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JulieRoSch -

Hi,
I´m Julie. Orinoco asked me to post what I´m doing and where I´m going to next. The next really nice place I`m going to is the Israel Convention. First time and I´m really excited. Secondly we´ve just started to set up the second Munich (local) juggling convention in October (24. - 27.10.14). One issue we started discussing is the voluteering concept for juggling conventions in general - which also applies for bigger conventions like the EJC; somehow expecting that another one might soon hit the ground so close to us, we are going to be involved even if we tried very hard to duck our heads ;-). So suggestions on what would be a really good way of getting people to dedicate some of their juggling time willingly to make the event work on a voluntary basis, are really welcome. Please let me know. Like: the ultimative juggler´s volunteer gold card that gets you free Gummibärchen any time at any convention or which gives the holder free and immediate access to the toilet at conventions, no matter how long the queue is ... stuff like that. What is so precious, money can´t buy, a must have, that would make a juggler (even you!) drop whatever he/she/you has/have in hands and lend the organizeres both hands for let´s say 2 - 3 hours? What or who would convince you to stand up immediately if the organizers call for help?
Thanks a lot - you´ve just won the first credits on the road to jugglers heaven :-)

Dee - - Parent

This (and more of this).

I am volunteer co-ordinator for both the BJC volunteer@bjc2014.co.uk and the EJC volunteers@ejc2014.org this year.

For the EJC especially, we want to promote the idea that everyone should do a little volunteering, rather than a select few doing a lot (although we know that a select few will do a lot!).  This is partially down to budget constraints - we can't afford to allocate free tickets to full time volunteers in advance of the convention as attendence numbers are just too unpredictable and we would prefer to be in a position of considering what to do with a surplus than having to try to make up a loss - but also its a philosophical one.  It should work slightly better at a smaller EJC..

So, does anyone have any interesting and low cost ideas - especially ones that have been done at other conventions (or even ones that have been done at non-juggling conventions / festivals).  Last EJC in Millstreet (2006), we essentially made access to the internet cafe to be volunteer only, which worked quite well at the time, but expectations have changed somewhat. 

The usual story is that getting volunteers for early and late badge control shifts are a problem [getting volunteers for badge control during the day isn't so bad].... what do people think about making these shifts "worth twice as much" - i.e. turning them into a 1 hour rather than a 2 hour shift?  We will have full security on a night, so at least we don't need to find volunteers to do badge control at 5am!

I've been working on a little setup that would allow people the option of syncing their volunteering / workshops calendar to their online calendars (and hence their phones), but I think that this may work better at a national convention, when people can use their own data allowance rather than almost everyone needing to use the WiFi.

Thoughts, suggestions? 

JulieRoSch - - Parent

Hi Dee,
so we have more or less the same ideas. One of my observations is, that lots of people don´t seem to know about the volunteer philosophy (anymore) I thought it might help for a beginning to talk about it at every possible opportunity. Homepage (central space, not hidden in a sub - menue) and at the registration desk. I also have the feeling that people are more likely to listen to people they know. So the campaign to make people voluteer should be headed by well known jugglers or others, people are likely to listen to: like Nathan. I would try to make up the volunteers team by people from different countries that are well connected in their communities and know to whom they have to talk if a bunch of helpers are needed - or try to give them the responsibility for a certainjob, eg. a place, badge controls are needed: badge control 1 (2,3,4,) is completely run by the british (frensh, german) jugglers (and friends) etc. This makes the whole issue less anonymous. People are more likely to respond and feel resposibility towords someone they know (and they know this guy knows them) or for a job they feel is their business (like "we want ""our"" badge control to work really well")
Having a list of (small) jobs ready at the registration desk - like Chris said - looks good. In Berlin 2012 you had to go to the volunteers desk first, get a job and only after that you would get your full badge. People got small cards with the job they signed up for. Mathias had a difficult job in collecting the information about where people were needed for what and when in Munich2011 from the team leaders; it is sometimes not easy to predict for what you will need help; but I guess this is easier for Millstreet as you have already had an EJC at that venue.
After Munich EJC we talked about restricting the mobile phone recharging service to volunteers ...

Orinoco - - Parent

Hi Julie. Welcome to the Edge & thanks for joining in.

I think it may be because festivals have become much bigger & better organised over time that some of the awareness of their volunteer nature has faded. Nowadays most festivals are in massive venues & are pretty slick, so much so that to anyone going in to one for the first time they would assume it was a professionally run event.

Whenever the question of how to encourage more people to volunteer comes up the focus of the conversation is increasingly on rewards. Unfortunately I think that reward is in danger of becoming expected if it hasn't already, which just makes it harder for each successive festival. Ticket prices will inevitably have to rise to cover the cost of rewards, but perhaps then maybe we will see a shift to more back to basics festivals.

Also I'm going to stick a #volunteering here to link this thread with a couple of others on this subject that I think will be worthwhile reading.

JulieRoSch - - Parent

Thanks.

There is a lot of truth to this. People believe the festivals are professional because they are high quality. But I believe there must be a way to convince people, that we want nicely organized festivals and indeed we are all willing and capable of doing a quite professional job, but professional is not the same as commercial, what is precisely what we don´t want to be.
As at big festivals one always has to invest a good deal of time in organizing the basic needs, time that keeps one from juggling - I believe that there are rewards that don´t cost much (or cost much and are believed to be a basic service free for everyone, like the Internet Cafe, recharging of telefones and cameras)... and everybody wants to have them.

Chris - - Parent

I was volunteer coordinator for BJC 2013, so I can share with you what worked for us and what didn't.

One thing that worked fantastically was having a notice board by the info point that had small (~10 min) jobs such as carrying stuff to places or restocking toilet paper. It meant that when people would come up to me and tell me that they had an hour to spare, I could allocate them a small job even if I didn't have any "big" jobs to do at that time.

Badges also worked particularly well for getting some of the younger people involved, and have been used for a good few years. Hopefully this will have a knock-on effect and these kids will grow into volunteering adults.

We also supplied hot water for hot water bottles in the evening. If people wanted hot water and we had some small jobs to do, we would often "trade" the hot water for something very small such as relaying a message somewhere, collecting some fresh water for the crews tea facilities or taking a cups of tea round to the security guards.

We collected phone numbers of people with the intention of calling them if a bigger job (such as pass checking or car park attending) came up and needed filling quickly. This didn't work so well as phones were running out of power within the first few days. Even if we did contact people, workshops and other things of the sort would often prevent people giving their time up on short notice.

Pitfalls were also experienced when trying to get people to sign up for the bigger jobs in advance. I had tried to timetable carpark attendees (which turned out to be one of the biggest jobs), and people would forget what times they had signed up for, or their slot would end up clashing with a workshop.

They were the main things. If more things come to mind, I will post them.

Dee -

Once again, I'm looking for thoughts / ideas on #volunteering at large conventions such as an #ejc ... As many of you will no doubt be aware, I've been a bit silly and have committed to be volunteer co-ordinator at both #BJC2014 and #EJC2014.

