Day 298: My first time selling Canucks 50/50 tickets

I was nervous because it's my first time. It's like starting a new job or new relationship. You don't know what to expect. The instructions told me to meet at a gate. I got there and saw some people waiting outside. I wasn't sure what they were waiting for. I walked thru the doors and told the guy at the desk that I was there to volunteer. He told me to wait outside with the other people. When I am nervous, I tend to talk to people to break the ice and to make myself relax. I started talking to this guy who looks very eccentric. He was wearing a Canucks flag as a cape, a sparkly blue wig and a hat. Once more people arrived, they were talking to each other so they have worked together before. We just waited outside the gate till a Canucks staff came outside to check us in. At that point, they asked us if they have any extra tickets if we are interested in watching. I said 'yes'. After all the volunteers were checked in, we went inside the arena. We hung up our jackets. We had to give them our ID's and they lent us a volunteer shirt. It's a red long sleeve fleece shirt with '50/50 volunteer' printed on it. After we got our shirts, we were split up into two groups; one group are the newbies, one group experienced people. Of course I was in the newbie group. In this group, we had a staff member explain to us about the 50/50 program, the tickets, how to sell them, some perks and basic housekeeping / common sense rules. They then assigned us a location to sell the tickets. I was located at Gate 2 tonight. There were four of us there. We sold tickets from 6-7 pm and at the first intermission. Then we submitted our money and our left over tickets to the staff.

After my first shift, I have learned:

- don't be afraid to ask questions. That's how I managed my shift. I didn't know what was going on and I just asked people around me.

- one perk is getting food at 1/2 price, as long as you are in your volunteer shirt. A White Spot burger is more delicious when it is $4.87 for a burger and fries.

- there is no quota. It's not like a sales job. You sell what you can.

- you get to enjoy the game when you finish volunteering. They only have certain amount of tickets per game. I think it is random on who gets the ticket. Because it's a preseason game, I think all the volunteers got a ticket. But once regular season rolls around, I think it will be more of a luck of the draw on who gets a ticket. I managed to watch the second half of the second period and the third period. That's ok for me. That is the exciting part of the game anyways.