of their members to take a turn. S/he picks a piece of paper out of the container and tries to make his/her teammates guess the identity of the person whose name is on the paper. When his/her teammates have guessed correctly, s/he picks another piece of paper, describes the person, the other teammates make their guesses, and the process continues until a minute has elapsed.

At that point, the number of people that have been identified by the team equals the number of points the team earns. The second team then selects a teammate to take his/her turn, until all the players on both teams have had one time “at bat.” The team with the most points at the end is the winner.