I wish this was ENTIRELY fictitious, but all I can say is that it's slightly exaggerated. I'll have to be a little vague on the details, but here's basically what happened:
At the con that shall not be named (but which was DEFINITELY big enough to know better), a friend of mine was running an evening event that had potential safety concerns. Upon arriving at the con, they went to Event Security to get a contact for the security staff that would be on duty. This was around 3pm, and the event was around 10pm that night, so surely they would have an answer to this simple question, right?
Unfortunately, they didn't. Nobody on duty knew who would be working that night. There was no duty roster, or anyone in charge who could be contacted to get this information. In fact, the shift change was happening RIGHT at 10pm, so the unknown security staffers would only just be arriving when the event was already underway.
I don't blame the basic security staffers, all of whom were just volunteers, for this mismanagement. They were doing their best with a system that was held together by duct tape and prayer. There should have been supervisors and organizers readily available to deal with these situations. There should have been training and contact sheets and actual schedules of who was working when. The fact that there weren't any of these things is a major part of why I don't associate with this con anymore (although I won't publicly name them for personal reasons).
Rock on, guys, and never stop drawing.
At the con that shall not be named (but which was DEFINITELY big enough to know better), a friend of mine was running an evening event that had potential safety concerns. Upon arriving at the con, they went to Event Security to get a contact for the security staff that would be on duty. This was around 3pm, and the event was around 10pm that night, so surely they would have an answer to this simple question, right?
Unfortunately, they didn't. Nobody on duty knew who would be working that night. There was no duty roster, or anyone in charge who could be contacted to get this information. In fact, the shift change was happening RIGHT at 10pm, so the unknown security staffers would only just be arriving when the event was already underway.
I don't blame the basic security staffers, all of whom were just volunteers, for this mismanagement. They were doing their best with a system that was held together by duct tape and prayer. There should have been supervisors and organizers readily available to deal with these situations. There should have been training and contact sheets and actual schedules of who was working when. The fact that there weren't any of these things is a major part of why I don't associate with this con anymore (although I won't publicly name them for personal reasons).
Rock on, guys, and never stop drawing.
