Wow...what a weekend!
2004 FanimeCon (Memorial Day Weekend)

It is nice to know that what you are doing in life is the right thing. When one takes time away from work, one usually tries to get away from it. However, this Memorial Day weekend, I found myself doing the very thing I do at work nearly 24 hours a day and despite the hectic nature of it all, I found I really enjoyed myself.
A little over 3 weeks ago, I found out that FanimeCon was looking for a Volunteer Coordinator, owning to the fact that the original Coordinator and most of the volunteer staff opted to work for Baycon. As I was planning and organizing what to do, it began to feel nostalgic and I realized I was doing a lot of what I was doing as a service chair for Alpha Phi Omega. I created sign-in sheets, individual logs, and directions for everything. I had a lot of help from the Operations Lead, Jeanne, who helped me organize and gave me tips and people to work with. I soon found myself at the last chaotic 3 meetings before the Con, asking what questions I could think of and trying to fit into the position that still needed defining.
I soon met my 2 Staff members and knew that it would be a lot easier with them around. Eric and Scott seemed eager to help and they were definitely quick learners that had a lot to say and teach me as well. We had no real time to meet and discuss what to do, but that did not stop us.
I left Thursday afternoon right after work, my car having been packed the night before, and arrived at my sister’s early and waited for her to take me to the Con. When I got there to the Convention Center, it was already busy with people bustling about unloading vans, cars, trucks, etc., and filling up the rooms with all sorts of paraphernalia. As I entered the Volunteer Room (Vol Hole), I found we were to share the room with the Rovers. The room had two tables, a small fridge, chairs, water, and my sign up sheets up on the wall. Sara had done a good job of assigning eager volunteers to help unload stuff for us. Eric had arrived the hour before and had got into the swing of things. He had already set up his computer and everything on our table looked good to go.
Thursday night, I roomed with Will and Sam and many others in their suite. I got up with Will bright and early Friday morning after a little over an hour’s sleep and I got back to the Vol Hole by 6 and found Eric already there. Throughout the day, we found that volunteer demand was high and volunteer supply was low. However, despite the lack of people, we lucked out and at the nick of time, there was always someone who came by and wanted to work for the Con.
In the middle of the day, Milly and Jason came by and dropped off the key to our room we shared with Antonio and I was officially checked into the Hilton Hotel. That afternoon, Scott arrived and I found his eagerness and willingness to work equaled Eric’s. More volunteers arrived and I found some of them to be of great willingness to help without incentive or complaint. People like the Morco siblings, Darren, and Michael were a delight because they always asked for more to do and were out and about more than in the room. They made the weekend very enjoyable and made me glad to have taken the job.
That night, I went to dinner with Milly, Jason, and Antonio at a Thai Restaurant. It was not bad at all. I agreed to sleep early at the urging of my staff members. I got a good 6 hours of sleep. The rest of the day went better than the last. Eric and I figured out a way to keep track of volunteers on a spreadsheet, verified by either of us going out and making rounds making sure volunteers were there at the right posts and if they were moved by staff to other places of need, to verify that that had happened and change names and places in the spreadsheet. It was a good move. We also color coded the sign up sheets by color and it made it much easier to see which spots pertained to the present time of need.
That night, it was the CosPlay and many volunteers including my two staff members went to see it. I went to bed at 2 and woke at 6. The rest of Sunday went quite well. I had lots of visits from friends (Kalen, Ellena, Karena, Sammy, Sung, Tony, to name a few) who brought me much company and food and snacks for which I am forever grateful.
By Sunday afternoon, the Vol Hole was becoming fuller with On-call members playing games and chatting up. In fact, some volunteers had brought games, consoles, and other such to the room. That night, the Music Fest was enjoyed by many. I heard great reports of the concert…even though it was hectic at the beginning literally running back and forth trying to set up Volunteers and making sure they were there at their locations and doing their work. That night, we found that Rovers and volunteers need separate rooms. Rovers needed to listen intently to radio chatter while Volunteers really needed to vent and play and enjoy themselves while waiting for work. The combination was not healthy, but thanks to Will (Rover 2nd), and others, it went smoothly. That night, I went to dinner at Original Joe’s with Will and some of the Registration staff. I was so tired, but I went back to the Vol Hole and did some work.
I slept again that night for about 4 hours and found Monday to be very smooth. I found myself with a new job. I was given the responsibility of reimbursing the volunteers. However, the job soon evolved to include reimbursing Staff members who had paid. I moved to Registration to use their computer and system to make sure what people had paid to give them the right amount back. Now, why they gave me this job, I have no idea. I was supposed to take all day to do it, but found that Registration wanted to close on time and pack their computers so I couldn’t check prices anymore…so, most of the later reimbursements had to be by mail. I also found that people had no idea who was supposed to do what as evidenced by reimbursement forms being filled out wrong. I really think we need a copy of “credible” signatures that count in verifying things.
I asked Will if I could stay with him and Sam. After I had put my stuff in their room. I came back but was immediately pulled away to finish more work. I got back to the Registration area to see what was up and found everyone had disappeared. Milly had gone home with Jason, Will and the rest had gone up to the room. Dinner at the Hilton Bar and Grille was cool. The food was a tad bit dry, but I was able to talk to some people I had no chance to really before. Afterwards, there was dessert in the Almaden room. I tried to call for a sub for Tuesday, but found that the service was down and had to do so the next morning.
The next morning, I was able to convince Nancy to get me a sub at Highlands and I helped Sam and Will pack their car and got a ride (car service) to my car in Fremont.