That's Fandom for You

[kevin_standlee]

I have, possibly ill-advisedly, waded in to the LJ discussion of Further Confusion's Elevator Management, or more properly, lack of it. Since I had first-hand experience of the exact same building under crush-load conditions in 2002 (albeit without one-sixths of the attendees in fursuits), I thought I would suggest the things that would work, and specifically the Elevator Party Host idea. While some people get it, others immediately yelled "Elevator Nazi!" because of course anything that restricts their right to be an inconsiderate jerk is a Bad Thing.

Also, suggesting other things that have worked, like programming one (out of six) elevators to be an express to the top floor was immediately over-generalized to an assumption that all elevators would be so programmed, and that people with wheelchairs would be told to take the stairs.

Discussing Elevator Party Host training -- half an hour being briefed on how to host an elevator party, and something primarily designed to ward off the "my job is to boss people around" mentality of "security" -- seems to have somehow morphed in some people's minds into "hundreds of hours of specialized and expensive instruction on how elevators work." News flash: "Training" doesn't always mean "vast amounts of time" and "expensive." A short briefing on how things should be handled is "training," too, and having Tom Whitmore give you the low-down on how to deal with elevator lobby crowds is, or should be, an eye-opener.

I shouldn't be surprised. It's Fandom, after all, which is full of people who will over-generalize and assume that of course anything done will be done badly. But I also was taken slightly aback as the assumption that time always equals money, which essentially equates People points (volunteers) with Money points. Anyone who has played If I Ran the Zoo... Con knows that Money and People are not as freely fungible as that. Oh, sometimes, rarely, they are. If you have gobs of money, you can possibly hire paid staff to do things for you; however, they're unlikely to do the job as well as motivated, well-trained volunteers.

I'm feeling old today; what I'm seeing is a younger generation of fandom having to learn the same lessons I learned twenty years ago, and rejecting advice from old fogeys who obviously know nothing at all about genre conventions and can't possibly understand how challenging it is to run an event in the Fairmont. Sigh.

Comments

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

The think I found when doing the job was that it was high energy and I enjoyed doing it so much that I had to be ordered out because I didn't see the signs of exhaustion, being hopped up on adrenaline. I have a strong stomach and don't get motion sickness, but 30 minutes in fully-loaded elevators means you're not getting enough fresh air, and probably will show signs of carbon dioxide poisoning if not pulled out soon enough. That's why I suggest you rotate people between car duty and lobby duty. And I think it's worthwhile to have someone "working the line" explaining what's going on and reassuring everyone that eventually everyone will get there. And probably also doing some prioritization work as well.

I can't possibly be the only one who has observed that the traffic flows better in an elevator when someone holds it "on the button" than when they stick their hand across the entrance, can I? That's why I end up repeating at all stops, "I've got the doors" and variations thereof.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I can't possibly be the only one who has observed that the traffic flows better in an elevator when someone holds it "on the button" than when they stick their hand across the entrance, can I?

Why is that? I'd guess: it leaves more room for people to move through the door, and the door closes faster once you take your finger off the button than it does once you remove your arm. But that's just a guess.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

It's the leaves-more-room part that I think makes the difference. When you lean into the doorway to hold it open, you're constricting the flow, even if only psychologically.

Some elevators even listen to the door-close button, so when you stop at a floor where only one person enters or leaves, you can push door-close before the automatic closure, saving a second or two here and there.