Coat Check

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

I'm Kat, one of the chicks who was working the Cthulu Coat Check this weekend.

This was my first convention. I was wandering around the con looking very confused, and some lovely people pointed me towards coat check to drop off my (huge) backpack. They were swamped, I offered my services, and the rest is history!

One of the questions we had at coat check was if the tip jar was rude or not. We put it up and encouraged donations, but they were not required. If no one was offended, we might do that again next year. Good idea, or bad?

-Kat

Comments

[jetshade.livejournal.com]

A tip jar at coat check, for a group of volunteers who aren't
getting paid and who aren't guilting you into anything?

don't sweat it. for the friendly and helpful service the
coat check team was offering to everyone, anyone who gets
offended at the tip jar is either cheap or looking for something
to complain about.

[flyingwolf.livejournal.com]

hmmm. I'd think it would be rude, unless the money was going to charity or back into the convention. Why should those volunteers get tips and others not? FWIW I didn't use the coat check this year so didn't see the tip jar but have worked coat check in the past and never thought of a tip jar, nor would have accepted personal tips. (now, back rubs or chocolate chocolate would have been accepted with NO hesitation!)

[bryttan.livejournal.com]

Actually, as the person who used to get stuck helping run the Sunday coat check (because they used to take over my Registration space in Stanbro), there have been many years where a tip cup or tip basket have been used at Arisia's Sunday Coat Check.

Generally those tips have gone to the people behind the counter to do with as they need (whether it's buy food when Staff Den is closed/out of food, or tip the valet/bellhops for carting stuff around, or get home in emergencies (I think Kat experienced that one this year, in fact, so we pooled the tips & gave them to her)).

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

My coat check monies went directly to getting myself sunday night and monday morning, and getting home after being trapped in Boston. I was very thankful and put a shout out in my LJ to the readers who saved my ass.

[flyingwolf.livejournal.com]

ah well, as you describe it, the money is going back into the convention and not being pocketed by an individual.

Still not feeling good about an individual in coat check getting money when other volunteers aren't. Are they working harder? Do they deserve it more 'cause they are more visible?

[swashbucklr]

I always tip the Coat Check people.

Always. It's a common enough thing, and they deserve it, just like waitstaff, busboys, and other service people.

However, there is a point about it being a volunteer gig. I think that making it for donations, or for care-and-feeding might be a bit more approprate. But I don't think it was necessarily rude.

Hi there

[lensman.livejournal.com]

I'm the one who walked you down to coat check.... and I'm also one of the organisers... (This year I was the Operations Division Head)... I hope you had fun at your first Arisia (of many more to come)....

Thank you for helping out, that's what makes this all work...

I'll second the opinion about the fact that none of the other service area's have tip jars out... Although I am not persoanlly against them, they could lead to bad feelings for some of the other volunteers, and I'd like to avoid that if possible....

Kat?

[erik-j-meyer.livejournal.com]

as in the bannana?

Re: Kat?

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

YES!!! As in the banana! (for those who didn't make their way over to coat check, we had a banana with a name badge. He was named banana, and then later named Kat, as I found someone with my name and told them to change it with the banana, as having someone else with my name was unnerving.)

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

I fed the great beast many quarters to help stave off its devouring of the poor people trapped behind the counter by our ungrateful luggage.

I thought I was doing a proud and noble thing by aiding them in their hours of dark need.

And so I believe it was a reasonable thing to have.

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

I hit my head so many times on those evil racks that I had to take some tip monies and go buy bandaids. :(

[kgola.livejournal.com]

I worked staff in Con Ops, and while I am used to tipping coat checks, bell hops, and wait staff, etc., I think that at Arisia, since the coat check is staffed by Arsia volunteers who can get the same benefits that the other volunteers can get, if there is a tip jar, it should be put toward the con.

[zeyr.livejournal.com]

I would have to agree on this one. EVERYONE who volunteers for the Con works their butts off. There are certain established benefits for this. Singling one area off for an additional bonus, such as tips, just creates a have and have-not kind of situation.

You have to consider that there are people who work many hours every week of the year in order for this con to happen. For that, they receive the same benefits working AT the con that everyone else does. In addition, those benefits cap after 12 hours work at the con, yet there are many people involved who work 20-30-40 hours starting from load in (bringing in the con equipment from storage and setting it up), continuing all the way to load out (striking the con equipment and bringing it back to storage).

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

bloody brilliant idea. We should do that next year, k?

[bryttan.livejournal.com]

Actually, I don't know if you were around on the few occasions that I went or had someone go down to Au Bon Pain (because Staff Den didn't have hot food or was out of proteins) & pick up food for the Coat Check folx. I used my share of the tips from the jar to do those things; so please realize that your solution is already being implemented. :)

[superfinemind.livejournal.com]

I meant to tip the cthulhu (i was the one who corrected the spelling, actually) but my day went kinda funny and by the time i came back for my stuff, i was a little out-of-it...

[bryttan.livejournal.com]

"One of the questions we had at coat check was if the tip jar was rude or not. We put it up and encouraged donations, but they were not required. If no one was offended, we might do that again next year. Good idea, or bad?"

While I don't think that having a tip jar is a bad idea in theory, I _do_ feel that as the con went on and we got more hyper & more tired (at the same time :), we perhaps got a little out of hand with the encouragement / haranguing of people to 'feed Cthulu'.

My $0.02,
Bryt

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

I prefer the term "gently steering".

Next year, tip jar gets a name badge.

