Volunteer/Staff feedback '08

[Shi_Musouka]

My issue with Access Control was just stupid seriously...
I was walking on the second floor through the Exhibit Hall line on Day 1, I believe it was near the Gaming/Artist Hall when I was stopped by one staff because I walked through the line twice. Without any explanation I was warned by one staff that my badge would be removed immediately if I did it again.
The way the staff put it just ruined my day (as the con couldn't have gone any better for me), I wish he would have kindly told me that I should not do that again but no he has to act as if he can act as if he has all the power in the world to treat me like crap and remove my badge if he ever wanted to.

I know staff is under stress but the fact that it has to be taken out on a attendee is just...I don't know how to put it really. My weekend barely turned out to be positive (thanks to my friends), but I didn't feel my time at Fanime was worth anything let alone take a 5 hour trip to get there. This is my first time going there and I'm not sure about going again next year really...

My personal belief is that it is not always what you say that can piss off someone and ruin their good time, it's how you say it. This is definitely something I agree that staff should take into consideration and I will definitely bring it up to the Safety heads for 2009.

I say just e-mail [email protected] regarding the access control thingy(or pm deonchan) and they'll take care of it.

[ewu]

In fact I think I was pretty much fed up with every staff member and volunteer I saw with the exception of the people handling the badge pickup for preregistered members on Friday.

Muha!
(:

I think there is an inverse relationship between attendees and reg staff. The less time attendees spend seeing us, the happier they are.  ;D

Nice.....

[FanFicGuru]

I didn't have any negative experiences with rovers or security this year, but from the sounds of it a number of people had issues with volunteer staff who may (or may not) have had any experience with authority in the past. I'm not exactly sure what kind of training you put the volunteers through, but it seems like a lot of general etiquette fell through the cracks when crunch time came. I know this is hard to avoid, but it should be understood that people can act one way while going through training, and a completely different way when faced with a real situation at the convention.

One thing that should be completely understood is that none of them have the right to physically grab, stop or otherwise touch an attendee except for Rovers (do they even have that ability? I'm unsure of their exact restrictions).

As was mentioned earlier, 95% of what you say is in how you say it. There's a big difference between "Excuse me, please don't cross this line again, it should be gone in about 5-10 minutes but until then I'd like it if you would pick one side or the other and just stay there until the line goes away. Do you need to get something from the other side? Here let me get that for you." as opposed to "Hey! Cross this line again and I'll have your badge removed for the weekend."

I can see how that'd put a damper on anyone's weekend.

If I did that at any of my jobs I'd probably get fired on the spot lol.

I understand "We work so hard and we don't get any pay...people don't appreciate us...we're people too and we get upset..." but the thing is, most of the people there are volunteers . Meaning, they signed themselves up to do it. Nobody put a gun to their head. If they are going to volunteer for a position like that, knowing what to expect, there really isn't much excuse for acting rudely to an attendee. Granted sometimes it takes the patience of Job not to kill a really stupid attendee...but other times just a little bit of patience and courtesy goes a long way.

Anyways, I've rambled on for quite some time now. I'll just close by saying thank you to all the staff who did a great job this last year and I look forward to next year.