lead dog for mfg on a rainy night in georgia

Game time had finally arrived and we five were ready for it!

It wasn't even 6 PM yet and our table was set up and decorated with giveaway treats: keychains, lens cloths, buttons, and stress-relief hearts!

That's me, the lead dog of this event, standing on the left with my thumb up!

With me on the back row were Felicia Shuman, Carolyn Barnett, and Debra Johnson, while Lillian Sykes and Connie Cooper were in their seats, tablets at the ready to check in those coming for the movie.

We're all wearing brand-new AARP volunteer t-shirts except for Carolyn; that's because she wasn't part of my team, she was just there to see the movie.

(Thanks, Emily, for snapping this great photo!)

 

The movie was "Practical Magic 2" and I made sure all four on my team knew that they would be released to watch the movie from its start.

Remember, I already saw the film a couple of weeks ago for that very purpose.

I also assured them that it wasn't necessary to have seen the first movie.

That's because the makers realized that a lapse of 28 years would make it difficult for anyone to recall all the important points from that one.

That's why they did a recap at the start of this second film, to catch folks up.

 

So, there we were, stationed just outside the arcade.

Debra Johnson was the lobby usher, to help attendees find our check-in table.

Here are Lillian Sykes and Connie Cooper, practicing by checking us in!

I had learned how to do that from Gabrielle Richardson after the meeting yesterday, when she gave me a lesson on the use of the tablet and on CVent, the software program that is used for tracking attendance.

This morning, I made sure both tablets were fully charged, then I set them up to both open on CVent.

At AMC, I showed Lillian and Connie how to log in to the program, then I walked them through the use of the program.

They caught on pretty quickly and soon we were all checked in!

That meant we were ready to start interacting with attendees!

 

That was a little slow at first, as the steady rain and darkening skies delayed arrivals to the cinema on this Friday night.

Shortly after 6:30, though, we started having a steady stream of attendees.

That included one of my 'Lunch Lady' friends (Jackie Frant), another of our fellow AARP-GA volunteers (Sheila Bell), and my first niece with her family of four!

Plus, Debra Johnson was good at steering other folks to our table for the free MFG ticket to the movie!

That led to a new experience for all of us: how to register a new attendee who was not on our master list.

Lillian Sykes was the first to encounter that issue and when she called me over, I was at first daunted.

Did we truly have to fill out all those fields on two pages of registration?

Nope, we did not, I determined!

As I showed her, all we needed was their name and their email, then we could press the blue button to bypass all that other stuff - good!

Just a few minutes later, I showed Connie how to work the system, too.

I think we had at least four people that registered tonight!!!

 

That was good, as our numbers were a little lower than hoped.

Of the grand total of 127 registrants for the "Movies For Grownups" event, we had 63 that actually came.

When I checked for a pattern for those who did not show, I saw that the majority were couples.

Most likely they were deterred not only by the rainy weather, but also by AARP's warning that the event was overbooked and they might not get a seat.

That heavy-handed approach might be fine for larger cities, but it's not going to work here in Savannah.

People will come only if they know they will get in.

I'll have to be sure to let Gabrielle Richardson know that.

 

And did all go as planned tonight, on this inaugural volunteer event?

I'd like to say it did, but that was not the case.

I took that photo of the hallway outside Screening Room #5 at 7:42 PM.

The movie still had not started.

We had delayed the start from 7 PM to 7:15, to allow for those slogging through the rainy traffic to arrive safely.

I had apprised the attendees of the delay and the reason... and they clapped!

Very nice!

But the projector did not start up at 7:15 and it took a few minutes for the word to pass along to Chris, the manager on duty.

He'd gone up to the projector and attempted to restart it, even calling AMC Headquarters to get their tech to help.

Twenty minutes ticked by, then the projector started, but only the sound worked, not the video, so work continued.

By that time, the truly elderly in the audience were concerned about the time; it was already a late movie for them, and now it was going to interfere with their bedtime.

They had gone to the lobby and I'd met up with them, trying to be reassuring, trying to get word from Chris on his progress, but finding out his walkie-talkie was having issues.

Seriously.

So, one of the AMC clerks went upstairs to get Chris so we could stave off a growing number of unhappy attendees, now clamoring for refunds for the money spent on snacks and drinks.

Seriously.

By 8:10, things were calmer.

The movie was on and those who came for it were staying in their seats.

There was an orderly line of people wearing the red AARP armbands that marked them as legitimate attendees, eligible for the movie passes - and food & drink vouchers - that Chris was distributing from behind the counter, along with his apologies for the delay.

Trey, the manager I'd first spoken to about this weeks ago, had come from the grocery store, as he was off-duty when Chris called him for assistance.

Trey and I spoke for some time, with me filling him in and assuring him that Chris had taken all the right steps and had been very helpful for the AARP event.

In turn, Trey assured me that Tom - the other manager I've known for years - would be in at 9 PM for the closing shift.

I asked that Tom be present in Screening Room #5 as our MFG movie ended, to distribute movie passes to those who had stayed, and Trey told me he'd make sure of it.

And there Tom was, smiling and genial as he always is, offering his apologies for the projector issues as he placed passes into happy hands.

Success.

And Chloe had me up in front of the screen, dancing to the credits with her, and Christina even came up and joined us!

Yes, I'd call that a pretty successful first event.

I know the MFG event here on October 29th will run much smoother now that we've had this trial run.

Let's hope that leads to regular MFG events in Savannah.