What is your job title and how long have you been with the UI?
I'm an attendant at Assembly Hall. I've been here 18 years.
What does your job as an attendant entail?
We [there are 15 attendants] do all the changes and all the cleaning in the building. For example, when we go from a show to a basketball game, or from a theater show to a rock concert, we have to take things down [such as the base for the stage], do the setup [of stages, or the basketball floor, for the next event] and clean up the seating area and the rest of the building. We take apart the stage lids and stack them, take off the uprights [the dividers that flank stages] and then put down the basketball floor. The floor comes out in carts, in 15 rows, and we lay the rows out on the floor and put in the pins and bolts that hold it together and in place. We also do cleanup inside and outside and landscaping outside the building.
How long does it take to change from a show to a basketball game, for example?
It takes more than eight hours to completely change over, and that doesn't include cleaning the building.
Do people leave behind a mess after shows or games?
It depends on what type of show there is. A "Sesame Street" show during the lunch hour can get kind of messy. There's a lot of eating being done. A theater show isn't usually too messy. With a rock show, you get a lot of kids in there partying and that can be a mess, too.
What's the toughest part of your job?
The late hours can be bad. Sometimes we have to come in after shows, and the work doesn't start until 1 or 2 a.m. When you finally get out, you still have to come back eight hours later. But most of the time we are on the day shift.
What do you like most about working at Assembly Hall?
If there's just one thing, it's that we're doing something different every day. Around here, one day I might be in the seating area mopping or putting the basketball floor in or out plowing snow. We might be setting up the conference rooms a couple of times a day. In the summer we might be outside, trimming the bushes or cutting grass.
Have things changed much at Assembly Hall since you started?
The biggest change is in the concessions. When I started here, we could go through the seating area with a dustmop [to clean up], but now we couldn't push a dustmop through. Now, we have to [wet] mop after every event. There are more and different kinds of food being served, and people can eat in the arena. When I first started, they were just beginning to let people take food in. Now everybody takes stuff in.
Nancy Koeneman
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