Fanime SOS 2008 feedback thread

[deonchan]

Hello folks!

Well it is that time of year where we as a staff (all of Fanime that is) must "call ourselves to the carpet" and get honest feedback from you our con goers on our job performance this past weekend. I have noticed a few complaints in other threads and rather than going though every single thread for feedback, I want to give everyone an opportunity to air their grievances (or praise  :P) in one spot.

If you are uncomfortable with issuing your complaint here, you can PM me directly or email [email protected] I assure you only the people that need to know have access to emails sent to that address.

Every issue posted here will be taken very seriously and because of that, I request that you give as much detail about the incident as possible. (Some folks have even taken photos and posted them of the people in question)

Thank you again for your honest feedback.

[Steve.Young]

My biggest complaint was you, Mike, and Mike making me go to sleep.

[Zee]

I'd just like to pop in and say that I didn't have any real problems.  There was a lot of general confusion, such as staff members not knowing where and when to get An Cafe tickets, where the AMV Contest was being held, etc, but that was it.  All the staff I ran into were courteous and helpful...or if they couldn't be helpful, they were at least apologetic about it and had suggestions as to who else I might ask. ;)  So though I know some staffers were trouble-makers, I believe the majority were pretty awesome.  Thanks, guys!

[SOawesomeness]

(Copied and pasted from a different thread)
On (I think) Friday, there was this SOS staff lady who was totally rude to attendees while doing Line Control. Not to hit on SOS staff, but she was really just rude, saying like "Go over there" and "Hey, pay attention" with a rude tone in her voice... And Saturday's SOS were lazy, they just sat in their chairs instead of doing line control to direct attendees to the line area, especially when there was a big group... minor things, but it really does make a big difference especially when Reg. is the first people they see at Fanime and the first thing they see is rude line control or messy organization.
Otherwise, Rovers did a hellavu good job from what I saw, especially at like, early in the morning on Monday. (:

[Steve.Young]

I leave for 5 minutes and the reg lines go to hell? Sheesh =P

If you happen to see this next year, Call me over and I'll beat them on their heads for you.

I should again be there for morning registrations lines.

[jemz]

I'd like to thank all the Safety on Site staff that I worked directly with in my division. You made all my events run smoothly for my various departments and I can't thank you enough for all the long hours you guys put in to ensure the success of Extravaganzas (MusicFest in particular!) at FanimeCon 2008. Anything I asked for, you guys responded very quickly and very politely.

I look forward to working with you guys again next year. :D

[Trumby]

The only problem I personally had was the fact that they made me peace bond my bokken (aka..wooden sword...) inside the saya. When the policies didn't say anything of the kind had to be done. Then throughout the whole con I saw a ton of people whose swords were not bound into their sayas.

I do this sort of thing for Kumoricon and I know rules are different for every con, but one thing you guys need to do is make sure your staff is not throwing their discretion in. Have everyone stick with what the policies say, end of story. Consistency with the whole staff is one of the best things a "security" (I know you can't be called that for liability reasons) force needs to have.

[Zog]

My only problem with the SoS staff is that one of our bosses can't spell.   ;)

Seriously- I don't care how the SoS was at "Fanine," I went to the convention in San Jose, 's called "Fanime..."

[AnimeEmperor]

As a first time SOS I just wanted to say everyone was very helpful with my first time and I felt, because of great communication and advice, I didn't really make any mistakes or get into any altercations at all. My shifts were extremely uneventful (in a good way) and I want to thank the rest of the SOS for keeping it that way.

[Sen]

The SOS who were helping out at Registration were very good. They helped out with whatever happened in the on-site line including that purple nail polish spill and they were able to help reg staff answer questions. Good job!

[Stormfalcon]

On (I think) Friday, there was this SOS staff lady who was totally rude to attendees while doing Line Control. Not to hit on SOS staff, but she was really just rude, saying like "Go over there" and "Hey, pay attention" with a rude tone in her voice

I have to wonder if this was the same person handling line control at Closing Ceremonies on Monday.  Very controlling/dictatorial and pretty aggressive about it.

[Super No 1]

I really liked the way that the photo pits at the concerts were handled.  I've covered other conventions with concerts and this was the easiest convention music program that I've ever covered.  Other conventions don't have photo pits at all or allow way too many people to be in them and it becomes a big cluster-f.  It was just an awesome experience to be able to do my job so easily.  Friday night's show was very good because there was nothing to keep the crowd from advancing to the stage, but SOS kept them back and I was able to do what I needed to do.  Other cons would have just let the crowd crush me.

[justkitteh]

Just to help keep it all in one place.

http://forums.fanime.com/index.php/topic,9961.0.html

[Stormfalcon]

Problem is, the thread is now locked :(

[Junon]

I had no major problems this year as I did last year.

There were MANY rude staffers, most of which I encountered early on (before I even registered). Like for example, walking out an open door to the lobby and some guy yelling at us (friends and I), chastising us to not exit the door. (There were no other visible doors to exit and there were no signs pointing to an exit). Had the guy mentioned it was not an exit, we would have been ok with it. But to get in our faces about it... yeah well we had to punk him.

