“I guess that’s my cue, Emily,” I say. “The processing booths are my domain and I have the setup of the booth areas at all the complexes up on the screen. Everyone will be checked in and will have their SWACon badges created though their allotments will not be loaded until the end of the week. Part of the processing booth will be for the new residents to draw for their assigned orientation day and group, they can select either an English or Spanish track.
“We don’t want to overwhelm at first arrival, so we have daily community orientations scheduled throughout the week. The group assignment will dictate their schedule that day. We don’t want complaints from people arriving on later flights saying the earlier arrivals took all the good spots, so a lottery drawing it is. One of the three tracks from Monday through Wednesday will be in Spanish at the request of ABQ-AC. While the general orientation is for all new residents to complete sometime this week, we’re staggering the Psycept consultation training starting next weekend. We want to give them a little time to settle in.
“Next on the screen is some sample literature the processing booth volunteers will also provide. Maps to points of interest like the community garden and the medical center as well as FAQs of life in PsyTown, so they know what to do when they get to the garden, etc. One of the brochures is how to set up their electronics for the GT carrier, which is why they’re receiving brochures on paper. Speaking of, they will then be sent to the walking tour area. So, if you see people clutching brochures walking around in a daze, they’ll be a new resident. Be kind. My team chose grey as our color. It’s either a commentary on the thanklessness of our task, or it was their idea of a joke.
“I also want to take this opportunity to thank Jamison’s group. His group of volunteers put together the brochures and packages of supplies for each dwelling. They spent last weekend putting the everything together, thank you all.”
“I appreciate that, Gray. Some of us will be on hand to help if any items are missing from the packets, helping them activate their mobiles or other wireless service, or just as extra help for anything. Look for the people in purple shirts. Now to Vito to discuss the tours.”
“Together, Gloria and I are handling the tours as it’s a massive undertaking. On the day of arrival, it will strictly be walking tours around the immediate area. Things like the larger pet areas, children’s play areas, the exchange post, the mail post, the library, and the Civic Center. Starting Monday, we’ll have more comprehensive tours in shuttle buses to coincide with the orientation days and times. Look for us in orange shirts, bright so we can easily be seen.”
“As Vito mentioned, though we will provide walking tours tomorrow, our main push will be on orientation days. We’ll provide a two-hour shuttlebus tour of the area. We will have twelve shuttles per tour time, each with a different route so we don’t all go to the same place at once. Gray will speak more about the orientation days.” Whoops, I didn’t expect to speak to the orientation day nitty gritty. Thanks a lot.
“Goodness, I bet all the attendees today didn’t expect to hear from me this much. Regarding the orientation day, we are covering three things: a structured orientation session lasting three hours, a more relaxed informal two-hour Q&A and online navigation panel, and the tour. We are providing three orientation sessions a day from Monday through Friday, each with 300 new residents. This means about 900 residents a day will be acclimated. I will be handling the orientations sessions on the first day, Wendy has Tuesday, then Kyle, Emily, and finally Friday is Jamison. We each recruited volunteers for the three Q&A sessions on our days and they have their schedules.
“Any new resident with school-age children will attend the regular orientation this week. Then the following week, we’ll hold a separate school session devoted to the setup of the school system, curriculum, coursework, tours of the schools, and meeting with teachers and administrators. Though, in the interest of time, I think we need to move on to the next agenda topic.”
“Agreed. Gray, you also have the third agenda topic, the ‘Psycept Shindig’.”
“Okay, we need to start calling this something other than ‘Shindig’. I never planned for the name to stick, I just used it as a placeholder. PCSS is working on the name thing, but I’ll put a bid together if anyone wants to join the renaming team.” Though there were a few chuckles, no one seemed eager to join that fun.
“A little history of the event first, to have this in our official records. It’s a joint effort between the Psycept Civilian Support Services under the aegis of SWACon Head Office and the Albuquerque Area Council with support from the Bosque Regional Society. I want y’all to know that I have this information, not as a councilmember, but because I’m assisting Director Lowell, the head of PCSS, plan this. This was in the works before I ran for Psycept Council. PCSS thought of the event and received approval from Head Chief Tala, who Director Lowell reports to. As the event grew in nature, he reached out to ABQ and Bosque to participate as well as us.
“It was originally supposed to be a PCSS interaction with TouchVoyants as PCSS has the least amount of contact with