[cutieperson]

as the person who helped bryttan with the opening shift of coat check (& thus initially put out the tip jar) i am a little offended by the thought of even "gently steering" people to tip.

tips are meant as a thank you for good service, and frankly i wouldn't consider being pushed to give money for a free coat check as "good service".

besides, you wouldn't see a paid bellhop asking directly for tips, would you? :)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I think it's a bad precedent. As previously mentioned, everyone working the con is a volunteer, whether they work 2 hours or 200 (no, that's not an exaggeration). It isn't fair for one group to get paid for it when nobody else is. Free food is available from consuite or staff den; if you're not able to go get it yourself, you can always ask someone to get you something, or to watch your spot while you go.

Also, we went to some effort to arrange a free coat check for con members, so they wouldn't have to pay at the hotel coat check downstairs. Asking people for tips kind of sabotages that. (I know it's voluntary, but when there's a jar some people feel obligated to put in - and then will be resentful.)

I Disagree.

[sdavido.livejournal.com]

Before I say anything else, I didn't check a coat, but I observed the folks at coat check doing a bang up job, and like most volunteers, doing their best to make Arisia a great con.

That being said, I am against the tip jar, and VERY against "gently steering" people to feed C'thulhu.

Arisia is a volunteer effort. We all work, we all pay. Some get reimbursed, such as those who put in a great deal of work, but they don't get payment or tips.

I ran the Dr. Who Costume Challenge. I think it rocked. We, or rather I, provided prizes. The convention did not pay for these, and I'm not seeking reimbursement. Why? I decided to give them, and didn't think of it early enough to propose the idea.

I'm not denying that we now live in a T.I.P. oriented culture. Heck, read Tipping (<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0786403470/qid=1106777399/sr=1-11/ref=sr_1_11/002-5434866-8352055?v=glance&s=books) by Kerry Seagrave (excellent book by an excellent author), or visit Las Vegas to get an idea of how bad it is. But I don't see that those who work the coat check do more work than say the Fast Track people (kid wrangling), Security (drunk wrangling), or the ConComm (fan wrangling).

We're all fans who pay out of our own pocket to make this con run and run well. When the con "ran" another day, my wife and I stayed to help, seeing as she is on committee. (Okay, she helped, I just puttered and lent the occasional paw *grin*) We had to pay for another room night. Should we put out a tip jar? (we're NOT independantly wealthy, and neither is anyone I know on concomm).

I feel for you . . . but I think bandages were available for convention staff. Tips paid for food? What about the con suite? LOTS of protein filled peanut butter and other goodies. Didn't like the food up there? Bring your own (we did, due to dietary issues).

Again, I'm not trying to dispute the work put in, or claim that you're all up to something evil. I just think it's a mistake.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

It didn't bother me at all when I saw it, and I didn't think about it at all until now.

But now that I'm thinking about it, I'm starting to not like the idea.

Certainly, since the money went back to the con, in the form of Care and Feeding of the coat check volunteers while they were working, that makes it better.

But, well, I was only able to show up for one day, and, of the fourteen hours I was at the con, I spent seven of them doing Staff Support stuff. And 50% is a low percentage of time spent working for staff folks. For that, I got the right to eat food in Staff Den, a nifty white ribbon that says "STAFF", and, well, that's it, because I didn't put in enough hours for a T-shirt or comp membership.

I'm happy with this, because, if I didn't like doing this, I wouldn't do it. I'm not complaining. But I do feel kind of weird that some people would get tips and others not.

But now that I'm working through my feelings on this, I think there's an even more fundamental problem. Putting out a tip jar separates out the people into two classes: people giving tips, and people getting tips. And one of the things I most like about Arisia is that there's just fundamentally no difference between attendees, gophers, staff, ConCom, GoH, Masquerade Stage Ninjas, panelists, gamemasters of LARPS, artists, DJs spinning for dances, and so forth. We're all just sort of, y'know, folks at Arisia. And putting out a tip jar feels like it kind of breaks that dynamic.

I mean, it's not really a big thing. But the more I think about it, the less I like it.

[mycroft.livejournal.com]

While it's normal for a coat check to have a tip jar, I have to point out that no other volunteers at the con get tips. Like all the other volunteers, you also get compensated with comps, free food, massage, and sometimes even crash space. Asking for more compensation than other volunteers get seems a little rude.

Having read the thread...

[happypete.livejournal.com]

Here are my thoughts. These are only my thoughts--your mileage may vary.

Tips at coat checks are customary.
Tips everywhere are always voluntary.
Tips are NEVER to be explicitly solicited--or at most, one does so passively with a sign identifying the tip jar.
Any location that deals with the public and provides a serivce can put up a Tip Jar. People tip, or don't, as they choose.
I disagree with making tips received go (explicitly) to the convention--any group that solicits tipping should figure out how the tips should be used and distributed amongst themselves. It seems to me that in the case of coat check, they did the right thing.
Fandom is a big tent--some of us work for comps, for massages, for the fun of it, and many other motivations. Far be it from me, a 30-something fan with a decent income to say nix to other fans ways of running a con....for them a few bucks to help with the ride home or a better meal than can be cadged together from convenience stores and the con-suite, is a lot more important.

Bottom line, Kat, and others--if there's any lesson to be learned from this I think it's not to ask a question if you're not prepared for all the possible answers.

Personally, I don't think the Arisia eBoard needs to make a policy on tipping, etc.--I think each department is handling this very well on their own.