February 29, 2008
Super Secret 2.0
I want my own motorcade. That is a seriously cool way to travel. I got to drive the staff van again yesterday, and if I keep this up I am going to get spoiled. What a crazy, crazy world we live in.
The event in Fort Worth last night was pretty amazing. Over 11,000 people filled the convention center to see Senator Obama. But getting the event set up was quite frankly a fucking nightmare. I had shown up early to get pictures of the crowd was asked by one of the field organizers if I wanted to help train some of the volunteer staff before I had to leave for the motorcade event.
We gathered all the volunteers in the convention center to give them instructions. Each field organizer was in charge of a specific area, moving people to their seats, signing in future volunteers, etc. So we were all standing there starting to explain to the volunteers what needed to be done and suddenly, with out any warning the doors were opened and people started pouring in. Pandemonium ensued.
No one knew where the VIP crowd was to be seated. No one even seemed to know where the VIP check in was. The TSA personal screening people coming in had conflicting instructions. The staff was caught completely off gaurd and were scrambling to rally their volunteers. Signs directing people to various places weren't hung yet. It was insane, just insane.
But thanks to the dedicated work of those amazing staffers, we managed to pull it together. Slowly but surely we got control of the situation. Eventually everything was running somewhat smooth. Somewhat.
I left the scene while it was still a little panicked for the motorcade, and when we got back to the convention center everyone was seated and ready to the the senator. The staffers saved the day. Who ever opened the doors early should be drawn and quartered.
In the end it was a great rally. And that's what matters.
Posted by monkey at February 29, 2008 11:19 AM