The short version: Everything went exactly as it should, though a few of our pre-opening proceses can use some improvement. I also seriously need a second-in-command to keep me from getting completely stressed out.

The logistics of Artists Alley and Con Store can sometimes be daunting, but that’s what I’m good at. But that’s only a small part of AA/CS – the heart of the operation is the staff, without which the whole operation wouldn’t even exist. I want to thank the following wonderful folks who volunteered a significant part of their weekend to make AA/CS the success that it was: Grandma and Grandpa Kage (and Cindy!), DaveQat, Jimcyl, Bullethc, Danruk, rooLander, Linnaeus, and Siriuswolfstar. Thanks as well to Rooth, Mirkowuff, and Andrew (whose badge name escapes me…), who volunteered on-site and filled in exactly where we needed the help. And finally, a special thanks to my loving husband Takaza and his cash office crew, vt_komainu and Sirius (what, again?) for working behind the scenes in a hot, windowless room to make sure that all the nickels and pennies add up.

Set-up
Even though I had seen Hall C before, it was quite different this time – the vast expanse of tables took me aback. I’m happy to say that the table layouts were exactly as we had discussed, including the extra tables I had requested for Payout. Initially, the boxes of equipment needed were spread between Hall C and Operations in the hotel. I had to do some hunting through the Ops storage area to make sure I had all the cash drawers, the bill sorter, and that credit card terminal that I needed, then trucked that over to Hall C (in addition to the Midwest FurFest easels which we had brought). I tried to re-label some of the boxes while packing up to make sure they get to their proper location next year, but I anticipate still having to do a bit of equipment-hunting as well.

The electrical and phone hookups were supposed to be in place by noon on Thursday, at least this was my understanding, but I did not have them in place until between 3 and 4 PM. I had to take a few hours to locate the documentation and re-familiarize with the register programming; the AA registers retained the programming from the prior year, but the Con Store register had to be wiped and completely re-programmed, something that took quite a while. I made sure to pack copies of the appropriate manual with each register to streamline this process a bit next year. Also, we will need a block of about 24 AA batteries next year, to replace the register backup batteries whether they need them or not.

As usual, Grandma and Grandpa Kage, and Cindy as well, were exceptionally helpful in getting Con Store set up, including drafting several volunteers to help fold shirts, build shelving, and set up easels. Thanks especially to R.B. for his help in these tasks. The sorting boxes that I picked up at U-Line were perfect for the task, and a steal at only $30. I definitely need to pick up a package of those again next year.

Finally, as I noted in last year’s report, although I send out a good bit of documentation before the convention, a little bit of hands-on training never hurts. I offered two sessions, one at 9 PM Thursday and one at 9 AM Friday, but people were only interested in the one on Thursday. We took about an hour and I walked through the Artists Alley and Con Store processes, showed them where the cheat sheets and instructions could be found, and generally answered any questions they might have. I want to thank Dave, Jim, Charlie, Roman, and Mirko for taking the time to attend, and I hope that it made life a little easier through the weekend.

Signage
The addition of signage throughout the convention helped immensely, though I think that what we had was only a good start – we could probably have used half again as many signs and that would have been better, costs notwithstanding. I still had some confusion, with people not clear on the difference between the AA and CS registers, but that was easy to deal with. We could probably use a sign (ARTISTS ALLEY/CON STORE) at each entrance, as well as a sign behind each set of registers saying what they were. I will investigate other options for signage for next year, keeping in mind that little or no capital will be available for this.

Sign-Ups
Overall, things went pretty well. We had 76 artists on Friday and 65 artists on Sunday. 85 artists signed up for Saturday, so for the first time in two years we had to actually hold the lottery. This too went well, with no accusations of favoritism. Of the five people on the waiting list, three got seats because someone wasn’t there when their name was called.

Now that we have the payout processes fixed, we have some issues with the sign-up processes that need to be improved. Thirty minutes was not enough time to run through seat assignments AND distribute receipt books with the current system. If we hadn’t had the delay in opening on Saturday, we would have had a bit of a mess as we were still trying to get who had what receipt book squared away.

The Pocket Program said signups ended at noon on Friday and 10 AM on Saturday and Sunday. I had a handful of people show up after seat assignment (which occurred at 11:30 AM and 9:30 AM, respectively) dismayed that they were too late. For next year, perhaps sign-ups should be listed in the Pocket Program as ending at 11:30 and 9:30?