Unlike #ejc2013 (and many other recent EJCs), we will not have the volume of people present to justify having "full-time" volunteers, so I'm looking for creative, effective, and inexpensive ideas to help to promote the idea that everyone will be expected to do some volunteering during the convention...  If the majority of people did one volunteering shift during the convention, then, with the exception of certain roles that require extra responsibility [i.e. handling cash/items worth substantial amount of money] the majority of tasks could be taken care of with minimal effort.

During #ejc2013, I had a few very useful suggestions from experienced convention goers as to how to make "boring" jobs such as badge control a little more interesting (or at the very least, less tedious). The most immediately useful of the suggestions was to have a table at any badge control points - especially at any external badge control points - so that people can prepare lunch / dinner.  A two hour stint where you are preparing / eating a meal for one hour of it doesn't feel as if you are cutting so much into your day. 

I would like to be more inclusive about volunteering - that it is expected from everyone [no matter how "serious" a juggler you are] so would welcome some discussion about how to widen the volunteering pool.  There will, of course, be those for whom a two hour slot is not practical [i.e. those with young children], but I would like to see a situation whereby having volunteered is the norm, rather than for a limited few.

Another point for discussion is what to do with "early arrivals" that arrive too late for setup.  At many EJCs there has been a mini influx on the evening before the convention is due to start, with no real plan for what to do with these jugglers.  As the food stalls are not fully functional, these jugglers tend to mill over towards the catering for those who have been involved in setup - to the point of which, for some years, they have eaten so much of the food that there has not been sufficient remaining for those who have been hard at work all day.  In most situations, it is not practical for the team to force these late early arrivals to remain offsite - as having them rough camp outside the convention site would annoy locals and the authorities - not a good way to start the convention...  In Millstreet next year, this may be a particular issue due to flight schedules, so I'm curious as to what people think is a reasonable solution to this growing issue..

I realise that this has turned into rather a long post, but feel free to comment on small portions of it!

The Void - - Parent

Let early arrivals onto site... for an extra fee of (?£25?), irrespective of any pre-reg costs paid. Advertise this heavily beforehand. It should help to discourage early arrivers. Otherwise, tell them to wait in the car park.

Don't expect people to volunteer for 6 hours as the Toulousians did. If I hadn't already been running an event, my reaction would have definitely involved a Foxtrot and an Oscar. 2 hours is reasonable, but perhaps give people the chance to do just an hour. It would need to be carefully handled though (u18s and parents of u10s?), to stop everyone going to the easy option by default.

Daniel Simu - - Parent

For gift idea's:

At the NJF I gave away about 500 wooden clothpins. On one side there was written 'NJF 2013' and on the other side a compliment such as

  • You're amazing
  • Thanks
  • Kiss
  • Hug
  • Great
  • Hello
  • Pirouette
  • Mills Mess
  • I love you

and many many more in many different languages.
I wrote most of them before the start of the festival but some people hanging out at the volunteer desk also made some.

My job as volunteer coordinator would be to walk around all day and say hello to everyone doing volunteer work. To each and every person I spotted I said 'hey, you deserve a "kiss"' and pull out my kiss pin ;). It was both really funny and practical and allowed me to personally thank everyone. Instead of handing these out at the volunteer desk I went around myself. Of course there were some volunteers I might have missed or people who would come up to me and tell me they deserved another pin, but overall it was a lot of fun!
The other organisation members carried pins around as well and many people publicly wore the pins on their clothes to show their volunteer dedication. I would walk up to people I did not know and ask them how many pins they had already gotten. "Just one? Ah so you could take over the badgecontrol right now, here is another one!".

I don't know if this idea is practical at an EJC, especially since there will be way more people to manage but if you have enough volunteer coordinators to build a relationship with all the volunteers (which I think is important, even if they only help you for an hour) it might be something.
Mostly I just wanted to share the results of this experiment here :)

Last but not least: When cleaning up on the last day there were these 3 kids: "Daniel, we got only 15 pins now but we still need more, what can we do for you?". Very useful leverage, these pins ;).

Dee - - Parent

Nice to know that pins have worked in the Netherlands.... the badges at recent BJCs have been very popular - so it's good to know that this type of idea has worked in more than one country.  At BJCs kids have been begging for litter picking jobs so that they can collect more badges.

As per Void's suggestion I might throw a few 1 hour badge control slots into the timetable for people who may struggle to do two hours in a row. I too think that 6 hours volunteering is unreasonable to ask from all but an "elite" few [i.e. us poor suckers at registration desk on opening weekend...]

There is a reason why I haven't mentioned any of the proposed solutions to the early arrivals problem - I want to hear what jugglers think is reasonable without being biased by previously discussed options.

I can't say that we will implement suggestions, but they will certainly give us food for thought.

Owen Greenaway - - Parent

Maybe this is a silly suggestion but in Toulouse if, while collecting my pass on the first day, they had said "would you mind volunteering on Wednesday at 2pm for 2 hours; it doesn't clash with any performances?" I probably would have said yes. In the end I didn't actually do any volunteering at the EJC. A credit card sized bit of card with the date, location, time and basic instructions for volunteering would help people remember, compare and swap with others. Signs in the queue saying "Which type of volunteering would you prefer to do?" and a huge pile of volunteering cards would imply to me that everyone is meant to do something. Even when buying the ticket on the website there could be a page asking "Which volunteering session do you want to sign up to?" and a "none" option at the bottom. I think the wording makes a huge difference.

At my first few conventions I would read "the site opens at 12" and make sure not to arrive before 12. I've now turned up to lots of conventions at 12.20 and non-volunteers have already arrived, pitched their tents, had lunch and juggled. It sort of makes the whole opening time feel a bit meaningless. Wording on the website such as "strictly no access to the site before 12" might put off some people even if it wasn't upheld on site.

Mïark - - Parent

When several thousand people are collecting their passes asking every person what volunteering they want to do (and waiting for an answer) will add hours to the queue for registration/collecting pre-registration.

Having a large and very visible volunteering desk near registration would be a good thing, but when people first arrive their priority often is pitching their tent so they can put down their luggage. And you would also need more volunteers to man this stall when you might otherwise be using them for last-minute-set-up/registration/info-desk

Maybe all other places (eg workshop timetable, show schedules, food stalls, toliets, showers, open stage venues etc) could repeat the message "Have you volunteered today" somewhere on them and the volunteering desk being close (or signposted from) info desk as that is another place people go to.

emilyw - - Parent

I don't recommend the idea of letting people pay to arrive early, because
- your early arrival time will just become the unofficial start of the event
- people may arrive early for the early arrival
- you are incurring more responsibility for their health and safety when site build may not be complete

Also, https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/books/chapters/0515-1st-levitt.html?_r=0

I suggest heavily advertising that early arrivals will be turned away (even though it is not necessarily practical to follow through on this). Perhaps when they do arrive they could be directed to a kind of "holding camp" at the most inconvenient end of the site, and if you give your volunteers their passes, then you can informally badge check parts of the rest of the site and ask the caterers to badge check when serving.

Chris - - Parent

The "strictly no access before xx:xx" was attempted this year. As expected, it was totally ignored.

