Quote:
Originally Posted by Samwaldo
The Boston Regional (which no longer exists. The venue will now become the NE District Championships site) Did as best of job as possible that did help. They only allowed people to go in through one of the doors in the morning, where their was security checks which enforced a line. Once in the lobby, they wouldnt allow anyone to go up the stairs till a certain time. Once that time hit, everyone had to go through turnstyles to get to the stairs.
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As one of the Boston RPC members that was -always- on door duty, thanks for the compliment. Didn't always go as planned, but we tried very hard to make an orderly system. This included REPEATED reminders via megaphone to the lobby-crowd that running/pushing etc would not be tolerated. (This was doubly important, as a flight of stairs separated the lobby from the mezzanine area and we didn't want people to trip or get hurt/trampled by running kids.)
Here's how we did it:
Venue staff at the doors, checking bags. Venue staff at each turnstile- these were located at the bottom of the stairs. Crowd control volunteers at the middle landing of the stairs, and at the top of the stairs. (Since the field wouldn't be running matches for some time, Queueing and Field Reset volunteers worked well for this purpose. It wasn't just a 'Hey you, slow down!" - these people were standing in a row - human turnstiles, if you will. A visual reminder that pushing and running just wasn't going to happen.
For the Championship, however, this wouldn't work. Some teams in the past have CLEARLY demonstrated that they don't value human beings that aren't on their team, and I've heard horror stories of pushing, hitting, running, yelling, fighting -- you name it. It's disgusting - that's not the FIRST community I know. I get that the Championship seating is competitive, but there's no reason for such a lack of respect for others.
I really like the idea of lines outside for each division. Perhaps those lines are near a door that's close to the corner of the arena where your division is located? The issue of pushing and shoving to get in the door would be solved with lines, BUT as soon as they got to the hallway, we'd have the same problem - running, pushing -- all the bad stuff. If they were close enough to their division, maybe volunteers or arena staff could be assigned to those areas to ensure safety.
I'm thinking back to the Black Eyed Peas Concert, and how well I remember that seating process being handled. (I can't for the life of me recall if it was the same for teams, but I was in the middle section of the arena surrounded by teams, so I'm assuming it was similar. If not, PLEASE correct me.) There was an insane level of volunteer presence, as well as venue/event/FIRST staff, just to make sure everyone got to their section safely. Why not bring that level out again in the mornings? I know that it's a lot to ask, but it's better than having kids getting injured over seats.
And for the love of robots, don't count down to doors-open. Learned that the hard way in Boston one year. It's all bad. Kids get riled, and the 'oh right, they told me not to run' memory gets erased by 'OMG OMG LET'S GO.'
Quote:
Originally Posted by treffk
Most volunteers and FIRST staff do not arrive at the dome until about 7am. My mom would arrive early each day to get some things done early and usually would get there before anyone else and sometimes before the doors were even unlocked for volunteers.
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Teams get there at 5. Which means at least some level of staff presence needs to be there at 5. Arena staff is there (from what I understand, I'm not on a team that lines up that early), and with clear instructions should be able to handle a division-line-up system. Maybe volunteers who are early-birds could help handle it, and then get a pass to go back to their hotel for a nap in the afternoon? I know I'd need it.
