Souvenirs for project well done?

March 21, 2009 9:15 PM

Team appreciation / project mementos: just got done with a 6 month long project involving a team of about 30 people. I have somewhere in the range of 10k to 15k to spend on an outing and (suggested by mgmt) some kind of memento. What should I get?

I've got the outing planned (day at local pub / mini golf / movie theater / pool hall / restaurant) and I've read this and this. It was suggested by my manager that I procure something for every member of the team, some kind of trinket or memento to remember the project by but I don't want something completely lame. Industry: software.

posted by ajohnson1200 to work & money (20 comments total)

I'd just blow it all on a nice dinner with wine etc. It's something that most folks would not do for themselves, and it's fun.
posted by H. Roark at 9:55 PM on March 21

I once was a part of a project and we all received a set of Bose Quiet Comfort noise cancellation headphones as a gift. I thought that was pretty cool and it would work with your industry (coders listening to music and all). These weren't retain boxed; they were brown boxed-- almost like they were OEM from Bose directly-- so they might've gotten a good deal on a bulk purchase.
posted by sharkfu at 9:57 PM on March 21

Get the new iPod shuffle for everybody. Let the pointy heads have it engraved if they must.
posted by crazycanuck at 10:05 PM on March 21

To reflect the national mood and think outside the box, how about doing something charitable and participatory?

It'd have to be a politically and religiously neutral thing like Habitat for Humanity or Toys for Tots or a soup kitchen or something for children with cancer. And of course it would be entirely voluntary. You could give them the choice - have an iPod shuffle or participate in contributing to X. It'd have to be somewhat anonymous so there's no peer pressure.

Putting the cash towards getting together a team for a charity run could build team spirit in a transformative way. Has anyone seen this concept succeed in a workplace?
posted by ebellicosa at 10:22 PM on March 21 [1 favorite]

Oh, and the memento would be a T-shirt commemorating the group effort on something they can all be proud of and feel good about.
posted by ebellicosa at 10:23 PM on March 21

That's $333-500 per person, so definitely do something classier than an iPod shuffle. Also, most people that want iPods, have iPods (especially people working in technology), so that wouldn't really be all that exciting to receive. Nice headphones is a pretty good idea.

Audiocubes.com has some neat gadget-y stuff that would be cool to get, but may or may not work for your people (I personally love the idea of the Gun Oclock Alarm Clock). You didn't put down how much you're spending on the day out, but it doesn't look like it could be more than $150 each.

Crew jackets like they make for big Hollywood movies might be nice, plus they have the added bonus of promoting the product.

Spend every dime of that $15,000 on them. It's relatively cheap way to keep them happy with your company. Cheaping out and spending as little as possible is noticed and resented.
posted by paperzach at 10:37 PM on March 21

I'm all for charity, but I would be SO PISSED if my company gave money away and told me that they did it on my account.

A day outing to volunteer would be a great company bonding event though. Just do it on the weekend.
posted by paperzach at 10:40 PM on March 21

Vegas?
posted by bardic at 10:51 PM on March 21

I'm just curious - amidst the current furor over AIG bonuses, would y'all feel a bit awkward about a corporate-sponsored fancy outing or fancy gadget? How about you feel about a low-key picnic and the rest of the funds disbursed equally in cash-value cards?
posted by metaseeker at 12:04 AM on March 22 [1 favorite]

You say you're in the software industry. I'm going to assume that a hefty portion of your 30 team members are coders.

Buy everyone a Chumby. If you need to, have your company's name, project name, what-have-you embroidered on each Chumby.
posted by ASM at 12:05 AM on March 22

Avoid clothing. It seems rarely to fit women in the group.

Whatever it is, do it on a weekday instead of a weekend--I'd be pissed to have to give up a weekend day as some sort of work congratulations. If it is a weekend, make sure to include family.

But you're asking for gift ideas. How about a Wii? Or Kindle?
posted by bluedaisy at 12:14 AM on March 22

I second Kindles. Not a single person I have shown mine to has not expressed envy. There is tons of free reading material available for it, not to mention it could be used to read technical books and work documents. If you do this, use an amazon referrer, the referrer rate on the Kindle is apparently 10%.
posted by miscbuff at 1:06 AM on March 22

Project completion and conference attendance gifts that I've received that I liked, in descending order of how much I liked them on a scale of 100:

