Brian
Cieslak's ECOF-2002 Report
ECOF: The view from the registration table
Well, we had a ball at the registration
table. Karen and I had a chance to meet all the fliers and most of the visitors
and guests. I kind of chuckled when Mike Henke gave me that stack of flight
cards and a sign up sheet with 60 slots for fliers. "Your pretty optimistic: I
said. By the end of the day we were using the back of the sign up sheets to
handle to over flow of fliers and we almost used up all the flight cards ( I
think Mike said he brought 200 or 300 flight cards).
I am scanning a sun baked memory here but I think we had around 81 fliers. At
least 6 were from the make it take class, we marked then with a 'miti' on the
sign up sheet and gave them their 2 B6-4 motors, igniters, wadding and a quick
course on flight preparation. We had 5 spectators and one flier from the
planetarium. The only visitor from Discovery World was the instructor 'Mr.
Piccard' and his wife.
The visitors who identified themselves as 4-H was a mom and her 2- teenage sons
who drove 3- hours to see the launch. They were from somewhere in Northwestern
Wisconsin and one son saw the launch announcement on the web page. As a birthday
present for the eldest son they came down to see the launch. They watched
rockets from 10 in the morning till around 4:00 in the afternoon. Thanks to
Scott Hansen for his hospitality toward them by sharing the shade of his tent. I
was hoping they would win a door prize and get a chance to fly. I took the boys
out on the range to launch my Mirage but we had trouble getting the igniters to
fire so it never got off. Oh well.
We had a couple and their son come up from Illinois (2 hours away) so their son
(though I think Dad was the driving force) could launch his Stormcaster. It was
his first flight ever. On the way to the pad he dropped his rocket and broke a
fin. Fortunately with a little CA and some accelerator we were able to salvage
what he thought was a disaster and got him in the air.
Another couple from Illinois was on their way out when they stopped by the
registration table for directions for the way home. (Karen works for AAA) While
they were charting a course the couple won a nice door prize. If they knew how
how to get home they would have missed out.
We were able to track down one rocket that was lost earlier in the day and found
later by an intrepid recovery crew as they searched for another rocket. The
fliers had left phone number with us at the registration table.
It was pretty tough sitting next to the door prize table knowing that we were
going to give those all away. That was quite a selection of stuff. The folks who
made the donations as well as the crew who went out and 'coaxed' donations from
the hobby shops and vendors should be proud. The prizes were enticing enough to
bring in over $100 in raffle ticket sales.
All the fliers that were registering were friendly and co operative. That made
the job easy and enjoyable. All were proud to show us their NAR or Tripoli cards
to verify their certifications. Thanks to Jon for giving us a break around lunch
time so we could eat and try to get one bird up.
We could only think of a few issues to consider for next time. We need a cash
drawer with compartments for different denominations of bills. Schedule workers
for registration after 2:00. Seems a lot of launch workers waited till their
shifts were done before registering as well as a half dozen 'walk ons'. Also a
sign in book for non flying guests would be nice. Several vistors asked if we
sold soda or cold drinks.
The sun and the heat was finally getting to us by 5:00 PM so we transferred
flight cards and registration to the LCO and RSO then headed home for a shower
and a nice steak dinner at
the 'In the Old Times' Restaurant in Mukwonago. We passed out on the couch about
9:00 PM.
Lets do it all again, but lets wait till next year.
Brian and Karen Cieslak
PS. God Bless the man who brought the porta potties...