Little Paul - - Parent

It would probably have been honoured had there been a fence across the entrance with a sign on it saying "piss off and come back when we're open" but I didn't see any evidence of that.

Orinoco - - Parent

Unfortunately convention sites are exciting hives of activity often with people's mates on site. Regardless of signage they always look open.

I think this is a growing problem. I've worked the day before & the day after the past 2 BJCs. There were a number of people who turned up on the day prior to BJC 2013 who spent the day lounging round their tents playing guitars. People who turn up prior to the convention then start partying while everyone else is working really makes the genuine volunteers feel like shit.

Lots of people turn up for set up, but very few hang around for take down. There are those that want to be on site early to have an extra day of partying but when the party has finished they are not interested.

Little Paul - - Parent

My point was less about signage, and more about blocking off the entrance to the site so that early arrivals are physically barred from entry. If you're feeling really flush, an extra days worth of security guard paid to sit there and say "no" would work too.

OK so you still need a way for legitimate volunteers to get on site, but a big sign which says "we're closed, volunteers phone this number" would sort that out. Anyone who phones that number would have it made clear to them what was expected and a job allocated. Whoever comes down to unlock the gate could guide them to somewhere they can leave their stuff and introduce them to the volunteering team.

The site layout at BJC2013 would have allowed this, if it had been fenced off at the road. Though if you can manage to allow access to the car park that would probably be seen as a little more sociable by local residents as at least early arrivals would have somewhere to park and sit/wait until they were allowed in.

I totally get the "my friends are on site" thing and the irritation about early arrivals not pulling their weight. I've been there done that, and had a go at people for sitting on their arse while I was lugging heavy things about.

Often it's resulted in a "oops, sorry - how can I help?" and another juggler is converted to the ways of volunteering...

Little Paul - - Parent

Oh, and ObCourgettePasta - Today I didn't have a lemon, so instead I picked some runner beans from the garden sliced them along with some red onion, and put them in a jam jar with a good slug of cider vinegar and a bit of balsamic for good measure. A pinch of salt, then lid on. Cook the rest as per the usual recipe, but about 5 minutes before the pasta is done, drain the beans/onion and add to the courgettes.

A rather nice variation.

Orinoco - - Parent

Don't think I have any cider vinegar on hand at the moment. I'll have to remember to give this a go next time I do. I tried a baked falafel recipe this evening. It was good but still not as good as Svendborg.

Topper - - Parent

As I was one of the volunteers with Orin who turned up early to work at BJC 2013 and was not happy about other peoples laziness. If you turn up early you work, if your not willing to work don't turn up early.

emilyw - - Parent

and to clarify for anyone reading this who fancies volunteering: if you want to come early and help, please ask first. Too many volunteers is just as bad as too few. And please don't bring your kids early unless they were explicitly invited.

Chris - - Parent

There were three of you, if I remember correctly? You guys were awesome!

Topper - - Parent

Thanks.

Orinoco - - Parent

Thanks. Simon only lurks here but I'm sure he'd say thanks too!

emilyw - - Parent

People who don't have a two hour slot free can just go look at the "things to do" list and pick off a quick thing like delivering TP?

Not sure I like the idea of having badge control people making their lunch on duty. Sounds like a big distraction from checking badges.

I do like the idea of selling crew shirts (at or near cost) to people who have done a zillion hours.

Also suggest laying out the entrance so that people go past registration and then past "sign up to volunteer", as if the one is expected to follow from the other, and having happy enthusiastic people on the volunteer desk grabbing people as they come through and asking them to book a slot. Obviously the layout needs to accommodate serious through flow of people, but you already know that!

Dee - - Parent

Thanks Emily for the useful suggestions... the preparation / eating of food did slightly worry me at the start when it was first proposed, but I've been reliably informed, that, in practice, it means that you will have a slightly larger group of people doing badge control [about 4] rather than just 2.

Charging people for admission does bring in all sorts of liability issues, which organising teams would prefer not to have to accept, especially when the site is not complete.  I like the idea of having a "holding camping area" - perhaps in the part of the campsite with the least morning shade...

One idea that had been proposed was charging a deposit off these late early arrivals that would be refunded once a certain amount of volunteering had been done... however this does go against it being completely voluntary in nature.  Generally, I'm looking for ways of making it a bad idea to arrive on the Friday afternoon/evening [unless you have arranged to do so as you are working on reg desk on the Saturday]...

I will definitely be trying to make it as easy as possible to volunteer next year - everyone can expect to be nabbed just after they register. Are there any tools that would make this easier [I've already written some scripts that would mean that you could easily sync volunteering times to a google calendar...] - one of the main issues I've had with people signing up for volunteering "too" early in the convention is that they often come back to say that it clashes with workshops and then keeping track of which volunteering slots are still empty becomes a bit of a logisitical nightmare.

Little Paul - - Parent

I don't have much to offer on the volunteering side of things beyond what's already been suggested - but if early arrivals are eating food prepared for the setup crew, then I do have a simple suggestion which might help.

Everyone involved in setup is given a meal ticket, which had to be presented to get their nosh. It needn't be a "free meal" ticket, just a "priority queuing" voucher. Late comers wouldn't get one of these tickets without a minimum 2hr effort

Any left over catering can be sold to the interlopers after sufficient time/volunteers have been served

AliceB - - Parent

I was having this discussion with some people at the EJC this year. Sometimes I just want to go to a convention to have fun and not do any volunteering. For some people this is the only holiday we will have in the year and want to relax and unwind from work. We paid money, we want to enjoy it. We don't want people coming round hounding us to volunteer multiple times a day and making us feel guilty for wanting some time off from work.

An idea we had was to have another level of payment. If you don't want to volunteer you pay more and get something that identifies that you have paid more and not get press-ganged or guilt tripped into volunteering (different coloured wrist band?). This extra money can pay for cleaners, or some other volunteer role to be done by a professional/hired person. Or can support a "work for free ticket to EJC/BJC scheme" whereby someone gets free ticket but has to sign up for x amount of hours volunteering. Good for those who can't afford convention.

Also, from when I do volunteer, often you don't want to sign up to a pre-arranged time etc (because of shows/workshops/etc..) but sometimes find yourself with a free hour. Some conventions have been open to this 'drop by' volunteering, but some have said no. If you say no to a volunteer they won't feel as open to come back to offer their help again. I remember from my first conventions, for some people having the confidence to go up to offer to do some volunteering is a big thing. To be met with "no, you have to sign up at X time for X hours" is a crush and are less likely to offer again or sign up in the future. Saying "we have nothing to do now, but please drop by again when you have some time, or if you can book in some time later on in the week it would be helpful" is a much better way!

Dee - - Parent

Thanks for your considered reply.  I have been asked how it would affect the price of a convention if we were not to rely on volunteers: the honest answer is it would probably more than double the admission price and it would completely change the ethos of the event.  When people say "this is my holiday, I've paid to get in so I don't want to volunteer", my heart sinks a little - because the same applies for me (I've paid either the same price, or I got a cheaper ticket because I tend to preregister in the first few days), even though I volunteer at every convention - except for one-dayers at Universities, because I probably wouldn't be of much help.