100. A large bonus.
99. A small bonus.
51. A nice watch with the corporate logo on it. (I wore this watch for about 5 years as my everyday watch.)
50. A thumb drive with the corporate logo on it. (I still use this.)
50. A really nice pen and pencil set with the corporate logo on it. (Mine was stolen a couple of days later, and I was actually disappointed.)
50. A gift card for a book store. (I like bookstores. And books. And gift cards.)
30. A cheap watch with the corporate logo on it (This broke nearly immediately, but at the time I was given it, I thought 'Oh, nice a watch. And one I can imagine wearing.')
15. Movie Gift certificates. (I like movies, but these were passed for movies and popcorn for 2 people and I usually go alone.)
10. A t-shirt with the corporate log on it. (Practical, but having to tell a co-worker that I wear a Men's XXXL, in front of dozens of other co-workers is not fun.)
1. Cheap-assed portable mice for our laptops. (The thought here was good, but the product itself was such absolute crap that it wasn't worth the tiny amount of money they spent on it.)
-1. A little faux-crystal statue of an inukshuk with project information on it. Not heavy enough for a paperweight, not useful for anything else.
-25. A small framed poster / certificate for our cubicle walls.
-50. A little medallion thingy that couldn't be hung or seen if set flat, so they all ended up in our desk drawers getting in the way until such time as we had the nerve to just throw them out.
-99. A "livestrong" like bracelet with the corporate logo on it. Because, uh, yeah, I'm gonna go around with that on my wrist. Idiots.
-100. A giant, framed poster with news stories about the project, that was so large that it couldn't possibly be hung in the cubicles of the 95% of the people who worked on the project who had cubicles and thus was only ever displayed by the managers in their actual offices, who are obviously the ones who dreamed up the bog stupid idea in the first place without even considering how insulting it would be for the peons to get as a token of their hard work, a reminder that the company doesn't value them enough to offer them a real place to work. And the frames were just cheap and had the poster stapled in place so you couldn't reuse the frame for anything more interesting. And they are so giant that throwing them away is an actual pain in the ass and that fucking poster is still in my laundry room where it periodically gets in the way, even though I haven't even worked at that company for 3 years, because I don't know what else to do with it.

The good vs. bad dividing line, you might notice, falls squarely on "practical uses outside of being a reminder of this project".

It sounds like your budget encompasses both the outing and the gift. How much of your budget is left over after the outing is paid for? A lot of the suggestions people are offering are pretty expensive, and very cool, but if you've got to pay for your day out, as well as the gift out of that budget, your gift is going to have to get a lot smaller.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:58 AM on March 22

Good lord, just give the people involved the cash and let them buy their own mementos. If you must give them an actual object, how about a nice pen with which they can endorse the bonus check.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 8:15 AM on March 22 [1 favorite]

Don't get technical people headphones or ipods; I am pretty sure at least 80% of them have their own very nice headphones/ipods. That's like saying get them an netbook as if they have no computer or wouldn't be the type to spend a whole lot on a nicer one/one that exactly suits their needs.

I like the pen and bonus idea; no need to waste money on stuff they probably already have or could never use when you could give em cash...
posted by shownomercy at 9:41 AM on March 22

The project appreciation gift I liked most was a gift certificate to a nice local restaurant. The GC was enough for dinner and drinks for 2 people and I really appreciated it because it was something I would actually use and enjoy with my SO. My desk is littered with lucite plaques and things like that; they're okay -- and really, it's nice to get anything at all -- but that sort of stuff with the company logo (or project name or whatever) is kind of boring (IMO).

Anyway, good luck deciding. It's really nice that you're doing this for your team.
posted by Maisie at 10:17 AM on March 22

A nice pair of headphones is the best idea I've seen in this thread. Yes, I already have a nice pair of headphones, but I would love a second pair so I wouldn't have to keep hauling them around with me and worrying about crunching them/etc in my bag. And in the $300-$400 range you can probably get a pair of headphones that's nicer than most people on your team have.

Also, ask them all what their favorite booze is & buy them a bottle - it's cheap in comparison, but getting a bottle of whatever you like best is just so much better than buying it with your own money (booze guilt is a terrible thing).
posted by devilsbrigade at 11:42 AM on March 22

No disrespect to devilsbrigade, but nix the booze idea--with a crew of 30 you definitely have some non-drinkers and/or recovering alcoholics, so no good (and creates liability issues). $10-15k isn't all that much money for an outing AND a memento . . . You're going to have to cheap out on one of the two . . . if it were me I'd cheap out on the outing on a workday (which makes up for the frugality) and go high-end on the watch/tchotcke/etc.).
posted by eggman at 2:19 PM on March 22

Only reason I suggested the shuffle is because it is new and people probably haven't run out to get the latest and greatest in the last month. Novel gadgets are usually a good bet.
posted by crazycanuck at 3:20 PM on March 22

Thanks for all the great ideas. Budget got cut quite a bit but we ended up going out to the local brewpub / mini golf (Edgefield for those of you in PDX) for the day, golfing, drinking, smoking cigars BUT the highlight was the five Segways we rented, total cost (IIRC) for the Segways for the day was $900. Super fun, easy to get up and running on them, novelty that everyone enjoyed.

AJ
posted by ajohnson1200 at 8:00 AM on July 14