ISM - I totally understand where you're coming from on the group kitchen thing. How about we consider that for the future? The big reason being that we'd have to dedicate a whole site to it, plus separate and haul everything back to the bear boxes at every site, all the time.
The communal thing works best at a group campsite. At those, the bear boxes are usually right next to each other, and there's a very large central firepit as well which can easily seat 20+ people around it which also accommodates larger "bonfires".
But, since we are a group divided into 5 sites, it is much easier to just plan with our sitemates, but still party all together.
No matter what, we're going to have fun. And that's going to be most important.
