Although I haven't decided if I will be running for Operations just yet I will answer these questions to keep up with the group and possibly add some suggestions.
- What do you see the role(s) of the Director of Operations as being, and what do you believe you bring to the table in this regard?
When I look at ops I see the forward facing department of the convention. Between the Info Booth that helps direct attendees, the Yojis always there to watch over what's going on, and registration to invite everyone into the party. As director (although it can be said for any director really) the director of ops is there to mold this team into a well tuned (instert awesome classic car of your choice here) ready to take our attendees on the spin of the year. Whether this be choosing the policy for how registration will operate for the year to a quick call on what Yoji will do for an incident.
- As the Director of Operations, what changes (if any) would you like to institute?
- Looking at the respective sizes of the staff list sections, it seems as though Operations is one of two mega-departments by comparison to the others (and the larger one at that). Considering how much our staff levels have grown, do you believe it's appropriate for Operations to be in charge of all of the functions it presently has, or should some of the responsibilities be parceled out?
For these two I'll answer together.
There are changes I would like to see these year. The main one is that ops has become a giant in comparison to the other departments. I have a concern with this first off because of how it effects the checks and balances put in place by having sepparate departments.
I would like move some sub departments from ops to the other directors to help reinforce my belief of what ops is.
Communications become an invaluable group for helping the con run smoothly this year but they're a background group that never get seen by the attendees. A better department for them to go under would be secretary.
Another movement would be staff preservation/con suite back under Vice Chair.
Both of these movements would orient ops back to a more forward facing group and put these other sub departments into departments that reflect their needs.
1. Just from people that I know, I count eight staffers who have special dietary needs. What responsibility does con suite have to these staff? If con suite cannot handle special diets, should/could other arrangements be made for these staffers?
There should be no reason why within reason that we can't accommodate some of the needs of these staffers.
Depending on what the needs are there could be some meals made for all staffers that still fit the needs of these staffers. Depending on how restrictive the needs are as well it should also be possible for a small dish being made in the time that a larger one for the staff as a whole is cooking.
The main thing is knowing the needs of those in question early on and then preparing a menu early on so questions can be asked.
This would also help with the planning and shopping to insure the is enough for everyone and maybe help avoid some of the current rants the con suite is currently getting.
2. This year some awesome new staff made fairly basic mistakes due to bad information or lack of training. Since Yojimbos are often the ones carrying out or enforcing rules and policy, how can Operations best support new staff so they don't wind up in these situations?
Planning!!Our convention is at the point where it no longer matters how many staff we have. Whether it be the newest staffer or the most tenured we should be able to account for all degrees of readiness with our staffers and prepare them for them.
Also ensuring that the department from the very bottom to the very top is on the same page so that when someone jump a page ahead or falls a page behind the rest of the team can bring them back.
Something that has been talked about in years past and seems to fall through the cracks are SOPs for each department and sub group. Giving the team something to reference allows for a standard to be made and implemented.
3. If a change is made at con in, say, how we need to read ages off of badges, what is the best way to make sure all staff know what is going on?
Meetings.
And not those kinds of meetings were the minutes are recorded and the hours are lost.
As a new shift gets ready to start having a opening meeting to get the team caught up on what's going on for e day and any changes that had to be made.
There was at least one of these but more will help.
