ITS: The Gathering fosters an inclusive environment where Staff and Student Workers come together monthly in a supportive atmosphere. Through engaging activities and shared experiences, we cultivate lasting connections, promote teamwork, and enhance personal and professional development.
Feb 06
The Camel Betting Gathering – January 31st, 2025
Attendance: 11
Board Games Played
Video Games Played
Oct 26
The DREADful Gathering – October 25th, 2024
Attendance: 15
Activities
- Costume Contest
- Dread, the RPG
- The League of Extraordinary Zeroes
- Return to the Cabin in the Woods
- A Nightmare at Black Hollow
- The League of Extraordinary Zeroes
In celebration of Halloween this year, Charles Plemons and Josh Jenkins hosted two concurrent games of Dread, the horror RPG. Players took on the roles of various “losers” from popular fiction and fought for their lives in two unique and bloody horror scenarios!
Costume Contest
A huge thank you to everyone who wore costumes this year! The turnout was impressive!
Winners:
- Most Elaborate Costume
- Logan Stanfield as a Helldiver
- Funniest Costume
- Kayla Stout-Harmon as Jacob Harmon
- Best Budget Costume
- Trey Hunt as Elite eSports Gamer Trey
- Most Creative Costume
- Matt Colter as Comrade Revan
Sep 30
The Bean Farmer Gathering – September 27th, 2024
Attendance: 11
Party/Board Games Played
Video Games Played
Sep 01
The Kit-Kat Gathering – August 30th, 2024
Attendance: 15
Party/Board Games Played
Video Games Played
Activities
- The Kit-Kat Taste Test Challenge!
In celebration of the beginning of Fall ’24 and the new academic year, we decided to host yet another Taste Test Challenge – this time with Kit-Kats! Contestants were tasked with sampling and guessing the flavor profiles of 15 unique Kit-Kats, many from Japan (thanks, Masako!) In addition to scoring points for guessing (or nearly guessing) the correct flavors, players also participated in Kit-Kat themed trivia for bonus points, assigned individual rankings (see averages below!), and collaborated to generate the Official ITS Kit-Kit Flavor Tier List.
The Kit-Kat Flavor Hierarchy
- Strawberry – 7.08/10
- Dark Chocolate – 6.97/10
- Baskin Robbins “Love Potion” Ice Cream – 6.91/10
- Chestnut – 6.58/10
- Red & White (Milk & White Chocolate) – 5.91/10
- Chocolate Frosted Donut – 5.91/10
- Caramel – 5.7/10
- Matcha – 5.5/10
- Ghost Toast (Cinnamon Toast) – 5.16/10
- Birthday Cake – 5.12/10
- Milk Tea – 4.91/10
- Whole Wheat – 4.45/10
- Azuki Sandwich (Red Bean Paste) – 4.37/10
- Pink Lemonade – 3.9/10
- Chocolate Orange – 3.29/10
The Official Kit-Kat Tier List
In addition to providing personal ratings (averaged above), participants passionately argued their positions regarding where exactly each flavor belonged on a tier list…
The Winners!
Kayla took First Place with a score of 18!
Ronnie finished Second Place with a score of 16!
Dakota and Gabriella tied for Third Place with a score of 14!
Kayla received the coveted Kit-Kat Taste Test Champion Trophy along with two boxes of snacks and goodies from Japan. Ronnie received a single box of snacks and goodies from Japan, along with dinosaur cupcakes (Happy Birthday!) Dakota and Gabriella split a small container of 15-Flavor Crumbs gathered while dividing up and packaging over 300 Kit-Kats for the event!
Jul 30
The New Games Gathering – July 26th, 2024
Attendance: 14
Party/Board Games Played
Video Games Played
Jul 01
The ‘It’s Way Too Hot, Let’s Pokemon GO’ Gathering – June 29th, 2024
Attendance: 15
Activities
- Grilling
- Cornhole
- Pokemon GO: Mega Rayquaza Elite Raid Day
- Enduring the 95° Temperature
Apr 29
The Rock Band Gathering – April 26, 2024
Attendance: 16
Party/Board Games Played
Video Games Played
Apr 01
The 2nd Anniversary Gathering – March 29, 2024
Attendance: 14
Party/Board Games Played
Video Games Played
Activities
- Oreo Flavor Taste Test Challenge!
For the two-year anniversary event, we decided to host yet another taste test and contest, much like the Mike & Ike Taste Test from June 2022 and the International Potato Chip Taste Test from our 1-Year Anniversary. Planning for this event began in October 2023 when we started to accumulate and freeze seasonal Oreo flavors. In total we managed to gather 20 flavors, totaling over 40lbs!
The 13 participants sampled each Oreo in succession and had roughly one minute to guess the flavor of the Oreo. Additionally, Oreo trivia questions were sprinkled in to provide more point opportunities. At the halfway point most of the group went for a 15 minute walk to stave off the sugar-shakes.
Once the sugar had settled and all Oreos were sampled, a clear winner emerged: Congratulations to Joe, who scored a total of 17 out of 30 possible points! Joe took home an international Oreo snack prize box as well as the coveted OREO AFICIONADO trophy.
In addition to guessing the flavors, participants were also asked to rate each flavor on a scale of 0-10; with 0 being awful and 10 being a favorite flavor. The averaged results are compiled below:
The Oreo Flavor Hierarchy
- Dark Chocolate – 7.57/10
- Cinnamon Roll – 7.5/10
- Dirt Cake – 6.79/10
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie – 6.71/10
- Mint – 6.67/10
- Tiramisu – 6/10
- Chocolate – 5.79/10
- Lemon – 5.61/10
- Birthday Cake – 5/10
- Hot Cocoa – 5/10
- Vanilla & Caramel – 4.93/10
- Caramel Coconut – 4.62/10
- Toffee Crunch – 4.5/10
- Space Dunks – 4.5/10
- Vanilla & Raspberry – 4.31/10
- Black & White Cookie – 4.29/10
- Chocolate Brownie – 4.08/10
- Pumpkin Spice – 3.71/10
- Gluten Free Original – 3.46/10
- Chocolate Hazelnut – 1.57/10
