PHILADELPHIA – The Republican Party is taking no chances with the coordination of this week’s convention, and Audrey Scott was taking no chances with the members of the Maryland delegation and the part they will play.
“When I yell `applause’, please applaud,” Scott told the state’s delegates Monday. “When I yell `scream’, please scream.”
As rally chair for the Maryland delegation to the GOP convention, it is Scott’s job to tell the her delegates when to stand, when to sit and when to wave the signs that have been placed in each delegation’s area. She said she will receive her instructions by telephone from higher ups in the party, and will pass on the directions to the delegates.
Two phones are mounted on the wall in front of Scott’s seat on the convention floor. The gray phone is an outside line, and is used for communication between the delegates.
The white phone is Scott’s convention hotline – it goes directly to the command center, Scott said. When she picks it up to make a call, she said, the phone doesn’t even ring on the other end but is answered immediately.
A light above each phone flashes when a call is received on the floor. You would have a hard time hearing a ring over the convention noise.
Scott briefed her troops Monday, the first full day of the convention.
“These (conventions) are very carefully programmed, but we want it to look spontaneous,” she said. “We want Maryland to shine. What shows on television is what the majority of viewers see.”
There will be a specific time to wave the “Laura Bush” signs, she said, and another time for another sign. The convention is “very, very organized,” Scott said — all the necessary equipment would be located on the delegate’s seats.
The instructions were met with some polite laughter from the delegates.
National Committeewoman and former gubernatorial candidate Ellen Sauerbrey called it “organized spontaneity.”