KF3M	Hanover Area Hamming Association Hanover, Pennsylvania

BARC Gate 2007

March 30 - April 1, 2007.

Friday afternoon the Dobson family and Charlie, W3CQB, showed up to clean the ticket booths. A bottle of industrial strength 409, a roll of paper towels, a heavy duty vacuum cleaner and some amount of elbow grease were quickly consumed. But the place started to look habitable for the weekend.

Now a BARC official showed up with our official hamfest HT and keys for the booths. We explained that we did not need these as all we would do was sell a few tickets. Not run the place. He explained that one group that was to run one of the other gates had backed out on short notice. Rusty, our expected leader and accountant, had been reassigned to that gate and that we were on our own at the Park and Ride Gate. So we quickly explained that we had not planned on the additional manpower to do this. And that to get capable management and accounting personnel on such notice was impossible - particularly on a weekend. There was just no way that we could do it. Unless, of course, we got paid a lot more. BARC agreed that additional pay was appropriate but was not sure of the amount. We will have to wait until the May business meeting to find out.

Saturday morning at oh-dark-thirty. We picked up the strong box with the tickets and seed money. We picked up the donuts and the coffee. We got the lights on and the gates open. We got two windows manned and ready. Our hastily organized accounting department was ready. Still had time for coffee before the official 6 a.m. opening. Hey, this is going to be a piece of cake.

The three of us were handling the crowd very well. Suddenly, we were completely overwhelmed! Lines backed up. The sellers kept running out of change. And running out of tickets. Accounting was a pile here and a pile there to be sorted out later. By 10 a.m. it slacked off and we could catch or breath. Later we learned that the other parking lot had filled up and that they were redirecting everyone to our gate. Everyone entering the hamfest came through our gate. The rest of the day was a "piece of cake."

Sunday morning - same oh-dark-thirty routine. The Sunday crowd is much smaller that Saturday. We never broke a sweat all day. Just before 10 a.m. we had the official BARC golf cart pick up three of our Techs and take them to the exam room. About 11:30 the golf cart returned with three General Class Hams. Congratulations to Joe, N3MKE, Ralph, N3XWN and Dave, KB3FQL.

The operation went well. We certainly could have used a couple more helpers on Saturday morning. Otherwise we had adequate help. BARC was pleased with the job we did. And most importantly, our treasury is nicely replenished. We also passed out 900 flyers for our own Mini Tail Gate Fest. Thanks to

Andy - AF3I
Sharon - K3DUH
Al - W3TRW
Dave - KB3FQL
Joe - K3CAR
Trish - N3DUH
Joe - N3MKE
Brian - N3VN
Ralph - N3XWN
Charlie - W3CQB

for making it happen.

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