Stewarding Guide

Introduction

First, a warm welcome to WSC’s Front of House Team. You will be joining a team of roughly fifty other Warwick students who steward regularly at the Student Cinema as part of the customer facing team.

We aim to have four stewards signed up for a regular screening, although we can operate with two or three, all of whom 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 are required to steward three shows within a two week window to be granted Crew Status (this gives you and a guest free access to our standard screenings). If you are not involved in another area of WSC, we ask that you steward at least 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 or ideally both, as soon as possible.

Becoming a Steward & Signing up to Shows

You can sign-up via the online rotas once you've been added as a steward by the Chief DM

If you are interested in stewarding, drop the Chief Duty Manager an email and let them know of your interest. You must be a member of Warwick Student Cinema (either Standard or Associate) to get involved as a steward (NOTE: memberships must be renewed each academic year).

Once set up as a Steward (this will be confirmed via an email from the Chief Duty Manager), go to the WSC website, 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 a two week window to be deemed qualified and attain Crew Status. We subsequently ask for a minimum of 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 in advance you can sign up, pulling out at the last minute often results in the slot going vacant and us having less crew to staff a screening.

If you have signed up to a film that you subsequently can't attend, remember to contact the Chief Duty Manager to let them know!

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 the stewards clear 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’

Stewards with WSC clothing having fun 'on the door'

Ripping tickets '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 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. As shown in the pictures to the right, tickets should be torn roughly half way through - this should prevent people from being able to pass their ticket on to a friend:

• Check that the ticket is valid
• Tear about half way through
• Return it to the audience member - usually with a weekly publicity flier.

Tickets must be shown to gain entry, with the exception of the on-duty DM, the on-duty projectionist, or any Exec member you recognise – do NOT accept WSC clothing as sufficient for entry, these are available to all members as well as former members!

‘On the Tills’

Setting-up the Tills

Up to three stewards will 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 (if you are unable to carry the tills please make sure to inform the DM who will happily switch till carriers!), placing it down on a black trolley.

• Tills in office.png

  Tills as Stacked in Office

• Tills on the Trolleys.png

  Till Locations on Black Trolleys on Concourse

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  Your Duty Manager will ensure that everything is set-up correctly

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  Things might get busy, but we can delay the film, so don't rush and make mistakes!

Whilst these are against the windows, the Master till 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.

Ticket and Membership Selling

A full guide to selling tickets and memberships is available at our EPOS for Stewards page.

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/her during the film. ‘Trouble’ to be reported to the DM includes:

• Film not on screen (for at least 15 seconds)
• Film appears or sounds wrong and not been noticed by projectionist (with no change for at least 15 seconds)
• People taking photographs / video (this is illegal)
• People using laptops
• People making phone calls
• Fighting / verbal disruptions
• 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 any lost property to the DM.

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

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!