tomorrow the GA starts

Tomorrow, Friday, is the official start of the RASC's 2008 General Assembly.

This affects me in two ways: I've volunteered to assist at the event; and I've signed up as a participant.

When the call went out for Toronto Centre volunteers to help run the show, I immediately threw my name into the hat. Looking back now, I'm not quite sure why. Perhaps it is because it seemed like it was a big deal, a large undertaking. And, at the time, there seemed to be some anxiety about getting everything ready. Perhaps it is also because of my experience. Running the Saab Club advanced driving schools (effectively by myself) for 5 years shed a lot of light on coordinating and implementing events involving a couple hundred people.

Anyway, I'm now fairly actively committed. Katrina is the volunteer coordinator. She's asked me to help with registration and radios and odd jobs as they come up. Somehow, I thought she might ask me to do more; but it looks like she has a good gaggle of enthusiastic helpers.

I'm scheduled for registration duty on Saturday, from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM. That sounds like a long shift! And it's kind of in the middle of the event... I wonder how many people we'll be seeing at that point. I better remember to take a book to read. Perhaps a deck of cards!

She also asked if I would help with the bus loading for the trip to MDA. Since I'm signed up to go myself that shouldn't be too difficult to do. The only concern is having to play "tough cop" if someone doesn't have a ticket. Hopefully, everyone will play nice.

During the volunteer orientation meeting earlier this week, Katrina asked me to help out on Sunday as well (be careful what you wish for). I said I was OK with that as long as it did not interfere in the lecture I wanted to attend in the afternoon. I thought she then booked me from 10:00 AM. But I may have written that down wrong...

At the first volunteer orientation meeting, the topic of radio communication came up. I offered to handle this piece. I was successful, as of Monday evening, at collecting 13 hand-held FRS radios. Charles brought over 100 fresh AA batteries for us to use! Earlier today, I had John inspect my inventory of all the radios and accessories. I printed up a daily sign-out sheet. We're ready to go.

Still, I'm anxious about the entire affair. And I can't put my finger on it.

Am I nervous about meeting people? Is the GA going to be a whole bunch of drawn out meetings bloody meetings? Should I be concerned about losing any of the radio equipment? Am I'm concerned about money spent on parking and travel? I did not buy the meal plans (to keep costs down). But I'll have to make my own breakfast and lunches. I did not buy the banquet dinners. And, at this stage, I'm not planning to go. Will that be an issue? That's maybe not the right word. Will I miss out by not going? Will people expect me to be there? I'm very confused about the whole thing. A consolation however is that I might be able to sign up at the last minute... We'll see.

And that said, there are some things I'm looking forward to. We're going to MDA! That'll be cool to see the place where they built the CanadArms. And Dextre. Phil Plait will be delivering two talks. Can't wait to see him. And it will be a pleasure to meet some of the national staff...

OK. Let's keep this in perspective. Never been to a GA before. You don't know what to expect. Be neutral. Take it easy.

§

I better close off this rant. Very early start tomorrow. Being in charge of said radios...