Rangers

Basic Department Description

Attendee Relations/ Rangers are the eyes and ears of the convention.

They monitor the convention to limit and reduce potential problems, and provide information attendees may need, with dual goals of safety and enjoyment of all, in that order of preference.

• The most important skills for the job are a level head and the ability to keep calm in sometimes stressful situations. Also important are de-escalation skills and, as with any public facing position, patience.
• The Rangers department can be contacted by emailing [email protected] or [email protected].

Yearly Responsibilities

• Rangers department needs to understand and agree with the policies of the convention.
• Attendee Relations has some equipment requirements, primarily radios - these need to be tested before the event for suitability, or have a contractual guarantee of same from the providers.
• There is a security manual that dictates the responsibilities of the Rangers, our Radio protocols, and so on. It should be updated relatively soon after the completion of the convention as needed based on any feedback from prior years.
• The Rangers team should be trained by their Lead or a designated alternate (such as the Second) in groups and/or one on one to ensure they understand their duties and the content of the manual.
• The Rangers are a sub-department of Operations, and will run out of the ops room (though their duties are primarily roaming about the convention).

• Social media is your friend - they can put out calls for more volunteers, and trust me, there's never enough.
• Ask your Rangers to follow the various Social Media accounts are share their content as appropriate - the nature of Social Media is that we're all on their team, too.

Minimum at-convention scheduling

• Daytime - 2 pairs (4 Rangers)
• Evening/night - 3 pairs (6 Rangers)
• Late night - 1 pair (2 Rangers)
• Total for all periods expecting 8 hours per day: 12 - peak on Friday and Saturday

• All staff for security will be trained; they may have other duties at the convention. (Especially since 24+ hours is a lot to expect over a weekend, we're very happy to accept assistance in the form of part time or Junior Rangers)

Your Department on the Website/in the Conbook

• Rangers conbook listing is generally just a list of names/ credit roll. Make sure it has everyone on it in their appropriate roles, and doesn't credit anyone who hasn't been in contact.
• Make sure to have someone look over the information before sending it to the respective lead.
• Send it to the respective lead.

• If you have any future updates, make sure to send them to the Web Lead!
• If you spot any mistakes in your blurb for the conbook, make sure to contact them ASAP about it!

6 Months before con, what do you need to have done?

• The rangers manual edits should be done at this time, addressing the concerns from the previous year, and any changes in the responsibilities of the department.
• It's good to have a meet and greet style meeting around this time - people may not be certain what they've signed up for and want out, or they might have friends that they'd like to come Ranger with them. Additionally, there may be people on your volunteer listing that you find difficult or impossible to get a hold of, and planning this sort of meeting therefore gives you a better idea of who is active and likely to be actually available at the convention proper.

3 Months before con, what do you need to have done?

• Do you have enough volunteers? If not, make sure the Social Media team knows, and that the other con volunteers know we'd be happy to have them for a day, etc.
• It's good for the Rangers to know first aid- it might be good to put together a training session open to all the volunteers, regardless of department, in order to decrease the individual cost.
• You should start building a schedule for your operations team. (Use the Master Schedule for the year! Programming lead sets this up every year and it houses our event schedule as well as the work/team schedules for at con departments.)

1 Month before con, what do you need to have done?

• Rangers DO NOT need a BEO, as they don't have their own room space, though their parent department, Operations, should ensure that there is a suitable place for eg. Radio recharging.
• Make sure to contact Logistics to get equipment (if any) from the VF storage locker to the hotel for your use.
• If there is insufficient supplies for the department (notebooks and pens for incident logging, primarily), replenish them. Keep your receipts.
• Send in any needed information to the Conbook for print. - Should just be the list of volunteers and their roles (who is Lead, who is/are the Second(s))
• By now most if not all of the Rangers volunteers should be trained, finish that up if not.

