The Scout Motto is: "BE PREPARED" which means you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your DUTY.

A sound tech that doesn't adhere to the same mentality is going to find themselves in a world of hurt.  An event in which I worked last night demonstrates this perfectly.

Last night, I provided audio visual support for a ministry banquet at a local restaurant.  The set up was simple; a laptop for PowerPoint, a dvd player for a short video, and two microphones.  All equipment, sans laptop, was provided by the restaurant.  I walked in an hour before the event to review the equipment and test any media.  I was told "we already checked everything."  Had I assumed they tested everything and I didn't need to worry about anything, here is what would have happened:

1. The PowerPoint laptop would have kicked to a screensaver and everyone in the banquet hall would have seen the windows "Starfield" screensaver. [NOTE: the first PowerPoint slide (a welcome slide) was shown for almost an hour before other slides were used.]
2. The laptop would have powered down after 30 minutes due to the power setting. 
3. The laptop would have died halfway through the evening because when I checked it, it was on battery power and the battery was nearly depleted.
4. I would have looked at the small 5-knob volume control mixer and not understood why I couldn't control the microphone used by the cello player.  Turned out THAT microphone was hooked into the house PA and I had NO control over it.  I had to tell the cello player they needed to turn that mic on and off.
5. The projector would not have displayed the DVD when needed because, well, projectors are so finicky with multiple inputs and no one had reset it once the laptop was plugged it.
6. After being thanked from the stage at the very beginning and I quote "thanks to the sound guy for being here because that's a position where people only recognize you if you mess up" I would have looked like a moron about 5 minutes later.

It only took 20 minutes for me to ensure the event would be successful from an audio visual perspective. 

I write this today because I know many of you might find yourselves in similar situations.  Being a sound tech, you not only get asked to work events at your church but events outside of your familiar territory.  Had I not checked everything out myself, there would have been a huge seed of doubt in my mind as to whether or not everything was going to work as expected.  I can't be prepared when there is any doubt.

"BE PREPARED" - great words to live by.
 

Have You Ever Work Events Outside the Church?  Any Surprises?