2. Reception desk

a. Separating finance for those unpaid and the usual desk is a good idea. After Thursday and Fri AM you can amalgamate back again – as the flow of people trickles and you don’t need separate desks then.

b. Having a welcome person to chat to the queue works well on thurs and Fri AM. Not needed the rest of the time.

c. Don’t allow people to mess with the times haha – check the booklet before it goes out to ensure you’ve got cover for those times! Decide when desk is closing and stick to the times in the book.

d. Desk footfall is heavy all day on Thurs, (with periods of chill), Fri AM heavy, Fri through day trickling til 4pm ish – Saturday trickling until the ball, then Sunday – non-existant. Don’t even bother setting up 😛

e. You will want to write receipts for people coming in, and update your database. You will need to count receipts each night to ensure you’ve done this right – so make sure the receipts and database entries are good (use the paper forms for walk up registrations to populate the DB yourself).

f. Do a good but simple training doc – no more than 10 instructions. If you delegate this they will try to be supergood and write you 8 pages. That’s nae good 😛

g. Decide how many things you are going to tag onto your registration process. Many people will ask you to inform or distribute. Ask them to put a poster up and put their stuff on the info desk – most of this is not your monkey.

h. Don’t allow volunteers on the desk to change the process when you’re not there. You must avoid writing a list of DO NOT X and DO NOT Y but you’ve got to make it clear somehow they can’t add in their own registration ideas (such as mandatory pronouns, unless objection).

i. Someone needs to thank the volunteers at the closing session

j. Do everything to minimise faff. The more faff you have to remember and think about – the more of a pain everything will be. So just do the easiest, simplest option for reception things