Organizing a booth

[TechnicalDirector3-W]

What is the most efficiant and painless way to organize a booth and keep it that way? I have tried so many ways and none seem to work. I mean I know that I am the TD at a highschool with young techies but how can I make it so that it is organized and stays that way? Help me.

[wemeck]

Good Luck!!!!

I have spent the last four years working in a High School as the Assisatant to the main Facility Supervisor. From 1989-1993 I also went to this High School and was part of the crew for four years. In all this time the answer is constant diligence. You, the adults, have to monitor the situations and the spaces. Otherwises chaos insues. They are kids so we are constantly warning them about leaving food out, taking clothes home to be washed, and assigning the Seniors and Juniors to take control of areas and clean them up. Take the Gel Room for an example. If you have multiple events going on that GEL room looks and is ran-sacked. Well we constaly have kids going up there and filing away cut gels and rolling up the new sheets.

The scene/paint shop has become my main area of concern since returning. A buddy of mine went crazy in a good way last summer and labeled the entire tool room and placed tools perfectly. But teenagers are teenagers and they do not always follow. So the adults come in after they leave and clean up a little. When they are really bad, like left drills out and I have only one cresent wrench on the hangar, then the next day we give a reminder. But again we still have to reinforce that message.

It sucks at times, but hey they are kids.

[The_Terg]

Just one quickie suggestion-

Keep strict FROSH food/drink rules. Those who dont know how to clean up after themselves shouldn't be allowed to bring in food- (or sometimes drink).

[wolf825]

Originally Posted by TechnicalDirector3-W

What is the most efficiant and painless way to organize a booth and keep it that way? I have tried so many ways and none seem to work. I mean I know that I am the TD at a highschool with young techies but how can I make it so that it is organized and stays that way? Help me.

Couple ways we do it--take a picture of the booth the way it looks when it is to your liking. Then POST it on the wall and explain that if the booth does NOT look like this, then booth crew does NOT go home until it does, or be allowed to come back into the booth until they put it back. Post rules but keep them simple and not too many--like No food or Drink while at the console, or No guests, or authorized working crew only beyond this point...something like that helps to set the booth aside. We have several signs on the stairs and in the hallways to the booth that say "STOP--this REALLY is not the way to the dressing room--GO BACK!!" and "NO OBSERVERS ALLOWED--GO BUY A TICKET!". Another suggestion would be to use BIG signs to say SOUND, LIGHTS, or CABLES or REPAIR BENCH or other incidentals that you may have. Explain that nothing gets moved in the booth, and nothing goes out or comes in without YOUR approval. Make it the crew chief or the SM's job to ensure that the booth crew keeps a clean space and organized the way you want it to be.

Make sure you have at least TWO large trashcans as well at the door(s) or on either side of the center of the booth. Drink holders and stuff encourage folks to bring in stuff so don't make it convenient--sometimes we will set a table behind on the back wall away from all the expensive boards and consoles if we have a double show back to back and are living up there--my general rule is NO soda or water in anything but a sealed plastic bottle at all times while in the booth. No cups, cans or other open containers or spillables. Gaff tape rolls make GREAT soda and water bottle "spill proof holders"--even when empty--they can be taped to the tables..so when we do have drinks, I encourage folks when they have a soda or bottle on that table--to put it inside one of the gaff tape rolls so it doesn't tip over. As for Food--no way....no chips, snacks, greasy fried chicken--nothing that is gonna get on the touch screens or fall into faders.
We also set up a toilet paper dispenser roll on the back wall behind the consoles...for runny noses and so forth. It is a BIG plus to have around especially during winter. We also have napkins on a roll as well--like you would find in your kitchen.."just in case" or for sticky hands etc. Also--an aspirin dispenser for headaches and a big stick to stab the annoying directors with.

-wolf

[zac850]

I would sugest working a system where if you show that you are responsible you get extra priviliges. I am currently in 10th grade and really the only responsible techie. I work closely with the arts supervisor (he dose mostly sound, I do mostly lights), and I am trusted with things that they would otherwise only trust the adults with.

I personally hate it when I am told that "i can't do this because i need to be in this grade to work on this". While this may work sometimes, I know many seniors who would just goof off and not do any work, while i'm running around doing, quite litterly, everything.

Reward good behavior by letting them go into other places, do more, or put them in charge of more things, or do more things unsupervised. However, if someone dosen't do things the way they sould, and just goofs off, don't trust them with as much.

I would just sugest keeping it fair. An 8th or 7th grader can be more mature then a 12th grader in some cases...

[TechnicalDirector3-W]

I guess I just do not see a way to keep a booth totally clean and problem free and that is the way it is going to stay. I guess that is what we do though solve problems. It is an exciting life with lots of thrills 8O

[DMXtools]

Originally Posted by TechnicalDirector3-W

I am the TD at a highschool with young techies but how can I make it so that it is organized and stays that way?

A whip and a chair?

John

[Smatticus]

I'm probably the only student really interested in technical theatre at our high school and I make more of an effort to keep our control booth clean than any of the adults do. At our community theatre the booth is ussually extremely disorganized; against the back wall there's one small bookcase with papers and cables and all kinds of crap piled on it, in addition there are scrap papers and things all over the place. I probably tend to be a little obsessive when it comes to organization. Everytime I work at our community theatre I end up doing a little cleaning while I'm there. In our booth at school I'm the one who put up the No Food Or Drink sign and tries to stay on top of things. Here when left to the adults it can be just as bad as leaving it to other students. :-P Everyone has posted alot of helpful tips, unfortunately I don't have enough experience to have picked up too many specific tips. Diligence is definitely the key, and a garbage can goes a long way! :-p

[Mayhem]

Try designating one student as the team leader for the week and make it their responsibility to ensure that the booth remains tidy, intact and functional.
Not only does this teach responsibility and leadership, it also promotes teamwork and appreciation for other peoples jobs. All are valuable life skills!
There are a lot of good suggestions within the existing posts which I will not repeat but hopefully will enable you to set up your booth and other key stage areas, and most importantly, prevent you from having to do it all over again after each production, or even worse, after each class!

[chizle97]

Just put elastic draw chords on everything. Then whe something is moved and let go it will snap back into its original place.