Stewarding Guide

Introduction

First, a warm welcome to WSC’s Front of House Team. You will be joining between forty and fifty other Warwick students who steward regularly at the Student Cinema, and the show-time customer facing team. We aim to have four stewards signed up for a normal show, although we can operate on three, who will be under the direction of the show’s Duty Manager (abbreviated to DM). If you have any queries or problems, speak to the DM on the night. New Stewards must steward three shows within two weeks to be granted Crew Status (which gives you and your guest free access to our standard screenings). If you are not involved in another area of WSC, we ask that you steward one show every two weeks to keep your Crew Status.

Ideally we would like stewards to wear Student Cinema clothing, which you can order at cost price (we cover shipping fees) each term, if you wish, however this is not a requirement.

Stewards are expected to stay for the entire film in order to maintain crew levels throughout and for clean up afterwards. If you cannot stay, or after signing up to a show cannot attend, we do understand, but ask you email either the show’s Duty Manager, the Chief Duty Manager ([chiefdm@filmsoc.warwick.ac.uk]) or ideally both.

Becoming a Steward & Signing up to Shows

If you are interested in stewarding, drop the Chief Duty Manager an email at chiefdm@filmsoc.warwick.ac.uk and let him know of your interest. You must be a member of Warwick Student Cinema (either Standard or Associate) – note that memberships must be renewed each academic year.

Once set up as a Steward, go to the WSC website (www.filmsoc.warwick.ac.uk), login and hit ‘Rotas’ in the menu. You can then navigate through the term’s screenings and hit ‘Sign Up’ on the row for any stewarding slots available.

Remember; new stewards must undertake three shows within two weeks, otherwise we ask for one show per fortnight.

Please only sign up for shows you know you can make – although there is no limit on how many / how far you can sign up, pulling out at the last minute often results in your slot going vacant and us having less crew to staff a screening.

Arriving

Please arrive and be ready to start 30 minutes before the publicised start time of a show. Most of our mid-week screenings start at 7:30pm, so you should arrive by 7pm (Fridays-Sundays are more complicated).

You’ll probably find fellow stewards or the Duty Manager in L3 itself when you arrive. If not, you should go to the office at the top of L3 where the DM will most likely be (if the door is locked, you are the first to arrive and the DM is late!). Make yourself known to the DM who will provide instruction; normally to clear up litter in the auditorium.

Clearing L3

Normally your first job, we ask that you clear (with the other stewards) the auditorium of litter, both on the desk surfaces and the floor. If you come across any belongings you deem valuable (especially University Cards), please hand them to the DM. Bins are located on the balcony, including Paper and Mixed Recycling containers. Should you notice something dangerous or damage to a chair, inform the DM.

When L3 is clear, usually everyone will meet on the balcony, and the DM will assign you a location for the duration of ticket selling.

‘On the Door’

One steward will be selected to go ‘on the door’. This involves standing in the foyer outside L3 near the right hand-side entrance doors (next to L5).

This steward will stop any patrons going inside until the Duty Manager informs them that the ‘doors are open’. The DM will then also prop open one of the L3 doors.

At this point, the steward on the door will check tickets are for the current show and tear them upon admittance of a customer. When checking tickets, the steward should also look for any items not permitted in the auditorium. It is not necessary to search an individual or bags; a casual glance is usually sufficient and supermarket bags are often see-through. Contraband includes:

• Hot Drinks
• Hot Food (including cold food previously hot and therefore smelly, e.g. pizza)
• Alcohol
• Popcorn

Customers in possession of these items must not be permitted to enter with them. They can either be consumed outside or given to the Duty Manager for the duration of the film. If you encounter resistance, simply ask them to wait there until the DM passes by (which should happen regularly).

Often, stewards on the door will be asked to give an item of publicity with each ticket torn. Tickets must be shown to gain entry, with the exception of the on-duty DM or any Exec member you recognise – do NOT accept WSC clothing as sufficient for entry, these are available to all members.

‘On the Tills’

Up to three stewards will be chosen to sell tickets to customers. Our tills are located in three black flight cases in the office behind the top of L3. Grab any till and carry the case out to the concourse, placing it down on a black trolley. Tills should be positioned as follows;

    Tills as Stacked in Office			Till Locations on Black Trolleys on Concourse

Most importantly, till 1 should be in the furthest right trolley, which when wheeled out is next to the windows.

When all the flight cases have been set down, wheel your trolley out, taking care that it only steers from one end, then take off the case lid and turn on your laptop. All our tills are touch-screen.

The Duty Manager will connect up the cabling and open up the ticketing software; but as you get experience stewarding this will also become obvious. Press F11 to show the WSC ticketing system in full-screen.

Wait until instructed before you start selling tickets.

General Ticket Sale Procedure

1. Scan the Person’s University Card 2. Check for a Yellow Box offering a Membership Sale – offer it if present 3. Sell the appropriate ticket a. If they have brought a non-Warwick guest or are Crew with a guest, add the appropriate ticket by selecting it. b. To deselect a ticket added by accident, click it once more c. Five Film Passes can be sold by selecting ‘Five Film Pass’ – a ticket for the show will be added automatically. 4. Take Money! 5. Hit Confirm and the ticket will be printed.

