I was on the Main Gate at the East Centre again today with Kevin, a stalwart who's been on the gate for the past few years and several new volunteers. Once more, it was a lot of fun.
Apart from a 'lively' twenty minute period at the beginning of the afternoon, everything was very jovial and light-hearted and we were able to talk to quite a lot of guests on their way in or out of the centre. The police turned up a couple of times, but went on their way after a chat - once with me and once with a Green Badge. They did point out that local residents had complained about an increase of litter and we agreed to tidy up. At one point two mounted police appeared, although I'm not sure why: pets are not allowed into the centre and the kennels are already at full capacity (seriously though, I can't really see how a horse could be useful, no matter what is happening inside a centre!).
At one point, two of the Green Badges had to deal with an angry Guest who has now been asked not to return this year. The episode was watched by a driver who was waiting to take some medics to another centre. It turns out that the driver was an off-duty policeman (so he didn't get involved) and once calm had been restored, he called me over. He asked me to let the GBs know that he was very impressed by how they had handled the situation and admitted that he would not have "shown anywhere near as much empathy" if he had been in their shoes. Not a bad vote of confidence for the GBs, I reckon.
The sun came out for about an hour, drying the ground after last night's rain and brightening up everyone's mood. Unfortunately it looks as though it won't be back - the weather forecast is for rain and gales over the last couple of days.
Three of the senior volunteers were sounding decidedly croaky - it looks as though the 'Crisis cold' has started to strike, which may mean we're down on numbers for the last couple of days. The number of volunteers is already well below what was expected, so several services did not open this morning. Luckily, other centres sent vols over so everything was up and running by the afternoon.
We slept 330 people last night and that seems to be pretty much the average for the week. It's approximately 10% higher than the estimate I was given at the beginning of the week and this appears to be the case across all the shelters.
I had a look in the dining area before leaving the centre this evening and was impressed to see that all the tables had been set, just like a restaurant. If only the morning shift had sufficient volunteers to do something similar - traditionally, the morning shift operates with fewer vols than is ideal, the night shift manages with next to no vols and the afternoon shift has so many vols that half of them spend their time sitting, smoking and drinking tea wondering why they bothered to turn up*
The housing service seems to be doing a roaring trade, which is great news. The statistic that I care most about each year is how many Guests we manage to get on the road to proper housing. I hope I'll know the full figures by the end of the week.
Only one more full day to go. I expect to be on the gate again, so I guess I should dig out my hat.
*I'm taking the mickey a bit, but based on my experience over the past six years, it's not a million miles from the truth.
Posted by dompannell at December 28, 2006 9:59 PM | TrackBack