After the Convention/Before the Firing Party

• Make sure all your volunteers (and yourself) got inputted into the system for their hours.
• Read the logs from all of the Rangers and prepare a report of the issues the Rangers assisted with during the convention.
• Update this page with recommendations or reminders of things to do in following years.
• Update your guide with any new/relevant information/changes, and/or prepare a list of recommendations for your successor if stepping down. It's a six month out responsibility to finish this process, but no sense waiting if you know the needed changes anyhow.
• A staff feedback survey will be emailed out and sent into the staff chats. Please fill this out ASAP!
• Make any staffing suggestions to the next years’ chair. (If you want to work again, staff who excelled and where, etc.)
• If VancouFur owes you money for department spending, PLEASE PLEASE send your reciepts to [email protected] & [email protected] and then fill out [[1]] ^[[[c]]]

Break down of contacts

• In order for the Rangers to function, it's important to keep in contact with your parent Operations department.
• Additionally, as one of the larger departments, it's important for the Rangers Lead to attend the general meetings whenever possible, and follow up with Operations whenever not. (Specific directives for Rangers come up sporadically as a side effect

Department Inventory and Ordering Resources

• The Radios are rented each year, delivered by the company providing them (no logistics requirement)
• A small notebook and a pen should be provided for each Ranger. After the con these will be retrieved for reporting purposes. Some may be reusable, but it's only a small cost to get more, as well.
• Loud whistles (as attention grabbing/ deterrence devices) - for hygiene, these should maybe be considered consumable and kept by Rangers as mementos.

• Amazon is convenient, but the dollar store is a better price!
• If you're meeting in person, it's expensive unless someone can host. For meeting online Zoom is excellent, $15USD for a month is doable, for sure.

Do's and Don'ts of the Department

• What worked well/Would suggest doing again?

Work closely with the other departments under Operations - Volunteers, Operations, Logistics - we all work together to put on the con and all these jobs need done.

• What didn't work/would suggest to avoid?

At-con volunteers are a poor choice to Ranger - they will either disappear with a radio and never check in, or just generically not be helpful? They are ideal candidates for badge check or on-call go-fer work, but if someone shows up and asks for a radio, I recommend you politely decline.

• What would you suggest to be done for the future years of your department that aren't already in motion?

More people who are Rangers AND part of another department would be nice - feels like we're very insular. 99% of the job is at-con, so people whose work is mostly before con would be glad additions to the team, even if only for one shift on one day.

Other Resources

• Add whatever extras you feel are good tips, tricks, resources, contacts, etc for the future years!
• List any other websites the dept staff may need (for example, Social Media needs a list of all the places that vancoufur has access to or an account on to run social media and who to ask for password resets for if a new person takes over the job in the future.
• Resources for how you organized your time, any apps that were helpful to you, etc.
• Advice on how to work with certain companies if they prove to be difficult. (Some companies we order from, it is best to contact a rep directly instead of doing a straight up online order. )

PLEASE REMEMBER

• Always respond to emails/contacts, even if it is just to say “I recieved your email and will get back to you soon!” / “I don't know the answer but I am looking into it for you!”
• Be sure to contact the Chairs or Admin to make sure you have access to the materials you will need for the year like your Staff Email, Access to any folders/sites with materials, etc. (Be on the lookout for invites or emails to these things and check your junk mail too!)
• Make sure you TEST your new staff email (if any) and report problems immediately to the Chairs! (if you haven't gotten any emails in a while, do another test!)
• Make sure you keep all of your information up to date with the convention staff! Contact the volunteers lead to update your information if the volunteers spreadsheet is not available for direct editing!
• Do not WAIT for someone to contact you. If you have a moment to reach out, do so! Depending on who you are working with, the communication road may not be a 2 way street and you will have to do a lot of poking. Please be proactive!
• Do not edit any staff members’ documentation without permission!
• Keep all VancouFur related documents INSIDE the VancouFur Materials folders. Keeping things on your own gdocs and not inside the VancouFur specific folders makes it incredibly difficult to find needed information for all parties without hassling a lot of staff.
• If you need to make something private in the materials folder (Googledocs or wherever it moves to in the future) Make sure that the Chairs, Admin and Executives CAN STILL SEE IT. We need to know where you are and if your files are all hidden we cannot proactively offer help, guidance, or corrections. Otherwise, just keep things public/view only to prevent people from messing with your info.

• Make sure you know who your Executive is! They are there to help you and oversee the branch of departments you are in. Contact [email protected] / [email protected] to check or check the contact page on the website! You can also use the contact sheet for the year