The Dorsai needed some kind of identifier to tell who the artists were to let them into Hall C for set-up before the hall opened to the public. I have some ideas for next year that may address this and the preceding problem, though I’m open to other suggestions as well.

I overslept on Sunday and didn’t get to the signups until 8:20. Ever vigilant, the Dorsai made sure the room was open, and the artists were quiet forgiving. I wonder if we really need to be open for 90 minutes for artist sign-ups? This is something that I want to revisit before next year.

Artists Alley Operation
We had a few challenges, but things seemed to work out in the end. We lost one cashier on Friday evening and Saturday to food poisoning/con crud, but Mirko filled in on short notice so we had no problems. Otherwise all staff showed up (mostly) on time and seemed to be happy with the scheduling.
Scheduling was bang on – we didn’t have too many cashiers when it was dead, and we had three registers when they were needed. I will be sticking with the scheduling patterns I used this year for next year. Yay for learning curves!

The cash office worked extremely well, and Dan did a fantastic job of making sure everything went smoothly. I’m sure he will pass along his own report in time.

We need to improve how to handle breaks in scheduling – if someone is off for only an hour, there’s no sense in counting their drawer in then counting right back out. This was improved somewhat over last year with the use of cash boxes instead of cash drawers, but we need to explicitly state that setting the cash box aside for the duration of the break is what is actually intended.

I only had to make one ruling this year, to request an artist to cover up a bit more of an adult drawing. Otherwise, everyone seemed well-behaved and we had no problems with content.

The message board was a good idea, and gathered a sizeable number of postings over the course of the weekend. I know I for one used it to connect a number of buyers and sellers. We had one popular artist go missing on Sunday, which led to at least four irate people looking for her, including one who demanded his money back. After it was explained to him that we had already paid the artist and the transaction was between the artist and him, he understood. The artist later posted contact information on the Anthrocon forums and with luck will connect with all of her customers.

Con Store Operations
Having a laminated sheet of bar codes worked wonderfully, and I would urge that we continue this next year. Likewise, sharing the credit card terminal made credit card transactions a breeze. Having the price list on a large sign helped a lot as well.

We ran out of 3XL 2006 shirts early on Saturday – I meant to ask Kage if we should be taking names to order more for staff, but got distracted. Sorry!

We need to change the price on the badge holders from $0.93 to $0.94 so tax will calculate properly; Grandma Kage noted that we seem to have several hundred in inventory and wondered if we wouldn’t be better off either cutting the price or just giving them away. We also had one suggestion made for additional merchandise for Con Store: 8.5 x 11 page protectors. This doesn’t seem to be a bad idea to me.

As usual, I worried that I relied too much on Grandma and Grandpa Kage for setup and teardown. I hope they had a good time, and I can’t thank them enough for their help!

Artists Alley Payout
Wow. We’ve got this sucker DOWN. Payout took 45 minutes on Friday, 40 minutes on Saturday, and 32 minutes on Sunday. We had few problems with mismatched receipts, and what problems occurred were handled quickly and efficiently by the AA staff. Calling artists by rows of tables worked well, and kept the standing-in-line-forever problem to a minimum. Artists seemed to like this.

We are probably at maximum efficiency for the paper system we currently have in place. While we could probably cut this in half if we went to a point of sale system, as long as we have the manpower (not insignificant – we need at least ten people to make the system run properly) the current system works well. In the future, when the capital is available, I would like to discuss a computerized system that will keep me from going insane.

I don’t have the exact numbers (that’s Dan’s department), but I believe total payout over the weekend was between $15,000 and $20,000.

Personally, I have to say that while this was a fun year, it was truly draining for me. In spite of sharing the same room with them, I only got to see about half of the Art Show and none of the Dealers Room; every time I stepped away there was an issue I had to return to AA/CS to deal with. This also meant that by the time I got out of the Convention Center each day (typically by 7 PM or so), I was exhausted and didn’t have much energy for anything except sitting in our room and relaxing. Next year I need to have a second in command, someone who knows the system and the equipment and will be willing to step in and be “on duty” when I’m away.

So that’s it! let me know if you have any questions or comments.