January 1, 2004
WORKING THE COAT ROOM, UNFORTUNATELY
Have you ever worked / volunteered in a coat-check room? I hadn't, before last night that is, and now I never hope to see the innards of one again! While I wrote the other day about the absurdity associated with unionized workers' claims that no one should be allowed to volunteer for a job that a union employee could do for pay, I am now realizing -- especially after last night -- that not every volunteer opportunity is appropriate for volunteers.
Last night (New Year's Eve) I volunteered to help out at the Indiana State Museum's annual Family New Yearís Eve Celebration. I worked the coat-check room, along with one other person -- a local high school student named Ming. Simple enough job, right? I mean, how difficult could it be. People plop their coats on the counter, you ask for .50 cents per item along with a last name and phone number (which you write on a numbered ticket), hand out a receipt, hang up the coat(s), and then do it all over again for the next customer. In theory, easy as pie. In practice -- with well over a thousand people in attendance, and only yourself and a high school student at your side -- it's an entirely different scenario.
Someone in charge decided 15 minutes into the job that since 70% or more of the evening's patrons were dues-paying members of the museum, no one should have to pay for the service, which only encouraged more people to check their coats. Can you picture it... jackets are piling up left and right; we're running out of coat racks upon which to hang jackets; car keys, scarves, and hats are falling out of the jackets in such a way that we have no idea which they belong to; the kids jackets have spit, drool and pieces of food on them; and the line is just getting deeper and deeper and deeper. Finally, Sarah, the 20-year-old daughter of the museum's volunteer coordinator, comes to our aid. We stop accepting coats (which upset more than a few people), finish hanging up the coats that hadn't yet made their way to the back room, reorder everything according to coat-check receipt number, and then turn right around to give everyone back their checked items. Fortunately, by the time we moved on to handing out coats, Sarah's dad, boyfriend, and two younger brothers all came in and thankfully helped.
Volunteers want to do a good job but cannot do so when they're placed in situations that are well beyond their control. In this case, the museum should have known that with over a thousand people in attendance, there'd be no way for two volunteers with no prior coat-check room experience to provide the level of service required to meet the demand.
Posted by Mikal at January 1, 2004 6:06 PM
| TrackBack
