Bag Stuffing

Organising a Rotary Conference isn’t all glamour. Obviously there are perks, such as the Executive Suite at the Hotel, and the top table at the Gala Dinner. What nobody told me beforehand is that sometimes even the Consort has to roll up his sleeves and get stuck in.  The matter of  delegate bags is a case in point.

We are anticipating around 350 delegates to the District  Conference in Bristol between 3^rd and 5^th October. It is traditional for delegates to be given a bag, which contains the Programme, some Conference information, and various leaflets and other small items such as pens, notebooks, sweets and anything else the DG can obtain for free or almost free. The bag itself varies from year to year, depending on what the Conference Committee considers to be a suitable bag at a reasonable price.  A good bag will be used again and again by Rotarians for a long time after the Conference, so it is sensible to come up with something practical, and not  emblazoned with too many logos and  slogans.

                                                Examples of Conference bags

This year we have a sponsor for the bags, our own Ron Enticott, who is sponsoring them through his company Airde Accountancy.  Because we have a sponsor, we have been able to look at a good quality bag, of the type which can be used to transport a laptop, for instance. The bags carry the Rotary logo, and also a modest logo for Airde Accountancy. This should not prevent people from wanting to use the bags after the Conference. 250 bags were ordered, the idea being  that couples don’t necessarily want a bag each. So one bag will be given to each solo delegate and one bag between each couple, unless both are Rotarians, in which case they will each receive a bag.

For the past few weeks and months, the DG has been collecting together things to be put in the bags, her idea being that we can take them to Bristol in our car. Also she has decided against getting a team of bag stuffers together, believing we can stuff them ourselves quite easily. It would be easy to get a team of willing volunteers from the club to come over and share the task of putting things in the bags, but the DG would not be happy unless the house was perfectly clean,  with food and drink provided. So we decided to do the work between us, and the house wouldn’t need to be clean.

Last weekend the bags arrived at Ron’s office in Addlestone, and I went over there to fetch them on my way home from golf.  There were 10 large cardboard boxes with 25 bags in each, and they took up all the available space in the car, apart from my golf clubs. It was clear there was no way we could take them all to Bristol ourselves, as well as our luggage, suit bags, and all the other things we needed to take. Ron offered to take 3 of them, so that was a good start.

I brought all the boxes in to the house, and put them in the living room.  A box full of computer bags is surprisingly heavy, and they took up a lot of space on the floor, until the DG made me stack them in a corner, which seemed better. The boxes themselves were quite battered, as if they had been treated quite roughly on their journey from the manufacturers in China.

                                                Boxes of bags

That afternoon we decided to make a start, and we managed to fill 50 of the bags in just over an hour. We had all the items spread out on a table between us, and we each loaded half of the items. Incidentally,  Pauline Hedges has been a great  help using her extensive network of contacts to find free gifts for our delegates, which included pens and little boxes of mints. 

                                         Putting the DG to work

It’s quite surprising what problems can occur, whilst doing a simple yet repetitive task such as this. Firstly, and this seems obvious, you must remember to put everything in the bags at the same time. After we had finished our first 50 bags, the DG remembered there was another printed sheet that should have been included.  So we had to get the bags  out of the box and put this additional sheet in before putting them back in the box  Another thing we discovered  was  that once the bags have been stuffed, they are more bulky, and don’t easily fit back into the boxes any more.

Foreground: 25 empty bags fit into box. Background: 25 stuffed bags don't fit in

Also the boxes are much heavier with the stuffed bags in them. Not wanting to damage my back lifting them, I wondered if we had contact details for the Bhangra dancers from the other night. The problems with the cardboard boxes were solved by Ron Enticott, who decided to buy some large plastic crates for himself, but lent them to us for the Conference. Each plastic crate carries 30 stuffed bags, so we needed nine of them. 

                                             Much tidier in a plastic crate

Last Wednesday I had a day off work, so the DG and I had a good session of 2/3 hours during which we stuffed all the remaining bags with all of the goodies, and put them into the plastic crates, which are rather heavy, but easier to handle than cardboard boxes.

                                        A bag and some of its contents

We have also found two other kind people, in Joe Delahunty and Sylvia Courtney, who have each agreed to take two crates to Bristol, leaving us with just two to take, which I think we can just about manage.

Whenever I go to a Conference or Convention in future, and am given a delegate bag, I will no longer take my bag for granted, but will appreciate a little more the hard work that a group of volunteers has put in to deliver it to me.