bad cop nasty cop

Denis Grey, RASC Toronto Centre, put me in a very uncomfortable position today.

At the Ontario Science Centre, as the buses of General Assembly delegates, speakers, and guests arrived, I was sequestered by Denis to check "work the gate."

If badges did not show PAID or stamped for this afternoon's activities, it was explained to me, they were not registered for the OSC Mars Exhibit. And there were only a designated number of tickets for the Mars show.

I asked what I was supposed to do or tell people then when I saw they were not registered. Denis didn't have an answer, said it wasn't his problem, mumbled something about not letting them in, and rushed inside.

What?! Oh this is not good.

My first GA. First time meeting some of these people, from other centres, across Canada, first time they are meeting me, meeting the webmaster for Toronto Centre. And I have to be the guy to tell them "You may not enter..."

Wouldn't you know it... Dave Lane, RASC national president, and his wife, did not have the "proper" indicators on their badges. Neither did Kim Hay, national education staff. Great. Just great! I had to tell these important people, please wait, you can't enter.

They were upset. Kim was angry. I tried to explain that we were trying to do a head count. To find out if we needed to buy more tickets. Lucky! I usually can't come up with B.S. that fast.

After a quick discussion with Katrina, we determined, based on the number of people on each bus, we had a total number below the number of Mars tickets.

Relieved I told every one waiting outside to go in, "We're good! We have enough tickets."

We enjoyed our moment of exultation. Briefly. Denis and John, president of the Hamilton Centre, were standing there, with some lackeys, checking badges, and only giving out tickets to some people. Holy crap! Did I ever feel like a heel.

I implored John and Denis to buy more tickets. Stop this segregation. John, after a long delay, finally did this.

I was livid. Why did this have to happen? Who was responsible? Would the first impression visitors had of me be tarnished as a result of this poor planning and extremely poor handling?

I seriously considered telling Katrina I was not going to assist for the balance of the GA...