At Neil's request, people simply lined up before each autograph session, and Ops capped the line when they had as many people they were going to take, which I believe accumulated only a short period before each signing started. Tickets were given to a few volunteers, who were allowed to get their things signed first so they could go back on shift, except for one volunteer who held the end of the line. Lines were capped at 125 people (plus the volunteers, which didn't seem like many). Each session still ran to two hours.
The Saturday session was slowed down by the fact that it was a combined session with Peter Beagle and a) it was held in a room with Peter and Neil positioned in such away that everyone had to go past them in a tight space and people couldn't form two lines, b) they originally started with the entire line out in the hall and outside, and moved people into the room in blocks of five, which just wasn't steady enough - Neil had them bring a large section of the line into the room; even though the line had to curl around the walls and made the room hot, it moved faster; c) one of the concom went up the line (I didn't know she was going to do this, and she hadn't spoken with Peter and Neil about it) and collected everyone who had things for both Peter and Neil to sign, and walked them to the front of the line. This understandably upset other people in line, slowed down the line for the first 20 people going through, and meant that Peter largely had nothing to do for the rest of the signing session. Except chat with me from time to time. :) Said concom member had done this under the impression that it would free Peter up to leave once he was done signing the people she brought forward. I let her know that Peter would not, in fact, leave (I never talked to him about it, but as I expected, he stayed for the whole session), and on hearing this, one relieved person in the brought-forward group went back to stand with her friend in line. Quite a few people had Peter sign their program or their badge as they went through, or stopped to talk to him, so he wasn't completely bored, but it was still the wrong thing to do and I wish I'd had the presence of mind to make the snap decision to just say "No, we're not doing this." instead of "This is the wrong thing thing to do," which I did say, but which didn't stop it from happening. Not a lot of harm done, in the long run. Neil was late to dinner, but the fans stopped being angry once the line started moving, as far as I could tell.
It turns out the ticket lottery idea that I posted about to smofs was just an idea from someone who wasn't in charge of the signing (the posting I made significantly upset the chair and the person whose idea the lottery was, and I was asked not to post anything further there). The person who was in charge of the signing, the afore-mentioned concom member, planned to give out tickets at the information desk an hour before each signing began, first-come, first-served, with some reserved for volunteers. On Friday when he arrived Neil pointed out that his fans were complaining by email that this meant those lining up for tickets for his 4:30 Sunday signing would have to miss his 2-3:30 GoH Presentation. He also pointed out that having people line up and then sending them away and having them come back was uneccessary complexity and would in fact slow things down. So they changed it to just the lining up.
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The Saturday session was slowed down by the fact that it was a combined session with Peter Beagle and a) it was held in a room with Peter and Neil positioned in such away that everyone had to go past them in a tight space and people couldn't form two lines, b) they originally started with the entire line out in the hall and outside, and moved people into the room in blocks of five, which just wasn't steady enough - Neil had them bring a large section of the line into the room; even though the line had to curl around the walls and made the room hot, it moved faster; c) one of the concom went up the line (I didn't know she was going to do this, and she hadn't spoken with Peter and Neil about it) and collected everyone who had things for both Peter and Neil to sign, and walked them to the front of the line. This understandably upset other people in line, slowed down the line for the first 20 people going through, and meant that Peter largely had nothing to do for the rest of the signing session. Except chat with me from time to time. :)
Said concom member had done this under the impression that it would free Peter up to leave once he was done signing the people she brought forward. I let her know that Peter would not, in fact, leave (I never talked to him about it, but as I expected, he stayed for the whole session), and on hearing this, one relieved person in the brought-forward group went back to stand with her friend in line. Quite a few people had Peter sign their program or their badge as they went through, or stopped to talk to him, so he wasn't completely bored, but it was still the wrong thing to do and I wish I'd had the presence of mind to make the snap decision to just say "No, we're not doing this." instead of "This is the wrong thing thing to do," which I did say, but which didn't stop it from happening. Not a lot of harm done, in the long run. Neil was late to dinner, but the fans stopped being angry once the line started moving, as far as I could tell.
It turns out the ticket lottery idea that I posted about to smofs was just an idea from someone who wasn't in charge of the signing (the posting I made significantly upset the chair and the person whose idea the lottery was, and I was asked not to post anything further there). The person who was in charge of the signing, the afore-mentioned concom member, planned to give out tickets at the information desk an hour before each signing began, first-come, first-served, with some reserved for volunteers. On Friday when he arrived Neil pointed out that his fans were complaining by email that this meant those lining up for tickets for his 4:30 Sunday signing would have to miss his 2-3:30 GoH Presentation. He also pointed out that having people line up and then sending them away and having them come back was uneccessary complexity and would in fact slow things down. So they changed it to just the lining up.