How to instruct a line manager?

I have an event I'm working at with my boyfriend, standard balloons and face painting, 50 kids for 2 hours.

I am debating on hiring my sister (high school aged) as a line manager for the night, but I'm not sure how to instruct her on what exactly she should do. My worry is that inviting her along might cause me more problems. I have never used a line manager at my events before and I'm not entirely sure how to approach it, insight is greatly appreciated!

We usually go with the whoever's sitting in my chair they get painted/balloons strategy, but for this large of an event I don't think it will work as well. Also, in the event that all the kids don't want face painting, I close up my laptop cases and my brush case and do balloons to finish off the balloon work before the time runs out.

Dear Kooky Clowns:
My line manager gets the children to decide what they want before they arrive at my chair, takes the last child out of my chair, lifts the new child up into my chair, and takes the last child over to the mirror to glitter them.
My line manager stops arguments in the line up, and keeps order. The most important job is the shutting down of the line.
I pay my line manager twice the minimum wage and it is not enough... this is the toughest job in our tent.

Having said all that... I paint around 15 -20 faces per hour, depending upon complexity of design. I am amazed that you can paint 25 children per hour AND twist balloons. KUDOS! You are amazing. I have no advice, because if I am painting 50 children in two hours, that is all I am capable of doing well. I would disappoint some children who wanted glitter tattoos (I am sensitive to latex, and would never twist). I would have the client hire a twister, or a glitter tattoo person, as I cannot do it all.

Please tell me how it went!

Happy Painting!

Thank you so much Fesspainter,

Yes this event is special, I'm only doing quick mostly one stroke things, with a design sheet so it's nice and fast paced. For our party packages the maximum is 10 kids per hour, that's when I get to have my artistic fun

I would do face painting, my coworker would do balloons, and I would help him in the event that the face painting is slow or finished (if less kids want it and I've budgeted faster designs so I can paint all the kids and such.)

Still waiting for the client to email me back after speaking on the phone with him Sunday morning, but I'll update if the event goes through.

I haven't mentioned anything to my potential line manager yet, but if I do I think I'll offer her $20 or $30 for the two hours and then a bonus if she does a good job, i.e. by not directing all line arguments and conflict to me. Knowing her, a bonus will provide more incentive for her to problem solve.

Thank you again for your advice!

So my client for this event dropped out on me today, two days before the event... But thank you so much fesspainter for your advice I'm sure it will come in handy when the corporate holiday party season around the corner.

well, that was kind of rude to wait until the last minute to let you know

If you are in need of a line manager again there is a very informative video on YouTube from facepaintingtips.com.

My line managers get these instructions.

1. Make sure the child knows what they want BEFORE they sit down.

2. Clean any dirty faces or preferably get the parents to. (I also provide the tools needed for this)

3. Make sure noticeably sick children in line are informed they cannot be painted today (i also provide stickers to hand out)

4. Keep the children back in line, and out of our work space.

5. Instruct the next child into the seat quickly as the other leaves.

6. Promote our other services to the parents in line. ie: birthday parties etc. Talk us up, tell them about how fast we are, what we can paint, that our paints are safe, that we sanitize hands and brushes while we work. Etc

7. Pin back bangs or long hair of the children before they get in the chair.

8. If we are doing Pay Per Face, my line manager is also the one who handles the money.

9. At the end it's their job to 'cut' the line and make sure no one else lines up. Very important.

10. End of the day while we pack up, it's the line managers job to keep any and all "just one mores" away and explain we have some where to be, but here's a sticker instead. We can usually back our kits faster so, we give the line manager 'runner jobs', emptying water/trash, carrying things etc.

Some times I get volunteers as line managers and they have a few less duties, like they don't pin hair back or promote us. Reason being that I find they tend to not know how to pin hair BACK properly, and i just have to redo it, or they loose my hair clips etc. I also don't trust them to promote us properly, and they aren't getting paid by me, so why should they?

I pay my line managers min wage (which is decent in BC).