Originally written by Steve Huff, speaking for Logistics Head Jim Housell

What you did?
Pre-con: Organized several tagging parties at Arisia storage, providing other area heads with the opportunity to designate which items should be moved from storage to the con.

Drove a rented 16-foot truck (containing Pin-Point Lighting gear and other tech gear) from Philadelphia to Boston. Using that truck and a rented 24-foot truck, transported materials from Arisia storage to the Hyatt, staged them into the ballroom, and delivered larger items to locations around the hotel. A second trip was required to move all the equipment.

Picked up a bulk soda order at BJ's for food functions.

After load-in, returned the 24-footer to Budget.

At-con: Not much; once everything was in place Logistics didn't have to do too much. Once Art Show was packed Sunday evening, we staged the pipe carts and other heavy equipment into the hallway behind the ballroom, then loaded the 16-footer with Art Show materials and moved them to storage.

Post-con: Once the ballroom was clear of scheduled events on Monday, we were able to start staging equipment into it. As tech broke down and various food functions closed up shop, moved heavy equipment into the ballroom, then loaded the 16-footer (note: it was only feasible to use this smaller truck for load-out because of having moved Art Show out the previous day, and even so we required multiple trips).

Moved one load to storage and unloaded. The plan had been to move the rest of the gear during the day on Tuesday; due to the Hyatt double-booking the ballroom, we had to pull together an emergency crew and move the rest of the gear to storage and to the NESFA clubhouse on Monday night.

Returned Pin-Point gear and 16-footer to locations out of state.

What went right?
Nobody was injured and no equipment was seriously damaged or lost (except for the two already-broken coolers!).

Other than some miscellaneous tech gear, no essential equipment was left behind or needed to be procured while at-con.

Load-in was smooth and efficient; we had ample volunteers, and just enough clueful people (Hobbit, Rick, Steve) to make sure that the necessary items were loaded in the proper order (with the exception of some hiccups; some tech longboxes should have come in the first load).

Art Show's early load-out was a good idea and made our lives much easier. Art Show staff left their heavy equipment in a convenient clump in the 16th floor lobby.

What went wrong?
The scramble to load out on Monday night was stressful, especially given the cold; we were fortunate to be able to raise sufficient volunteers.

Several departments (including but not limited to Staff Den, Con Suite, Green Room, Fast Track, Smokers' Lounge, Massage Den, and Coat Check) did not tag their equipment; as such, we had to make judgment calls concerning what to pack during load-in. This may have been because we did not make it sufficiently clear to the relevant staff that it was important to tag items.

We lost several hours on Monday because food functions and Fast Track took a long time to break down. Had we been able to load that equipment out earlier, we could have made the first storage run earlier.

What should be done differently next year?
On the last day of the con, when demand for food will be least, the three food functions should condense into one as early as possible (after breakfast?). Whichever one remains open (most likely Con Suite, due to Dead Dog) should serve leftovers to attendees and staff; the remaining two functions should break down and be loaded out.

What sort of schedule/timeline did you use?
Are there any changes you'd make to the schedule for next year?
Vendors you used?
Budget for truck rental (NB: the Isuzu 16-foot truck is relatively powerful, capacious, and driveable even by a someone inexperienced driver).

We did not make use of Labor Ready at any point during the con, since we were generally well-supplied with volunteers.

Cinderella's provides tasty pizza at an inexpensive rate; however, their basic "Margarita" (tomato basil) suffers from structural integrity problems that make it messy to eat.

Experiments to try next year?
Any comments about the rest of the con (other divisions, hotel, ...)?

On Jan 25, 2008, at 6:30 PM, Jim Housell wrote:

rick would have to give the final word on that. he was the labor ready connection - kept saying that he wanted to put a reservation in for labor ready for a tuesday loadout. same for a monday into tuesday reservation for the larger truck (i kept saying that the larger wouldn't be needed).

i suppose it would just have taken us longer monday night, but the key is that we had an available pool to pull from, what with it being the last day of the con (rather than the day after). don't get me wrong - your help, and everyone you brought, was greatly appreciated. but we wouldn't have been up shit's creek without you - which is a good thing, because operating that close to critical levels isn't a good idea anyway. i would say that load out happened with a reasonably comfortable level of staffing - we weren't flush with people to the point of turning competency away, but we likewise weren't scrambling to maintain control. and so labor ready wasn't needed as an emergency-level measure to maintain operational capacity.

i think i remember skip and some others being there as well - is that right? if so, that helped, too - it takes a brain in the room to effectively repack storage, and there's only a few of those brains around. i don't have one. i know rick and hobbit were there, and that helped too. having enough stow brains in the room to keep the move crews busy is a good thing.

it's all about flow.

i'll be bold and say this - subject to certain factors (such as weather, which will affect how many volunteers are to be had, and things like cartage and what not), arisia can get by with one sixteen foot truck making multiple trips.

it'll depend on whether the schedule allows for staggered loading and unloading (the four-dayness of this con let art show go early, which was critical). it also depends on how much attendee and staff labor is worth to the cigar chompers, and how much money they want to save/reallocate. i would say that relocating funds from another truck to a nice sit-down dinner for the load crew (at a reasonable place, like a diner, or a chipotle, or something of that nature) would be an idea.

if it's bitch cold, then you're out of luck - nobody's going to want to volunteer for move crew. this year was a lot warmer than most, and i think that contributed heavily to the willingness of the attendee volunteer population. it also increases efficiency.

and to make a multi-trip operation work, it'll take a good bit of planning and human logistics. key here is to have a dedicated staff (two people would even do) at storage proper, maneuvering gear into position to load while the truck makes a run. puking a truck takes mere minutes if done right - so there'll be a team needed at the hotel (a significantly larger team) to take gear from the ballroom/staging area and allocate it around the con. if done correctly, the actual loading/driving/unloading should take less than a half hour or so per trip, and be timed so as to coincide with idle periods both at storage and at hotel.

of course, this all hinges upon your herd of cats doing what you want them to, when you want them to.

and really, how much money will be saved? i'd rather -increase- the money available to logistics by a modest percent each year, and tighten up internally to be more efficient - then, we have a surplus to either put away from year to year (to buy things like carts and hand trucks and more straps and what not, as well as address special situations like wanting to build custom machinery like the pipe carts), or on incentives to woo people into logistics. not that i'm advocating using con funds to go off on a pub crawl or anything, but to offer a crowd of people a nice hot sit-down dinner after loading a truck in the cold is a very nice way to say thank you.

just some thoughts...

jim