Tickets Available

Standard Shows have the following tickets:

• Member: £2
• Member’s Free Ticket: FREE (gift for becoming a member)
• Non-Member: £3
• Crew: FREE
• Crew Guest: FREE
• External Guest (of either member or non-member): £3.50
• Late Comer: £4 (you should not need to sell this)
• Five Film Pass: £8
• Five Film Ticket: FREE (person has previously bought and not yet used all of a Five Film Pass)
• Single Free Film Ticket: FREE (publicity / prize credit on account)
• Carer: FREE

Membership Sales

If possible, we always want to sell a membership. These are available for £2.50 to all members of the Societies Federation (Socs Fed). Students may join WSC, Socs Fed or both at our tills. Members of Socs Fed who wish to buy a ticket will have a yellow box displayed on our ticketing software to indicate this; it is cheaper for Socs Fed members to buy a membership and get the Member’s Free Film gift than to buy a Non-Member’s ticket.

A common sales line for this is;

“You are a member of the Societies Federation so can join the Cinema for £2.50 and get this film free, otherwise a ticket alone is £3.
If you join future tickets are cheaper. Would you like to save 50p?”

Benefits of joining include:

• Able to be a member of Crew and get films free for yourself and a guest
• Future tickets are £2 instead of £3
• Able to buy a Five Film Pass for £8 (£1.60/film or 4-films, fifth free)
• Weekly “What’s On” email
• Cheaper entry to AllNighter
• Extra features on our website

To sell a membership to a Socs Fed member:

• Swipe their card on our ticketing system to get the yellow box
• Press the ‘Sell Membership’ yellow box
• Take £2.50
• Press ‘Finish’ on the SU EPOS window

To sell a membership to a non-Socs Fed member:

• Press Alt+TAB to switch to the SU EPOS window
• Swipe their card
• Type ‘Fed’ to get Societies Federation displayed
• Check their card for their Student type and offer them the appropriate product

* Undergraduates can buy multiple years at once should they wish
* Postgraduates / Erasmus students have only one option

• Once a Socs Fed membership has been added, type ‘Cinema S’ to get a WSC Standard Membership in the cart
• Press Next or F1
• Take the appropriate money (total in bottom right)
• Press Finish
• Press Alt+TAB to return to the WSC Ticketing System
• Swipe their card as usual, the membership should have been added automatically.

Sale Notes

• If you print a ticket in error; wait for the Duty Manager who can refund it. A lot of shows have an off-duty DM stewarding or overseeing the tills who could also help you.
• Individuals who forget their Warwick Uni Card can tell you their number, type it and ask them to confirm their name, or as a last resort, you can type in their name directly.
• Individuals who are not part of Warwick Uni (not staff / student / graduate) is an External Guest and must come with someone holding a Warwick card. This is a condition of our cinema licence and cannot be contravened by law.
• Only 1 External Guest per Warwick card holder.
• We only accept £50 notes in rare occasions. If someone wishes to pay with one, wait for the Duty Manager.
• Carers, accompanying a medically incapacitated student, receive a free ticket - wait for the Duty Manager who will issue this.
• Other than ‘Guest’ tickets, the ticket is sold to the specific card holder and is not transferable; e.g. a ‘Crew’ ticket can only be used by that member of crew and not given to a friend to give them free entry.

Closing the Tills

When prompted by the Duty Manager, you will need to close your till. Press ‘Close Till / Logout’ in the top right of the screen. One steward will be asked to print the Master Show Report – if this is you, click ‘Print Show Report’. Everyone will then need to logout and close Internet Explorer. In the SU window, press ‘Cancel’, ‘Close’ and press ‘Yes’, ‘Receipt Printer’ at the prompts before closing the window and shutting down the machine. Flight Case lids should be replaced and the trolleys wheeled back before carrying the cases up to the office.

During the Film

The Duty Manager will have allocated you a side to sit on the balcony, giving you the best leg-room in the house! Whilst enjoying the film we ask that you keep an eye out for any trouble and report it to the Duty Manager. The DM should let you know where to find him during the film. ‘Trouble’ includes:

• Film not on screen / wrong and not been noticed by projectionist
• People taking photographs / video (this is illegal)
• People on laptops
• People making phone calls
• Fighting
• Medical Issues
• Plus anything else which you see as a problem, disruptive or dangerous.

After the Film

Once all the customers have left the DM will get stewards to pick up any litter once more, in the same manner as before, handing to the DM any lost property.

Try to salvage any publicity we’ve given out that has been left behind and is in a reusable state (not crumpled etc.).

Thanks!

We truly appreciate all our stewards and the time they give to the society. These instructions may seem complicated but all-in-all stewarding is common sense and following the direction of the Duty Manager.

Those stewards we find particularly comfortable with the process and eager to get more involved will be invited by the Front-of-House committee to take on more responsibility by training as a Duty Manager. Don’t forget that you can also get involved in other areas of the society; projection, publicity and IT, as well as attend our regular socials to meet a few more people.

See you at a show soon!