There is definitely a scope for having random, unscheduled volunteering jobs - these tend to be along the lines

  1. Checking toilet paper stocks
  2. Litter picking (because it's always needed)
  3. Bringing drinks / snacks to people on scheduled jobs

and I think that it is very important to have these jobs for people who want to ease themselves into volunteering...

So, how much more would you be willing to pay not to be hassled to volunteer? An extra €75/100?

One of the risks of having people with "free entry for volunteers" is that you assume that once they are onsite that they will all show up for the work required... this is difficult to enforce at larger and long events.  What happens is that the people who do show up are then overworked, overtired and stressed.  Anything but a holiday.  It also creates an "us and them" atmosphere.

What I don't want next year is what happened at this years EJC - where I did well over 60 hours in the week [I pre-registered for a "no-shows" option, knowing  that I probably wouldn't get the chance to see most of them anyway]... this is my annual leave and has taken about a week to recover [especially as by the end of the convention I was sick]. I would like to encourage a situation where everyone does between 1-2 hours during the convention (there are always the "heavy lifters" of those on registration / information desk and also those involved in running shows as familiarity with systems is a major advantage here). 

There is a major disadvantage of asking people to sign up for volunteering particular hours when they arrive on site - most of the workshops are not on the schedule by then and people also don't know much about whats in each show - there ends up being a major job for the volunteer coordinator finding people to fill slots at the last minute as those who signed up at the start of the week did not show up because it clashed with another (more desirable) event.

Before this starts to sound too like a whinge fest, I have found one of the best reasons to volunteer is that I have collected friends from around the world by volunteering - its a great way to break out of your small social group :)

emilyw - - Parent

Not related to volunteers, but I do wonder whether there's room for a substantially higher priced ticket which gets you nothing more than the lower priced ticket except a smug sense of satisfaction at supporting the BJC financially. There's a lot of people who would quite happily pay a more realistic price, even though the prices are kept low for the benefit of the many who really can't afford it.

Little Paul - - Parent

Not necessarily directly connected with this post, but it's something I've been thinking/reading about a lot recently (in other contexts) is the whole "nudge psychology" stuff which seems to be popular these days. I'm sure a lot of it is snake oil, but some of it makes sense.

How you phrase the call for volunteers may make a significant difference to the number of volunteers you get. Essentially by making it easy for people to do the "right" thing, and hinting that "loads of people already do the right thing" to make it less onerous because well, if everyone else is doing it why wouldn't I? Framing it as "no one volunteers, we need help" puts people in a "well I don't want to be the only one" mindset.

So perhaps with each ticket sold, the confirmation email could include something like "Every year hundreds of atendees volunteer during BJC to make it run smoothly, for more info talk to a volunteer!"

Obviously it's going to be super hard to actually do any experimental verification of this at a BJC or EJC, but it might be worth thinking about.

Scott Seltzer - - Parent

What I thought was effective at the previous EJC Millstreet was giving volunteers tickets to use the internet computers.

Richard Loxley - - Parent

It's interesting that you mention flight schedules affecting arrival times. I imagine this is because there's perhaps one flight a day that someone can catch, and so if they arrival on that flight on the first day, they'll miss part of the day. So they arrival a day earlier "so I don't miss anything".

Perhaps part of the problem is scheduling convention events right up to the start and end of the event? What if the first and last days had no entertainment/shows/workshops/etc whatsoever, they were just "arrival" and "departure" days? That might remove a bit of the incentive to stay longer just for scheduling reasons?

Richard Loxley - - Parent

Another thought about discouraging early arrivals/late departures. At Bungay it used to be the case that the toilets didn't arrive until the day the punters arrived. So if you arrived early as part of the set-up crew, you had to pee in the hedge, and if you required more than that you had to travel into Bungay to the public toilets. I think that helped dissuade 'tourists' from arriving early to extend their holiday!

Similarly the one year that I crewed at Glastonbury festival, on the last day we were warned to fill water containers before the last morning, because they turned off all the taps on the final morning to encourage people to go home. We were told the water would be turned back on later for the tear-down crew to use, but the shock of finding the facilities being unavailable incentivised the vast majority of punters to leave promptly!

Not sure that either of these suggestions could be applied to BJC or EJC, but perhaps they might inspire some variation that could work?

thegoheads - - Parent

"What if the first and last days had no entertainment/shows/workshops/etc whatsoever, they were just "arrival" and "departure" days? "

IIRC that's basically how the IJA fest was every time I went. I found it rather cool, for that very reason. The first day of the convention is just "open juggling" as is the last day. It gives people a huge window to show up on the official first day and leave the official last day without missing any scheduled events.

-Steve

pumpkineater23 - - Parent

"What if the first and last days had no entertainment/shows/workshops/etc whatsoever, they were just "arrival" and "departure" days? "

I've always liked that for certain festivals too. The 'pre-day' eases into it and then the 'after-day' softens the landing.

Orinoco - - Parent

I'm not convinced it would make much difference. Even if there are no scheduled events we all know that when a critical mass of jugglers is achieved (ie more than one) things spontaneously happen.

mrawa - - Parent

I've found this works well for Play Festival (having just returned). The "nothing" days make it feel more relaxed and less rushed, which I like as it means you can turn up anytime that day/or leave, without having to miss anything. I remember the at BJC Southend Gandini closing show that I wasn't sure if I could see it as it cut close to my train home. At EJC this year, I had to miss the parade and the games due to my flights being on the Saturday (which was the advertised last day), though the reason for my flight was a late booking.

(This is a little off Dee's original topic now)

Richard Loxley - - Parent

There's also a big need for publicity about volunteering. Before BJC2013 there was a lot of talk in advance about encouraging volunteering.

But when I was there I personally saw no signs asking for volunteers, I was never asked to volunteer, and I didn't see anyone wearing any badges provoking a discussion of "oh, where did you get that?" / "I got it when I volunteered!"

I'm not knocking BJC2013, and I'm assuming that some volunteering publicity did happen. But there are so many other messages competing for people's attention. I slipped through the net, so I guess other people did too.

Chris - - Parent

You can't have looked very hard. The volunteering desk was at reg desk.

Orinoco - - Parent

...and there were lots of cards detailing jobs needed pinned on the window of the ticket office, & there was Dee & others shouting about the jobs that needed doing...

But I think that's the point, in a reception area with lots of jugglers passing through, many of which are friends that you may not have seen for a year it is really hard to get a message through. In the reception area people are generally interested in getting registered or looking at the workshop board.

In fact what about putting volunteer jobs on the workshop board? The workshop board is probably the most looked at bit of space on a convention site. Provided the board is big enough a lot of jobs could be listed at the day & time that they are required.

I think getting the message that volunteers are required is the smaller part of the problem though. Getting people to actually do it is the tougher part of the problem.

mrawa - - Parent

I don't think putting the Volunteer jobs on the workshop board is a good idea. I find it hard enough to read what is on it on the first place! Would I would consider is putting it maybe above it? The jobs/times are in the line of sight of the workshops then people could figure out what they might have time to help out with.

At EJC there were a lot of posters asking have you volunteered yet, I think that would certainly help.

