When people want to "help"

[gluther]

any advice on this or at least a good story?

I engineer at a community radio station for in studio performances/interviews. In addition to our usual adequate and capable team of engineers, assisstant engineers, etc.. we never have a shortage of sincere people around who want to "help". If they ask, i usually say, "thanks, but we're covered", encouraging them to hang out elsewhere in the station. when they do help, (asking or not) they'll usually fumble around for 5mins trying to tear down 1 mic stand, wrap a cable into a horrible mess, or worst case (as in last night), rip a 1/4" headphone plug apart because they didn't notice the plug lock. ugh...

-george

[JGriffin]

I usually say "it'd take me longer to show you how to do it than to do it myself, maybe sometime we can get you in for some training"...and they back down.

[;ivlunsdystf]

Send 'em off in search of a "star wrench" or some other such nonexistent item.

This is a popular tactic in theater.

[JGriffin]

Send 'em off in search of a "star wrench" or some other such nonexistent item.

This is a popular tactic in theater.

or a "phillips screwdriver."

[Professor]

Ah, KGNU radio, right? I never worked there, though I worked at KBVI for a while when it still existed as in independent AM. Oh crap, that's like 6 years ago now.
But I suppose you have that doubly bad since it is after all, a community radio station with all those volunteers running around. Are you and/or the other tech crew guys paid employees? At the school studio I have a few paid student employees and lots of our student & faculty 'clients' offer to help with tearinng down after sessions. My stock response is that 'the paid guys get upset if there isn't payable work for them to do and I have to rely on them to be there at weird hours on off-days, so I gotta keep 'em happy.' If you or the tech crew are paid, then that could work. Otherwise just make up something about the station managers requiring the tech-crew training for anybody that will be touching gear... and that's only offered once a year.
It is always hard though when they really are well meaning, community volunteers.

-Jeremy

[Seventh Wave Studio]

Nice change to what I get, interns who want to sit around and read magazines and smoke with the band.

I always tell them to go wring the bass out of the bass traps.

If someone is trying to help, just let them know that you are responsible for the equipment and you are a bit worried. Give them some bad story or example. Thank them for their offering to help. Heck, if nobody would have let me help when I started out, I would not be doing this today!

[;ivlunsdystf]

I used to deal with pro sound guys near Portland, Maine - they told me that they always had plenty of brute labor at hard rock/metal concerts with national acts because local kids would hang around all day by the loading dock of the venue and offer to help in hopes of meeting the band. In their description of the scene, it was as though they could totally count on these types of kids being there all ready to help out for free when they pulled in to start loading in a sound system.

Can you get these volunteers to wash your car or something?

[Red Rockets Glare]

ya'll are a bunch of dicks.

you should be passing on whatever you know whenever you have a chance.

after all, who taught you?

[theposterkid]

I engineer/mix for a live music show at the university here. DJ's are required to have a certain amount of volunteer hours, so I sometimes get people who are there "to help" who really don't care about recording. At the same time, they are all very nice, but sometimes I just don't need "help" other than rolling up a snake, and moving mic stands from one room to another.

I will say that sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed. I have found myself distracted from making important mix changes, or other decisions, because I was trying to be polite and show someone, in depth, the concept of the patch bay.

In the end, I don't mind teaching people, I would just rather do it during downtime than during an important session. If the person is particularly interested in recording/mixing, and has some experience on their own, I'll get a well-tuned mix up over the course of the first 3 or 4 songs of the band's set, and then go outside and check the mix in the DJ booth, and a couple other places while I let someone "watch the board". It usually works out...

For those people who "want to help", I would say the key is to be ready for anything. If I need a screwdriver, be the first person to know where they are, and the first person to bring me one. If we're not getting signal on a mic or DI, be the first person to offer to run out there and flip the pad switch, make sure the mic is on, or change out a mic cable.

There is a guy that has been helping me a lot over the past few months, and he is a real go-getter. I thought we had a bad DI box, but he had the werewithal to run out there, take the face plate off of it, and put in a new battery. It saved a live session we were doing (by then we were already on the air), and those are the things you remember when considering how helpful someone truly is.

Andrew

[gluther]

i think you hit the nail on the head with feeling overwhelmed. sometimes its just nice to get the work done without having to explain what you are doing, or how to do everything to people around you. but, since we are a volunteer organization (KGNU indeed), it's important for us to strive to incorporate volunteers as much as possible.

i do like the idea of having a more formal 'training' session, away from the context of an actual performance, where we can walk through set-up, cable wrapping, patchbay concepts. etc.... once upon a time we had that, and that's how i got started. that would also give us a chance to discuss other important concepts like 'how to be a useful assisstant', or more selfishly, what "I" want from an assisstant, hehe. then we can schedule accordingly so we don't have more engineers and assisstants than band members (which frequently happens!).

[trodden]

Send 'em off in search of a "star wrench" or some other such nonexistent item.

This is a popular tactic in theater.

or a "phillips screwdriver."

When i worked in a hospitals kitchen, I'd always ask the new people to go get me the bacon stretcher.

[fromthecurve]

Send 'em off in search of a "star wrench" or some other such nonexistent item.

This is a popular tactic in theater.

or a "phillips screwdriver."

When i worked in a hospitals kitchen, I'd always ask the new people to go get me the bacon stretcher.

good band name ... the bacon stretcher.

[trodden]

Send 'em off in search of a "star wrench" or some other such nonexistent item.

This is a popular tactic in theater.

or a "phillips screwdriver."

When i worked in a hospitals kitchen, I'd always ask the new people to go get me the bacon stretcher.

good band name ... the bacon stretcher.

ahaah totally. after looking on the big industrial shelves for the "bacon stretcher" for like 10 minutes (what the fuck does a bacon stretcher look like anyways....)someone would ask... "can i help you find something..." "yeah, umm trodden told me to go get him the bacon stretcher and that it was on these shelves..." that was fun.