Waht is your haunt's management structure?

[Badger]

I was curious as to how you have set up your haunt's management? Do you have one person who's in charge of everything or do you have supervisors and managers responsible for certain areas? Who deals with actor or patron issues? What do your individual managers do and how much authority does each one have?

I know its a lot of questions but one of my clients is looking at hiring a manager and wants to know if they need one or several.

[Allen H]

I run a park with five haunted houses

I am the artistic director

I have a director of actors
he reports to me

I have one house manager per house
they report to the actor manager

I have one house tech per house
they report to the house manager


I have one over worked costume mistress

Thats our basic structure
The house managers begin to deal with patron problems, then call the director of actors or security if necessary. House managers inform the director of actors who then has the power to fire actors. Refunds are handled by the General manager because the actors and money sides should not mix in my opinion.

[Jim Warfield]

Ravens Grin

..a totalitarian Dictatorship. But is me or my wife?
Here we go again!

[Boni]

We are a charity haunt, no one is paid, but we manage nights of operation like this.

I am managing all aspects of the haunt and will roam to whomever needs me.

My wife and my primary partners wife are the acting supervisors. They have assigned areas to cover and they roam the dead space helping with drinks, people wanting to leave early, bathroom breaks, etc. They have about 20 actors each that they supervise

My primary partner is the mechanical & prop guy. He is ready for any quick repairs that must be made. He has two guys with him to help.

Then I have a parking lot, concession, and ticket booth supervisor. He is the director of the youth club we raise funds for so he is out shaking hands and managing the traffic flow, as well as problem solving any issues with concessions, ticket sales, que line, etc.

[Gravely]

I have a manager for
1-safety ( patron, lines parking)
2-Ops and haunt safety
3-actors ( performance director)
4- front of house ( includes ticket.food.gift booths)

the performance director is the only person with on the spot fire an actor privileges without asking me. she also has an assistant to deal with the scare actors specifically ( as opposed to the set actors or guides)

they all have the right to make their own judgments if they feel necc. on their own.
they have all been with the show over 10 years

most nights, I just walk around and don't do much of anything. I'm just there in case there's a real problem.
I have really good people, and while I do most things year round, once we open, it's their show

[The13thHour]

I have it set like this:

House manager: She has been working with the haunt for years. Her duties are to roam the house and keep an eye on things, deal with the section leaders, and give me updates of anything I need to know about. If an actor is not perfoming up to par, she talks to the section leader and they handle it. If that does not work, she will deal with it.

Section Leader: I break the house into 3 sections. The leaders roam only their sections, each has a radio and can call in any problems in that section. They work directly with the actors to ensure that each is doing what is expected, gives them acting tips, hands out water or covers spots if someone needs a restroom break, etc. They have alot of authortiy, only seasoned vets get these spots and I trust their judgement enough to give them control over their actors. Each one picks an actor from their section for the monster of the night vote we have at the end of the evening.

Outside manager: He is in control of the q-line and parking lot actors, the flow of the q-line, and any major problems that may arise outside of the haunt. He also looks for patrons that may cause problems. He has a duel role in that he is the number two person at the haunt, so if he is inside and says jump, they jump.

Director: I wander around and fill in where needed. If I have to be a monster for an evening I always wear a mask and a custom made costume that take forever to get on but I can snatch off in less than ten seconds. I learned years ago that a drunk, a mom, or a cop react better to a non-costumed authortiy figure than a costumed one. I check on the ticket booth, roam the q asking questions, talk to people as they exit, etc. I let my managers and leaders lead, and only jump in if I have to. If there is a complaint or a problem from a customer, I deal with them directly. If media shows up, I great them and answer their questions, then I usually hand them over to the house manager.

[Brandon_K]

most nights, I just walk around and don't do much of anything.

Man, ain't that the truth!

We have an Operations Manager (myself) that handles everything in general, mainly hastening or slowing the line, customer service issues, etc.

Head of Security, description should be obvious, Head of Maintenance, should also be obvious. We have a manager for each zone of the house and the Volunteer Coordinator that handles actor placement, actor speeches, etc. He is also the "head zone manager" that controls all actor related issues. Lastly, we have a Head of Parking.