Richard Loxley - - Parent

Indeed, I didn't look very hard, because I didn't spontaneously think 'oh I need to volunteer, I'd better go look for where to do it'. The people who have already decided to volunteer will probably find the information, I was thinking more about encouraging more people to volunteer who haven't considered it in the past.

As Orinoco said, the problem with the registration area is it's so busy with information: about registering; about workshops; about other conventions; about transport; and loads of other stuff. It's information overload, and in a place where people are usually on their way somewhere.

How about advertising jobs in places where people are pausing and have less to do, so might be more inclined to read it? And have more free time to volunteer? I'm thinking vertical display stands on tables in the bar and cafe, posters on the backs on toilet doors, that sort of place.

Of course, the general ethos about volunteering needs to be communicated too, and that might be best with the personal touch, face-to-face encouragement, or with viral marketing with something like badges. The little perspex men (was that Doncaster?) were very good at that since it was themed with the (desirable) convention pass, and very visible, so it encouraged dialogue about where they came from, and lust over getting hold of them!

It might be worth designing this from the ground up when coming up with the convention pass - make the volunteers badge the cool version of the pass, and a more basic version just for entry. So you only get the upgrade to the cool pass when you volunteer, and everyone will ask you how you got the cool pass :-)

It could be as simple as printing two versions of a pass, one with the logo in black and white, and one in colour. If you volunteer you swap your black and white pass for the colour one.

Lorri - - Parent

Signs on the back of toilet doors is a really easy, cheap and effective way of telling/reminding people to look at for volunteering jobs that need doing.

Lorri - - Parent

that should say ...to look at (location of jobs listing) for volunteering jobs that need doing.

mrawa - - Parent

I love the idea of upgrading your pass if you volunteer. I don't think the swap would be very cost effective, but some kind of add-on is certainly doable for different types of passes. I've already got a few new ideas for this year now!

fak -

Volunteering at juggling festivals

Much has been said revently about the difficulty of obtaining cheap/free labour at juggling festivals.

What suggestions do people have for increasing the volunteering rate, or do people think festivals are over-reliant on this form of labour and should instead pay for more jobs to be done (leading to inevitable increases in ticket prices).

Orinoco - - Parent

Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

Attitudes are hard to change. Essentially it all boils down to encouraging people to do what they don't want to do. Volunteering for a festival is work. It is often argued that the work itself is good fun which is reason enough to do it. Which is true, but offering fun in exchange for work at a juggling festival is not much of an incentive. It is a juggling festival - fun is not exactly hard to come by. I can work & have fun or I can not work & have fun. Hmm, decisions.

Acknowledgement of volunteers is very important. Not wishing to name any names but a few years ago while fence monkeying I listened to one of my lot incessantly complaining, "It's my holiday, I'm not here to work, I've paid for my ticket...". In recent years though with badges on offer you can't stop that person volunteering now. For some a badge is a very cost effective form of payment. For me I prefer a human thank you. For festivals that ask you to go & report somewhere after volunteering to collect your badge I generally won't bother, but if someone (preferably a pretty young girl, but that's just my preference) comes & gives you a badge that's much more meaningful.

There are other incentives of course. I think it was at BJC 2008 that while clearing litter from the viewing gallery I collected £1.39 in loose change. It was a heavy evening at the bar that night I can tell you.

Also important is to not waste volunteers' time, in that respect BJC 2007 was very frustrating for me.

I'm hesitant to reference a marketing campaign but I think The Fun Theory provides many lessons. If you only watch one video from there watch this one, it's great.

How this applies to badge control I'm not sure. Some sort of Krypton factor esque puzzle where your pass needs to be used as some sort of key to pass through a turnstyle or perhaps passes with RFID tags in them that have to be thrown through a hoop 3 metres up in the air to open a gate to allow you to pass through. Emptying bins? If that means hurling trash bags over the fence at a moving refuse truck with a trebuchet then I am there.

Yeah, I'm not helping any more am I?!

#volunteering

Dee - - Parent

Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

Volunteering at juggling conventions can be divided into two broad categories

1.    Volunteering at short non-camping conventions
2.    Volunteering at large camping conventions

The requirements are quite different. I think that volunteering at short conventions should be largely organised in advance - a small rota for who is going to cover the reg/info desk, someone (or preferably two people) to run the games and then a team for the show. Most other roles can be quickly filled by a "shout out" as they tend to be short tasks.

Volunteering at large festivals is a bigger problem. It isn't so easy to schedule in advance, as I don't think that it's a good idea to have a very small bunch of people doing all of the volunteering - this leads to burn-out.  I'm going to be struggling with this dilemma in 2014 at the EJC in Millstreet, so have given it some thought already. One of the main issues I see is getting reliable volunteers without overworking them, especially for areas of responsibility.

Definitely one thing I've learned over the years is that a simple to use volunteer sign-up sheet should be ready to go before the convention. There will always be certain times when you have many volunteers, and at others no (or insufficient) willing volunteers. That is the nature of relying on volunteer labour. So you need to have a plan for what to do if you don't have enough people to do badge control - are there any non-essential points that can be shut down if no-one is there to cover them? (This was an issue in Munich this summer - lots of entrances into all of the camping areas). Each job should have a brief (but accurate) description about what's involved, so that people can make informed decisions.

However, sufficiently thanking people is really important. The reliable volunteers are not those motivated by collecting badges; but the bigger point of the volunteer badges was not expressly to thank people, but rather to highlight the need for volunteers and to make volunteering more visible. I've already stipulated that for EJC2014 that I need at least 3 others working with me as points of contact for volunteers. Volunteers need to be cared for, this is hard to do if only one person is responsible for co-ordinating volunteers. It's trying to achieve this on a limited budget that proves the big challenge.

Ideally, I'd like a sign up process that allows people to state any useful specialist skills (that they'd be willing to use during the convention), so that we use relevant skills. I'd also like people to be able to state their preferred times of the day for volunteering, or specific times during the conventions that they are not willing to volunteer during.

From the last EJC in Ireland (2006), there are some things that I learned. Getting volunteers is tricky. Getting volunteers to cover badge control at "unsocial" times is especially tricky. Badge control is boring at quiet times.
•    At very large conventions you need more than one person responsible for volunteers - I think that you need at least one person just responsible for badge control.
•    Checking on your volunteers regularly is important so that they can feel that easy to report issues without it feeling like a direct criticism.

Jugglers like "task orientated" volunteering - and it's much easier to get people to volunteer for this than for scheduled tasks. Going into the campsite or the juggling hall and looking for those who aren't actively juggling and asking nicely is a good way to go.

I've run the numbers on the requirements for scheduled volunteer requirements for EJCs/BJCs. The large consumers of volunteers are:
•    Badge Control
•    Registration/Information Desk (also merchandise sales)
•    Bar
•    Litter picking / Tidying
•    Stewarding at shows and parade/games

As the Registration Desk and working on the bar involve handling cash, there needs to be a form of vetting for these roles, but the other roles can be open to most adults. Litter picking can be done by kids, but this needs some caution as it depends on what areas they are litter picking in.

