Sunday 5 September 2021

How to shorten queues: 01 (London)

  

As mentioned in the other blog on the subject (Registering for evening classes), the queue could get quite long, with waiting times being as long as — if not more than — half an hour.


When I became Co-ordinator, I decided to do something about it.


Continuing students (therefore known to me / the system) only needed to fill in the form without any need for us to speak to them (to assess their level).  They just had to hand in the completed form for me to sign my approval.  So, I decided to pull them out of the queue to shorten it: give them a form, let them go to one side of the room to fill in the form, bring it back to me, and leave.


This reduced the queue rather rapidly.


(The continuing students would still hang around for me to finish, so that we could go to the pub.  The regular pubbing ones would even turn up towards the end of the registration time window to do their registration, so that we could all leave together for the pub.  Yes, my students knew how to get their priorities right...  I’d trained them well.)


(London, 1995 onwards)

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