Then there were more staff encounters when we were taking pictures with people, one of the staff kept getting in the way and yelled at us about taking his pic without permission. Thing is, we DIDN'T want his pic, he kept getting in the scene, so we repositioned everyone and in some way, some how and for some reason, he had relocated to that position and once again chewed us up about getting his pic taken. Then he wanted to see our camera, so we confronted him and made him look stupid in front of people, he stormed off (we assumed to get more of him) but never saw him again. What was up with that?

But not to be all negative against FanimeCon staff, but there was one cool staffer, she was the short-haired brunette Saftey girl in the Dance room on Sat Night, I appreciate her protecting me and my crew from all the dangerous glow sticks flinging around and busting one of my eyes out. Glow-sticks are FAR more dangerous than spikes. :)

Overall I had less problems with staff as the years gone by (and I'm not a problematic person). I think the problem most fanime staff has is that they are over-confident working in their element and they push the attitude a little too far -- and of course they can get away with it with most FanimeCon attendees, but I am not a push over. To me: You're not real security. You're not law enforcement. You have no real power over anyone or anything. The most you can do is manage convention members within a limited boundary. I think more respect would be given if earned and not demanded.

But for what it's worth, minus the few bad apples, I think overall the convention went well and for the most part, people did their jobs.

[Steve.Young]

^^ Are you sure those that you mentioned were Safety staff?

Also, you should always get their departments and name. Easiest way to track down a rude person.

If staff is being rude, you are suppose to complain! They are not allowed to be rude to you. You can flag down any Safety personnel and they will handle rude staffers for you. If they are safety personnel, going up the chain is a good idea. They can/will get chewed out =).

[Junon]

^^ Are you sure those that you mentioned were Safety staff?

Also, you should always get their departments and name. Easiest way to track down a rude person.

If staff is being rude, you are suppose to complain! They are not allowed to be rude to you. You can flag down any Safety personnel and they will handle rude staffers for you. If they are safety personnel, going up the chain is a good idea. They can/will get chewed out =).

It's usually not my kind of thing to tattle on people individually, nor do I feel I have the time to take a name and then hunt down a Fanime Overseer and have them belittle the evil doer staffer to satisfy my jollies.

I just think when the Fanime staff get together again before the next convention, the topic of person-to-person interaction should come up as a bullet point on a PowerPoint document (because PPT docs rock). I am not in any way hurt by evil staffers, but I think it's something that should be talked about.

I don't think everyone working for FanimeCon is bad, but I just happen to run into those few bad ones every year. :p

[dibbly]

i think next year, I'm volunteering for S.O.S.
i've work security before and i really want to help out, the one rude SOS i saw needed alot of work,....as a person.
the people at the con are dear to me, fans and staff alike. =)

[ewu]

mega props to SOS. They were where we needed them and got the job done correctly. I'm happy that I was able to establish the rapport with the leads and SOS staff that managed the Charlie Foxtrot that is the con every year.

Thanks guys

[Shi_Musouka]

^^ Are you sure those that you mentioned were Safety staff?

Also, you should always get their departments and name. Easiest way to track down a rude person.

If staff is being rude, you are suppose to complain! They are not allowed to be rude to you. You can flag down any Safety personnel and they will handle rude staffers for you. If they are safety personnel, going up the chain is a good idea. They can/will get chewed out =).

It's usually not my kind of thing to tattle on people individually, nor do I feel I have the time to take a name and then hunt down a Fanime Overseer and have them belittle the evil doer staffer to satisfy my jollies.

I just think when the Fanime staff get together again before the next convention, the topic of person-to-person interaction should come up as a bullet point on a PowerPoint document (because PPT docs rock). I am not in any way hurt by evil staffers, but I think it's something that should be talked about.

I don't think everyone working for FanimeCon is bad, but I just happen to run into those few bad ones every year. :p

Like attendees, all staff(this is not just SoS, but every staff member at the con REGARDLESS of ranking) also have badge numbers that can be reported to ConOps too, and because the staff:attendee ratio is rather low, the badge numbers probably shouldn't bleed any higher than the hundredths digits. ConOps would probably just talk to both parties to find out what is going on and it would help them come up with staff-related suggestions to give to the higher-ups for consideration in future Fanimes, helping the con improve their staff training in the long run.

I know tattling isn't your thing, but you would basically be helping the higher ups spread the topic of person-to-person communication(like you wanted to) sooner more than you think by keeping them informed of what their staff is doing to help/hurt their attendees so that it will be less of a problem each year.

This is a bit off-topic, but I think for future badge printing that the badge numbers need to be bigger and bolder than they were this year so that it's easier for everyone to take down badge numbers if needed, perhaps making them just as bold as the bottom font that lists the type of the badge(ex. Member, Staff, All Access, MusicFest, etc.) so that the number visibility would be much clearer, just in case someone refuses to show you their badge or something... I dunno @___@... Thought I would bring it up so that it would be easier for staff and attendees to report someone acting up...