The frustrating element is when people come up to you as a volunteer co-ordinator and say "I'd like to help, what do you want me to do?", when you don't have anything suitable for them to do.  This is mainly because they want to volunteer immediately rather than a scheduled time later on and they don't want to go "litter picking" (which is the stand-by thing that almost always needs doing). If this happens a number of times then people say that it's not worth going to volunteer.

One thing that I'd like to see slightly expanded is a "volunteer hangout" area; with a fridge (stocked with some milk) and tea and coffee making facilities. From experience, I'd only have a limited number of cups, and encourage people to bring their own (to avoid a build-up of unwashed cups). Some comfortable seating is helpful. I know that access to an electric kettle is very convenient if you want to have a hot water bottle on a cold night! This is a way of thanking volunteers in a practical way that doesn't break the budget when you scale it up. This isn't a completely sectioned off area, but rather an area marked "for volunteers". I also think that if people are doing heavy lifting [i.e. fencing] for hours then they should be given refreshments to keep the energy going.

I'd also like people's opinions on how to promote volunteering, before and during the convention without becoming irritating. One of the things that I most enjoy about volunteering (which I do a lot of at the bigger conventions) is meeting new people. If I didn't volunteer I would have stuck largely with people that I already knew.

•    So what motivates volunteers? Specifically, what motivates you to volunteer at a juggling convention?
•    What do you think is an appropriate "thank you" (other than just saying "thank you"!)
•    After how much time volunteering do you think that you should be fed?

Dee

Kelhoon - - Parent

Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

This is in response to Dee's Big Talk post about festival volunteering, it's not worthy of a Big Talk reply, hence putting it here. [I disagree, hence putting it here! - Orin]

Huge disclaimer, the only festival I have actually been to was in fact the EJC 2006 in Millstreet that Dee and Stephen and company organised very well in my opinion (see disclaimer).  So this is from the first-time festival goer point of view.

After travelling all that way and doing a fair bit before I got to Millstreet and it being my first ever Juggling festival, initially I just did not want to volunteer and lose valuable fun time and felt a wee bit guilty about it.  After the first few days when the buzz reduced and feeling a little overloaded on juggling and having been slightly frustrated at the on site "internet cafe", I thought as an experienced IT worker I should probably volunteer to help in that area.  After wondering how to do so and looking around I came across a rather cold unfriendly note which basically communicated they did not want any more help in that area.  If there had been someone to discuss it with, I could have pointed out that I likely knew more than 80% or more of the current volunteers in that area and that I had ideas on how to solve some of the issues and frustrations being experienced.  Once I had gotten over it and thought I would volunteer for something mundane instead, it seemed that everything that needed volunteers during my by that stage highly unpredictable waking hours had plenty of people already signed up.  In short, once I was inclined to help out, there didn't seem to be any need for me.  Now, I'm not criticising, I'm just sharing the experience from my point of view in case there's any value in it for any festival organisers.

Dee also asked for incentive ideas:

  • discounted "I volunteered at ...." t-shirts (only for volunteers obviously and maybe only if they volunteer a minimum number of hours)
  • discounted festival DVD
  • record hours volunteered and have a tiered rewards system based on different levels of time given
  • a coupon system for time volunteered so that volunteers can "spend" the coupons on whatever they like e.g. at on site vendors, on the festival DVD
  • preferred seating at shows

hmmm they're all really the same idea aren't they

other suggestions:

  • pair newbies with experienced volunteers so the newbie doesn't feel lost
  • when taking the names of volunteers, grab their cell number so you can send TXTs specifically to them or broadcast TXTS like "we need 2 people for such and such at such and such a time and place"
  • give volunteers the volunteer co-ordinators cell number so they can call or TXT with their unexpected availability (or unavailability)

Orinoco - - Parent

Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

Dee posted this which I think is from an organiser's view:

Definitely one thing I've learned over the years is that a simple to use volunteer sign-up sheet should be ready to go before the convention. There will always be certain times when you have many volunteers, and at others no (or insufficient) willing volunteers. That is the nature of relying on volunteer labour. So you need to have a plan for what to do if you don't have enough people to do badge control - are there any non-essential points that can be shut down if no-one is there to cover them? (This was an issue in Munich this summer - lots of entrances into all of the camping areas). Each job should have a brief (but accurate) description about what's involved, so that people can make informed decisions.

Speaking as a convention goer & potential volunteer, I want to see that plan & the job descriptions before the event.

From my early conventions I remember being too scared to volunteer because I didn't know what I'd be asked to do. What if I couldn't do it? What if I was asked to volunteer during BYJOTY? Better to not volunteer than offer to help, get given a task that was beyond me or that clashed with something I wanted to do then say sorry I've changed my mind.

Here at the Edge we have a simple timetable creation system that could be used for this purpose. I've made a quick & dirty example here:

https://dev.jugglingedge.com/timetable.php?TimetableID=4&

As volunteers come forward you could edit the title to state "FILLED - ...". That way as people look at the timetable they can see also see when to volunteer. When I volunteer I do so because I want to help, which means I want to be useful, which includes being available at a useful time. With a timetable such as this I can clearly see what needs to be done & when other people are volunteering so I can fill in a gap.

Having a volunteer & a workshop timetable available at the same time would also allow convention goers to help the volunteer coordinator. I'm generally unwilling to volunteer my services until after I've looked at the workshop timetable just so that I can make sure I'm not stuck at badge control during the levitation for beginners workshop.

Lorri - - Parent

Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

I was going to respond to this one from an events manager point of view rather than as a juggler but I really should have written my response when I first clicked the timer as I've forgotten what I was going to say. I've posted anyway but apologies if this isn't as constructive or coherent as it could have been!

Reducing the need for volunteers
Venues
I understand that organisers are usually limited in their choice of venues but wanted to highlight some options there for reducing the number of volunteers required at the larger juggling conventions.

If you get a choice of venues (or even when you first start looking at one) take in to account the number of entrance/exit points for the building *and proposed campsite*. You want the smallest possible number of entrance/exit points to limit the number of badge control volunteers that you'll need. One building rather than multiple buildings is obviously a help. A campsite that's (at least partially) ringed by walls or permanent fencing means fewer places for an entrance/exit - planned or unplanned. If the entire campsite is ringed by temporary fencing then people will often try to make another, more convenient, entrance point which will need volunteers to check badges as you may not be able to shut it down once it's in use. Check if the venue staff have ideas for how to reduce the amount of entrance/exit points - they should know their venue better than you.

Contracts
Check your contracts thoroughly and don't forget that contracts are negotiable.

  • See if the venue can provide any door security for badge checking the main building entrance
  • Check how many times the toilets/showers are cleaned per day and see if it can be increased
  • Same applies to the show venue, if you can get the venue staff to check tickets it means you don't need to
  • Check how often they'll empty the bins and see if it can be increased
  • Are the venue staff first aid trained? Do they have a manned first aid room? If not then you'll need designated first aiders round the clock
  • Check if your security staff are first aid trained for the unsociable hours

Badge Control
Unsociable hours badge control will need to be done by non-volunteers (this includes show times) but it may be worth checking how much it would cost for professionals to do daytime too. You may find it costs too much but you might also find that it's more cost effective to pay for it rather than spend time finding, checking and chasing volunteers. Even if it's only some of the badge checking points and not all of them.

