What the print shop is about

I worked in the print shop at the last General Convention, in Anaheim. While it lacks the dramatic potential of working as a page in the House of Deputies (interesting and entertaining) or House of Bishops (better for those who enjoy the subtle pleasures of parliamentary maneuvering), it has the satisfaction of producing a product and delivering it everywhere it needs to go.

And stuff has to go everywhere. The Episcopal Church has a bicameral legislature, and all legislation needs to be approved by both houses, so all 852 deputies, 175 bishops, 250 alternates, translators, and various staff with mysterious names get a copy of everything that gets printed. And we in the print shop deliver it, meaning we get cameo appearances in every part of the convention, and often get to go backstage. In Anaheim, the print shop was on the second floor while many of the deliveries were on the first floor. We got to use the freight elevators a lot. I love freight elevators. We're on the ground floor in Indy, sadly.

Being in the print shop gives you no special insight into the status of legislation. When a job comes in, it's all hands on deck to get it out as fast as possible. For us the important thing about a document is not what it is, but what color it is and how many pages it has. This morning we delivered a 9-page white document and a 19-page blue document. The first page of the white document involved AIDS ministries; the first page of the blue document involved the Revised Common Lectionary This afternoon we will deliver a yellow document and a white document. I don't know how many pages they have.