By Courtney Ommen
Professional Communication and Emerging Media major
Preparing for University of Wisconsin-Stout’s annual Family Weekend is no easy task for the university’s ticketing employees, who can be found selling tickets at all types of events across campus.
Rhonda Paul, the Service Center operations manager in the Memorial Student Center, leads a team of 15 students who work in the Service Center and around campus for events throughout the academic year. She is getting ready to help her staff during the busiest weekend of the year as well.
For ticketing specifically, Paul is responsible for training her team, staffing events and managing events on the ticketing website. During the busiest times of the year — homecoming, the Career Conference and Family Weekend — Paul is also working the event or on call for her staff and ready to jump in.
Throughout most of the academic year, events that require ticketing staff, like athletics, have at least a few days separating them. Family Weekend, Friday, April 6, to Sunday, April 8, presents a special challenge for staffing because the weekend is jam-packed with events for students, parents and community members.
This year, Paul will staff multiple showings of University Theatre’s “Big Fish” musical” and the School of Art and Design’s annual Fashion Without Fabric show. See the list of events at the website.
“I make sure to tell my staff at the very beginning of the year that Family Weekend is ‘all hands on-deck’ so that they can plan for that. In the past, I’ve had to have at least 10 people working, so that doesn’t leave a lot of extra workers,” Paul said.
Tickets for Fashion Without Fabric have sold out, but tickets are being sold for an overflow viewing area in the student center, via a live broadcast.
Olivia Coroneos, 22, a fifth-year student double-majoring in food science and technology and family and consumer sciences education, is the student lead for the student center and has worked in ticketing for two years. Coroneos says the biggest struggle the ticketing staff faces over Family Weekend is technology.
For theater events, the staff uses laptops to print tickets off University Tickets. “The laptops stop working, the Wi-Fi disconnects, the printers stop working,” Coroneos listed as examples of problems that she has faced in the past.
This year is more difficult as most ticketing staff is new — only about five members have returned from last year. Some of the events will not have any returning staff during Family Weekend.
Fashion Without Fabric is an event that student workers may be worried about. “Fashion Without Fabric is also very popular, so we have to work crowd control. We have to keep that organized and keep people in the right areas. Over the years, we’ve learned what works and what doesn’t, so it seems to go just fine,” Paul said.
“I also work Family Weekend, at least on Saturday night,” Paul noted.
She carries a walkie-talkie and cell phone so that she can be reached by her staff if problems arise. “I come in just to make sure that everything runs smoothly. Fashion Without Fabric can get chaotic, and that way I’m here and it doesn’t fall solely on my student staff,” she added.
The chaos of Family Weekend does not stop the ticketing staff from enjoying the weekend though.
“I’ve been to Fashion Without Fabric before, and that’s enjoyable to watch. It’s a lot to handle if you have to work it, but it’s a cool show,” Coroneos said.
Fashion Without Fabric is also Paul’s favorite event, “It’s just a fun event; it’s very high energy. It’s an event that our campus looks forward to year-round. It’s fun to see what students come up with.”
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