Volunteers
Existing advice
There's some good stuff on www.thebritishjugglingconvention.co.uk on volunteers - https://thebritishjugglingconvention.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Volunteer - which is well worth reading. There's also a page on housekeeping. One of the easiest (but least liked) volunteer jobs is clearing/cleaning; this page has suggestions on how to get jugglers to do it themselves, without having to explicitly volunteer - https://thebritishjugglingconvention.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Housekeeping.

Combine two points on those pages and if you're getting the compere for the show/renegade on the first night to thank all the volunteers then get them to also thank everyone who emptied a bin or gave the toilet sinks a quick wipe too. It'll encourage others to do the same.

Delegate
Despite being a control freak (all events people are) I've learnt to embrace delegating. Empower your team to find their own volunteers, whether in advance, at the event or by finding their own volunteer co-ordinator to arrange it. Do you have someone in charge of the registration desk? Let them find their own volunteers to run the desk with them. Do you have someone in charge of shows? Let them find their own stewards. Do you have someone in charge of the campsite? The indoor space? You know what I'm going to say.

I don't mean make them find their own volunteers, that would be beyond unfair, but let them put their own small team together if they want to (and help them if they don't). You'd be amazed how well some people respond to having more responsibility and you're asking them to lead a small team - even if their 'team' consists of one volunteer co-ordinator. And if you're the person in charge of volunteers at the event? Get yourself a team of volunteer co-ordinators - registration desk, badge control, stewards, first aiders (if not provided by the venue), campsite cleanliness, indoor site cleanliness, signage etc for those orgs that can't/don't want to do it themselves. Obviously this needs to be done in conjunction with the org team so that you're helping them if they can't or don't want to find their own volunteers rather than duplicating work. These co-ordinators can then find people in advance or get/co-ordinate people who volunteer at the event itself.

Appreciate them
I'm probably unusual here but I don't need anything for volunteering, a "Thanks" is actually more than enough. General consensus though is that you need to show your volunteers that you appreciate them in some way. Whether that's by a personal thank you, badges, general thank yous from show comperes, special volunteer areas or whatever, some people will love it and others won't think it's right or will think it too much. I'm going to leave suggestions for signs of appreciation to others ;)

Don't abandon them!
Some people will leave their post when their time is up, even if there's no replacement; others will do a double shift instead but it won't make them particularly happy. Check whether replacements turn up on time. This is where having a small team of volunteer co-ordinators helps dramatically. Checking on every volunter post every time the volunteers switch over is impossible for one person.

Don't make badge control (or registration or any volunteer post) go from midday to 2pm or they can't get lunch. Give your volunteers a way to contact someone - whether that's by radio or by internal phone, or via a mobile phone number it doesn't matter but don't make them feel like they have to sort issues on their own. Leave instructions at the volunteer post in case they're not passed on in person. Make your volunteers feel supported and they'll feel part of the extended team.

New ideas
Something that's not been used to date (that I know of) is utilising smart phone technology or social media. If an unexpected job needs doing a call for help via twitter/FB/the event website might work. Although only if you advertise the hashtag/FB page/website as a place to look during the convention for info or volunteer requests.

Or how about reminding people when they've signed up for volunteer sessions. Texts and tweets can be automated so can be set up to remind people at the right time, which might reduce no-shows. Although someone will obviously need to set it up.

Has anyone looked in to free event apps? Again they need to be set up in advance but last minute changes can be updated easily. www.twoppy.com is one example.

Not litter picking
On the spot volunteer jobs that aren't litter picking? How about doing something nice for your volunteers. Get your new volunteer to take cups of water/tea/coffee out to those doing badge control or manning the registration desk.

Or get them to walk to the workshops/traders/anywhere on site and check how well they're signposted. Give them sign-making equipment (paper, pens, blue tack, sellotape if the venue allows) and ask them to replace any lost or missing signs.

Ask them to walk the perimeter of the campsite or full site and to report back. Everything ok? Any unplanned gaps in the perimeter that need to be dealt with? Patches of site that have turned in to a quagmire? These people don't necessarily need to fix things (although if they're happy to then naturally encourage them) but they can be your eyes and ears around the site.

Likewise they could scout out the toilets and showers for cleanliness or lack of toilet roll/cleaning equipment. Again, they don't need to fix the problems if they really don't want to but they can report back.

Trust me, the org team can't be everywhere and they shouldn't try.

There are more 'scouting' jobs last minute volunteers can do - check with the bar staff, the traders, the reg desk, anyone or anyplace where you have things going on. Even just hearing an "everything's fine" back will make you feel better, them feel looked after and your volunteers feel useful.

To finish I'm going to go back to that sentence I just wrote - "Trust me, the org team can't be everywhere and they shouldn't try." I cannot stress this point enough and this is where random volunteers can really help you. You want to know what's going on and you want to fix everything that goes wrong; of course you do, this is your event and you want it to be the best it can be. Likewise you probably think that it'll be quicker and easier for you to fix it yourself than explain or trust it to someone else. But you running off to check on people or fix something little means you may not be available for a bigger problem. Send your random volunteers off to check things and fix any small problems so that you're there for the big problems. Yes, if the event runs smoothly this means you end up not doing anything but this just means you've done a great job! Plan your volunteers in advance (especially tasks for random volunteers) and it'll be a happier convention for them and you.

Went slightly off topic there at the end, sorry :o)

Lorri - - Parent

Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

Knew there was more I meant to say that I didn’t put in my other post -

Non-juggling volunteers
Wouldn’t it be great if you could get good volunteers who were willing to work more than just a couple of hours and wouldn’t care which bits of the event they couldn’t attend? Well you might be in luck...

If there’s a university or college in or near the same place as your convention then check whether they have an events management degree course. Events is a difficult industry to get in to and experience counts a *lot* when job hunting, so contact the course leader to see if any of their students would be interested in some real work experience.

Write a proper description of the event, what their role would cover (including the hours you’ll require them) and what skills or characteristics you’re looking for. The course leader will normally circulate it to their students and either ask them to contact you directly or will pass on interested people’s contact details.

Check they’re going to be suitable. Even if you’re not lucky enough to get a choice, interview them anyway – even if it’s just by phone. You want someone smart, confident and able to use their initiative. And reliable, obviously.

If you do get someone then plan what you’re going to use them for. This is supposed to be proper work experience for them and if you plan it properly they’ll be an invaluable help for you. Don’t just leave them on badge control all day or sitting somewhere waiting for you to think of something for them to do. If you can, meet with them beforehand to discuss the event in detail; they’ll get a better understanding of the event, you’ll be able to discuss their role and they may even have good suggestions too. Treat them as a member of your extended team (which they will be) and show them what it’s actually like to (possibly help plan and) be on-site at a festival for ~1,000-5,000 people.

