Advice plz?

[EHubbard92]

So, re-elections came up for Tech Coordinator (our version of TD I suppose) and my partner dropped out a week before the voting. So, result day comes and I won (which I'm quite excited about) but my partner is this new kid who doesn't know a thing.

Any advice on teaching in an extremely quick manner?

The guy is reasonably smart but he hasn't worked anything and he pretty much got it on popularity. My director told me to use him as a front man because he's more charismatic than I am, but I really don't want to have to do everything myself....its an awful lot to take on.

And, I've found that its really difficult to get my crew to respect me as an authority figure, they're used to me being one of them and not really caring about the rules too much. (Dumb on my part I know) Any words of wisdom as far as earning the respect? (They all know I'm capable of doing my job they just don't want to take orders from me and they're getting really whiny about my new enforcing of the rules.)

Thanks!
-Erica

[gafftaper]

There is no quick way to learn everything. You've just got to jump in and do it.

As for earning respect. Have a meeting and say, "I know I used to screw around a bit but I'm in charge now I have to change my behavior. I hope you will join me." Then lead by example. SHOW them you deserve respect and you will get it. Be inconsistent and screw around and you won't get it. Also remember your authority is an extension of your teacher's authority. If you are having trouble talk to the teacher about how to better manage things.

[ruinexplorer]

I agree with Gaff on the respect thing. It's always earned and gained by example. You will need to be firm with your crew, which may cause some difficulties at first. However, if they are part of the people who voted you in, then remind them of that.

I'm a little confused about what your director is saying about your partner being the "front man". Charisma can definitely get you ahead as a leader (look at our President), but when it comes down to the scope of the show, you also need knowledge and experience. What he may be doing is giving you the opportunity to break up responsibilities by instructing your partner and having him lead in the tasks that may not take as much knowledge, but may take more convincing to get the crew to do them. Every job in the theater is important, but it takes a while for some people to see it that way.

[NickJones]

Hi Erica,
In my view if you do fun stuff with your team, they will stay, but you won't get much work done. If you suddenly go "Im boss now, so do what I say" then no one will help you do anything. Take them all into the booth, show them some cool stuff, have there music playing during bump ins / bump outs, and Guitar Hero is a must. I try and keep everything informal, but when it comes to getting the work done, it gets done, we did training days when all the Vision, Audio and Lighting got put up, and then was used for a Guitar Hero comp, everyone got a go at everything, we also used the mics, so it was Karaoke to, everyone got a chance to Mix Audio, Vision and do some Lighting.

Make sure they have fun, but they know when they need to work. And there are some people that won't work at all, and you just have to get rid of them. The best way to find out who to keep is to do stuff after school or on Saturday's, that way you separate who wants to miss out on school, and who wants to do tech.

As for teaching them fast, just get him/her involved in every show, assembly, and get them to follow you every time you go to flick a breaker, focus a fixture, move a mic, everything.

Nick

[NickJones]

By the way, don't know how relevant this is to you, could be some help. Building and Training a Running Crew

[renegadeblack]

Im friends with most of the crew but the most of them have come since weve had a major shift in crew. Most of them already sort of view me as an authority figure because Im the president of other clubs that they are part of and I was a camp counselor for a few of them a few years ago.

Way that seems to make it work is let them play when its play time and make them work when its work time. As I mentioned in another post, we always have a dance party before shows, do stuff like that, they will respect you as everyone likes to have some fun.

Make sure that you don't do too much of the stuff for them when they dont understand how it works. A lot of them didnt understand how things work and dont want to hang a light because they are afraid that they will break it. In many cases, I wound up having to do stuff myself because they refused to do it.

Something that I often have troubles working out is crew management. I'm not very good at having everyone doing something while I'm doing something. The one night where I was able to have everyone working and I was able to supervise was great, unfortunately, that wasn't until we had strike.

Definitely don't tell them that I'm your boss now and I'm going to rule with an iron fist, just ask them to do you a favor. I find that works quite nicely, and if you feel that you're getting too bossy, just apologize. I had the director breathing down my neck which was getting me so tense and I took some steam out on my crew, but fortunately they understood and they didnt hold it against me.