AirFair100
So! On Saturday I had the pleasure of volunteering for the AirFair100 event at the College Park Airport. I was the supply runner for the Information Booth, which sounded much more exciting than it turned out to be. Essentially, my job was to make sure that we had enough maps, programs, and complimentary pens. Now, my job probably would have been slightly more difficult if those were in fact three separate items, but sadly the Powers That Be decided to combine the schedule and the Map.
The PTB also decided to draw a wildly inaccurate map, but they could not have known that we in the Info Booth would annex so much territory on the day of the event. You see, the information booth was a good forty feet in from the entrance, and there were a couple of empty tables with a nice canopy over them at the entrance itself, and 'Fortune favours the Bold', so long story short I grab half of our supplies and annex the table so that we have higher visibility.
Now, my previous post about the AirFair being delightfully SNAFU? Completely true. We really didn't have any idea what we were doing, and as it turns out we may or may not have annexed the US Postal Service's table intended for the commemorative Airmail stamp cancellation thing. Luckily, we were unaware of this and had been directing patrons to a different table and tent combo that had yet to be occupied. When the lady from the Post Office arrived, she was directed there so it all worked out in the end.
Back to supplies. I've already talked about the two-thirds that was actually one-half, now let's talk about the rest. Pens. We were provided a number of pens (officially 5000, my rough estimate has it somewhere around 34726) and told to give them to people who filled out a survey regarding the quality of the show. I cunningly surmised that we were not going to get eleventy bajillion customers, and so decided to just start handing them out. Anybody who passed by my field of vision and wasn't deaf got a pen. Here's a sample of my sales pitch for these things:
Me: Would you like a free pen?
Patron: No thanks, I've got plenty at home!
Me: Really? Do they say AirFair100 on them?
Patron: ...
Patron: Good point! (accepts pen)
In total we were given six boxes of pens. At the end of the day, we had five and a quarter boxes left. Really, that is kind of a sad statement on the attendance of the AirFair if you go by the official numbers for the pens. By my estimate, the show was a wild success. Also there was a Media Check-In booth attached to the Info Booth main base, from which I was able to snag three Media packets that were left unclaimed as only two media outlets showed up and bothered to sign in. I also have seven pens left, and about fifteen pictures taken from the five-minute run through the show that I was able to take. And here they are! I have large versions of them as well, but I didn't want to table-break and I am far too lazy to write thumbnail code right now.
That last plane is a Long-EZ, for those wondering. The rest? Haven't the foggiest, as I didn't stop to check for signs.
The PTB also decided to draw a wildly inaccurate map, but they could not have known that we in the Info Booth would annex so much territory on the day of the event. You see, the information booth was a good forty feet in from the entrance, and there were a couple of empty tables with a nice canopy over them at the entrance itself, and 'Fortune favours the Bold', so long story short I grab half of our supplies and annex the table so that we have higher visibility.
Now, my previous post about the AirFair being delightfully SNAFU? Completely true. We really didn't have any idea what we were doing, and as it turns out we may or may not have annexed the US Postal Service's table intended for the commemorative Airmail stamp cancellation thing. Luckily, we were unaware of this and had been directing patrons to a different table and tent combo that had yet to be occupied. When the lady from the Post Office arrived, she was directed there so it all worked out in the end.
Back to supplies. I've already talked about the two-thirds that was actually one-half, now let's talk about the rest. Pens. We were provided a number of pens (officially 5000, my rough estimate has it somewhere around 34726) and told to give them to people who filled out a survey regarding the quality of the show. I cunningly surmised that we were not going to get eleventy bajillion customers, and so decided to just start handing them out. Anybody who passed by my field of vision and wasn't deaf got a pen. Here's a sample of my sales pitch for these things:
Me: Would you like a free pen?
Patron: No thanks, I've got plenty at home!
Me: Really? Do they say AirFair100 on them?
Patron: ...
Patron: Good point! (accepts pen)
In total we were given six boxes of pens. At the end of the day, we had five and a quarter boxes left. Really, that is kind of a sad statement on the attendance of the AirFair if you go by the official numbers for the pens. By my estimate, the show was a wild success. Also there was a Media Check-In booth attached to the Info Booth main base, from which I was able to snag three Media packets that were left unclaimed as only two media outlets showed up and bothered to sign in. I also have seven pens left, and about fifteen pictures taken from the five-minute run through the show that I was able to take. And here they are! I have large versions of them as well, but I didn't want to table-break and I am far too lazy to write thumbnail code right now.
That last plane is a Long-EZ, for those wondering. The rest? Haven't the foggiest, as I didn't stop to check for signs.