Feel free to get more than one events management student if you can and don’t be afraid to tell them they need to be on-site early and stay late; that’s what real events are like and if they don’t like it then it’s best they find out now so they can start considering a different career. Just don’t spring it on them, make the hours and work clear from the beginning! ;o)

Also make it clear what compensation you can offer them. Standard offer is usually just:

  • Free meals and refreshments during the event
  • Great experience of running an event
  • Written reference afterwards

Added extras, if you want/can afford it

  • Travel costs reimbursed
  • Free ticket(s) to the Public Show (unless you want them to man the registration desk/be in charge at the site)
  • A bottle or two of wine at the end to say thank you

If they’re good then you get invaluable help and they get a boost to their CV and job prospects. Win-win! And if they are good then write them a useful reference; key skills & characteristics events employers look for (which you should include in your reference if they had them) are:

  • Good time management
  • Attention to detail
  • Proactive with good initiative
  • Good communication
  • Efficient
  • Calm manner
  • Ability to multi-task
  • Reliable, punctual, presentable, polite etc
  • Personable

Dee - - Parent

Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

This is what I've come up with myself as an examplar timetable for running volunteers at an EJC:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnbIZmKZXOdjdDMzZnFqRXdyaHI5RnVIQzllRlhPM1E

For the numbers needed at an EJC, this is what I've come up with off the top of my head (after years of experience) - I'd like some additional eyes to glance over it and see if I've missed anything obvious.  Many numbers are dependent on the size of the site and numbers attending, but it's mainly to check if I've missed an obvious task!

I like the friendly appearance of the timetable here

https://dev.jugglingedge.com/timetable.php?TimetableID=4&

I think that this would be a good "outward facing" timetable that could be filled in before the convention - but one of the problems about jugglers signing up to volunteer before the convention starts is that you don't know what workshops are when at that point!  This creates a problem when things need to be changed during the week - keeping track of which "version" of the timetable is currently operational becomes a mammoth task.

I also really like Lorri's suggestion about using non-jugglers: I've found some of the most reliable volunteers to be parents of jugglers - they want something to keep them occupied and in a location that, if they are needed for some emergency, they are easy to find. This is especially useful for registration desk during the week!  Having people who want practical experience in event management on as "super-volunteers" throughout the week is a "win-win" situation.

Something I have done, for younger jugglers especially, is written a reference for some of the more enthusiastic volunteers after the convention; this is especially helpful for those who have had little "workplace" experience.

xchaos - - Parent

Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

Last week i have been at the Berlin juggling convention and they had an interesting new way to 'motivate' volunteers.

When checking-in onsite one would not get the real badge, but instead was handed a postcard. The so called 'Looser badge'. Subtitle: 'I accept any work'. On the backside the need for volunteers was explained as well as the way how to obtain a real badge. Those were obtained from the volunteers desk after signing up for one hour (or more) of unpaid slavery. Organisers and special volunteers got real badges right away.

The people at the registration took care to properly explain the need for volunteers to keep the convention price low (30 EUR onsite price for 4 convention days with camping and breakfast 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. + very good gala).

This approach was an experiment this year and it went very well. The festival ran really smooth and had a cosy feeling although there were some 800 participants. It also reminded many people of the need for volunteers.

fak - - Parent

Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

Doesn't Berlin have a history of mandatory volunteering? I've not been myself, but have heard from people who have that normally when you arrive you are immediately booked into your 1 hour volunteering slot.

mike.armstrong - - Parent

Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

Yep, they've traditionally required an hour of volunteering, with jobs and times allocated on registration. It sounds like they've upped the ante with the "loser" card though. I wonder if they'd been having problems with people not showing up for their allotted job?

jamesfrancis - - Parent

Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

I've been a few times to Berlin and don't remember volunteering as ever being mandatory, although it is expected (at least that is how it was translated to me).

Personally I don't like signing up for slots immediately on arrival, as I like to have a look at the programme, workshops etc first before committing to a time. On the occasions that I have been to Berlin I have never signed up immediately, although I have always managed to fit in at least an hour or so sometime during the festival. I do remember at least once returning to the sign up board late on the first day to find out that all of the slots were full; even the really inconvenient ones; which was great for the festival, but probably let a few people off the hook.

I don't really like the forced approach, and feel it could be quite intimidating, especially if you were new to juggling or if the festivals native tongue was not your own. Having a 'badge of shame' until you volunteer also doesn't quite sit right with me, but may achieve the goal of getting the required number of volunteers.

At a number of B(ritish)JC's / EJC's I do feel that the visibility of where and how to sign up for volunteering is rather obscured, and the expectation that volunteering should be undertaken is not expressed very forcefully on registration. Berlin certainly gets around both of these hurdles and has in my experience has generally succeeded in getting the required help the organisers desire (subtext: no substitute for ruthless German efficiency!)

James

xchaos - - Parent

Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

It was my first Berlin convention, so I have no comparison with other years.
One was not required to sign-up for a volunteer job right at the registration. One was not even forced to do it at all as the 'Looser-badge' gave full access to the entire convention and show tickets were completely independent.

The guys from Berlin said that they have had some problems getting enough volunteers in past years, but I didn't dig into details there. On the other hand the Berlin convention is a rather big and cheap one with over 800 participants over 4 days and 25 EUR (30 EUR onsite) registration fee. They rely heavily on volunteers to keep it that way and have many jobs during the 4 days, especially for the included breakfast that goes from 9 a.m till 2 p.m.

From other conventions i know the problem of having a hard time motivating people to volunteer, especially people new to conventions. A constant reminder like this badge is not a bad idea imho.

emilyw - - Parent

Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

I think the idea of trading the "real" pass for volunteer hours is brilliant, but calling people "losers" before they have even got past the front desk seems a pretty unpleasant way of treating customers.

I also wonder what happens to people who come looking for volunteer work but are surplus to requirements. Do they have to remain losers?

Cedric Lackpot - - Parent

Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

"Mandatory volunteering". Riiiiight.

It really annoys me when people try to spin a requirement as voluntarism. It may be an excellent way to run a convention, but it ain't remotely voluntary and it's just a cynical lie to suggest otherwise.

Daniel Simu - - Parent

Social pressure

Social pressure is my personal number one!

I have attended 4 EJCs, but still probably less than 10% of the people around know my face. If I do nothing at this convention there is noone who will tell me different, and as it is the same for my friends I might do 1 badge control at most.

At the Dutch juggling convention however I recognize 75% of the people, and probably even more know mine. My personal friends have organised it, the local juggling club has been talking about it all year, I feel like I have to show some support!
As a juggler I like to impress people. Jugglers are generally hard to impress with my skills, but I am glad they like the graphic design I do. I will remind others that they should do some badge control too and I think everyone knows where to find me if they have a last minute job. Heck, ill even take a day off to break down all the tents (3 times so far).

There is such a big contrast in these two personalities of mine and I think they only exist because of social pressure or the lack of it.

One suggestion to generate more volunteers on an international convention would be to have a coordinator from every country! On the EJC for example you could ask all the representatives or have them select someone. If there would be a Dutch guy (who probably happens to be a friend too) who knows what needs to be done and asks around every now and then if we did a job, I bet I'd be moving my ass again ;)

Daniel, an anti-social autistic juggler.

 

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