[Deptheads] We need more volunteers

[Victor B]

When I first joined the staff right before Eric A. bought it I was the staff newbie. Now only chris carlson, the fryers, john, and Ryan have been around longer as staff.  The other 90% have burned out and stopped staff work and at the end of this year several more will have served their tour of duty and retire. Burnout. A free badge, free room, and free t-shirt and other perks don't stop burnout. Do 15, 18, or 24+ strategicons in a row as staff at 3 per year and it wears on you.
A major convention three times a year burns out staff and volunteers....and for many of the previous volunteers in boardgames they rather volunteer 1 or 2  cons attendee 1 or 2 and not have to work HQ or run games.
How many times have you had several people complain about a boardgame or rpg not on the schedule enough times and you point out that one of them is free to run it and they all answer "I want tp play this game not run it".
 
Several people had no issues getting vols. I also had no issues getting volunteers and I suspect only boardgames does---since by sheer volume it needs many many more vols than others do and once at 20 volunteers it gets harder to dig them up. I even sent vols to work shifts in boardgames this con but they needed several more.
As far as spreading the love to vols goes-----Mickey Tan personally thanks and swags up his gms with stuff. I thank all my gms and have pizza  for them sunday. Robyn, John, Karl, Jason, Mike and others thank and do things for their volunteers. 
Also.....Most teams/dept. already use titles for different volunteers so we don't have to implement that as a con. When you send in your vol list there is a column already for their title if you want to give someone perks by title. The ttile will appears under the purple volunteer bar on the badge. You can bling up your vols as you see fit. Just probably best to avoid best or make anything a competiton since where there are happy winners there will be disgruntled losers or those who feel slighted.
 
For people that do not want to volunteer already it doesn't matter what perks we give them since they are turning down a free badge to enjoy the con on their own time on their own dime. Money isnt the issue--they come to have fun not work.
For some people that volunteer they want to do the bare minimum 8 hours worth of work and get their free badge...and do nothing more.
So as it stands now we give a free 4-day badge if 8 hours value of work has been logged....and at 24 hours of value we give 1/4 of a room.
We have those that ask to get 24 hours of work so they have a free badge and free room.
What we need now is to reward those people that work more than 8 to get their free badge but less than 24 to get the 1/4 room.
How about a free t-shirt for someone working 16+ hours but less than 24. And for those that work 24+ and drive home, or don't get a room, etc. they get rewarded with a t-shirt also.
PLUS....we can print a thank you page in the program book thanking all those that volunteered. Now their name is in the conbook (people like their name immortalized in print) and they are thanked and asknowledged publically.
 
The staff we have had and have plus some of the wonderful people I have met that are volunteers (from wargames bootvamp, video games, paivas's group, ccg, boardgames, etc) are why I still fly in for the con 3 times a year long after I moved away.
Thank to you all for the hard work you do, and for donating more time and energy towards each convention than you can ever be compensated for. Thanks.
 
 
 
V
 
 
 

From: Eric Aldrich <ealdrich at mac.com>
To: deptheads at strategicon.net 
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2012 12:06 PM
Subject: [Deptheads] We need more volunteers

One thing that became extremely evident while auditing the attendance figures is that we need more volunteers. Our volunteer pool shrunk year over year, and given that our overall attendance went up, it means people were asked to do more when in some places we're already stretched too thin.

Working too hard on a project like this leads to burnout. Burnout is bad, and leads to more people quitting, shrinking the pool, etc. It's a vicious cycle. Thankfully we're coming up on Gamex, where things aren't quite as nuts as Orccon. Still, I want to make an effort to grow the volunteer pool where it makes sense, especially the casual 8 hours for a free badge types.

Think about if you need more volunteers to make your job easier. If you do, let me know -- we need to recruit them.

Eric

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