Can't change global variable from snippet template

Rhythmyx Technical Discussion
1

I am trying to automatically display content in a two column table where it toggles from the first column to the second and so forth based upon a global variable and the logic I have in the snippet template. I can read the global variable from the page template, but I cannot change it in the snippet template. See below.

##---- START PAGE TEMPLATE ----
#set($column = 1)
#slot("ogi_MultimediaColumnsAuto" "<table>" "" "" "</table>" "")
##---- END PAGE TEMPLATE ----



##---- START SNIPPET TEMPLATE ----
#if($column != 2)
<tr>
#end

<td width="50%" valign="top">$Displaytitle</td>

#if($column == 2)
</tr>
#end

#if($column == 1)
  #set($column = 2)
#else
  #set($column = 1)
#end
##---- END SNIPPET TEMPLATE ----
2

The Velocity alternator tool ($tools.alternator) is a much simpler and cleaner way to do this.