[ST] [SA] Art Show Bag Check Report

[Pat Vandenberg]

Name of Area?

Art Show Bag Check

 

Who?

Pat Vandenberg & Allan Kent

 

What you did?

Check coats, bags, packages, cameras and cell phones with cameras and made
sure they got back to their owners.

 

What went right?

Having the closet at the juncture of the 16th floor elevator 'lobby' and the
hallway into the Art Show display area was a definite win.  People pretty
much had to stop since there wasn't a lot of space for them to squeeze by.
Most people were happy to 'take the load off' and be able to wander the Art
Show without all the impedimenta!  We had bought additional clip clothespins
and brought additional cards - both of which got used.  We adjusted the cell
phone policy for those who were expecting calls; keep in pocket
out-of-sight.  If have to bring it out to answer call, must come out of Art
Show.  Most people actually had no problem leaving their stuff with us;
having a closet with only one entrance helped.  Had only one real paranoid
and she solved the problem by bringing a second person with her who stayed
outside the Art Show with her stuff.  Had a few people argue and/or try to
slip by.  Having the badge check person further in helped stop the
'slippers'.  Most seemed aware of what happened at last year's Art Show and
were very cooperative; especially after I explained that we were doing this
so we Wouldn't have to search people on their way out.  

Many thanks to DDA who stepped in to help when the lines suddenly got long. 

 

 

What went wrong?

The Volunteers we requested didn't show up so Allan and I spent many more
hours actually running the Bag Check than we had planned and didn't get to
see much of the con.  Closing early on Sunday was a definite win for us.
Need a better 'filing' system so we can retrieve items checked much quicker.
That was, at times, the really slow part of the process.  When someone says
they have a black bag and just about every bag in the check room is black,
it doesn't help.  

 

What should be done differently next year?  Only had one time - Saturday -
when we had a coat that didn't appear to belong to staff left in the closet.
Was thinking it would be nice to be able to put names on cards or post-its
in case things were left when we closed, but it would slow the process down
too much.

Two of the volunteers we went to the lounge to get had enough down time to
organize the closet into red and black - something Allan didn't think we
needed but was very glad they did - and that helped, but we really need a
4-part identifier:  Black, Red hanging items; Heavy/non-hangable on floor;
and shelf space.  Some sort of system to make finding things easier and
faster but that does not slow down the accepting items process.

Possibly use a 'card' of some kind developed for our bag check instead of
the playing cards.

We did get almost full on Sunday when the downstairs Coat Check had to
close.  From the report I read, if they had a bigger space this probably
would not have happened.

 

 

 

What sort of schedule/timeline did you use?

We tried to be open before the Art Show opened and closed soon after the Art
Show closed Friday through Sunday.  

 

 

Are the any changes you'd make to the schedule for next year?

If they are going to use the closet to store things for those people
sleeping in the Art Show, should have those things clearly identified or
open the Bag Check on Thursday. 

 

 

Vendors you used?

Bought the clothespins at a supermarket.

 

Experiments to try next year?

See above

 

Any comments about the rest of the con (other divisions, hotel, ...)?

Art Show had extra volunteer sheets available; this was a win.

The Student Art Show was very popular.

Had fun on my two panels.

Heard both positive and negative comments from various Dealers regarding the
lack of a Dealer's Room.

Don't know what happened with the Volunteer Lounge's list of people
requests.  Had sent Mary a request for two volunteers every 2 hours while
the Art Show was open, which appeared to have been misplaced as they
couldn't find it when I finally got free for a few minutes to get dinner on
Friday and dropped in to find out what was happening.  Was able to scoop up
two volunteers while I was there so Allan was able to go off and get dinner
when we got back.  I know they were very short of volunteers on Saturday
when I went down, but they did send a couple up later and we did get a
couple on Sunday.  If it hadn't been for Lisa going and getting us food on
Saturday afternoon I'm not sure most of the Art Show staff would have gotten
fed.  Tamar brought up meat and cheese platters for Art Show check-out on
Sunday, but those two instances were the only times I saw food on the 16th
floor.  (By-the-way, as a note for next year.  Please put the ham on a
separate platter.  Those staff who are Jewish were unable to eat any of the
meat since the ham was on the same platter as the turkey etc.  They were
able to eat the cheese as it was separate.)

 

 

 

 

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