[Deptheads] We need more volunteers

Fri Feb 24 12:33:36 PST 2012

Excellent ideas.
I love the exclusive shirt. People like getting swag no one else can buy or get unless they did the same thing to get it. It appeals to the inner geek in all of us.
An exclusive t-shirt each convention that only staff plus volunteers putting in 16+ hours would get. You can't buy it--you earn it. "Cool shirt you are wearing, where and how did you get it?"
The only issue is sizes and having the shirts available at the con. All the comic cons and other big cons that print volunteer shirts lock in their volunteers before con and have the shirts when they pick up their badges.
We as staff would have to lock in our 16+ hour people like we do for 24+ hour people that get rooms. And this makes sense. On site vols are filling in where needed and the core vols are locked in .
If you absolutely positively have to use a volunteer beyond their scheduled times under 16 hours to 16+ hours on site we can thank them and say we will give them a volunteer swag shirt for next con at the next con (as they have to be ordered beforehand) OR let them pick up an available convention shirt for that con (there will be few people, if any, that we grab onsite and "have to" push them to 16+ hours).

Now for those that go above 8 hours but less than 16 (like people working 12 hours).
idea.............we create horizontal conference badge ribbons as rewards. People at fandom cons love attaching those ribbons on the bottom of their badge and having it grow with ribbons they earned or collected at the con. 
Many give plain badges and you have a colored ribbon attached that says vendor, panelist, demonstrator, volunteer, staff, committee, etc.
The volunteer already has volunteer on their badge for strtaegicon but each staff can reward their volunteers that go above and beyond with a special badge ribbons. People will know they can earn it and several will want to so they get it.
Different groups hand out the badge ribbons. The steampunk group at a con handed out "got steam" badge ribbons to people who went to their panel. Parties handed out ribbons. Kids that particpated in kid's functions got a ribbon (like one that we would have say strategikid or something fun and clever). Special tourneys did ribbons. etc. People like badge ribbons. 
Once we open the door with special volunteer badge ribbons some of us and others doing functions at our con will follow. At a con in january a guy gave out "I hugged jesse" badge ribbons. People saw them on others and sought him out to hug him and get the ribbon. Many of us have been to fandom cons and seen those individuals who badge ribbon hunt. I saw someone with an "always bet on black" badge ribbon and had to have one and sought it out.
Little things like that bring out our inner geek. So I am all for geeking out our convention more starting with volunteers who go above ans beyond.

V

From: Ken Barnard <cyrissia at hotmail.com>
To: Strategicon Department Heads <deptheads at strategicon.net> 
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2012 11:53 AM
Subject: RE: [Deptheads] We need more volunteers

A bit of a follow on here that came up discussing this with Kryssie.

This con I worked 12 hours.  Board Games was running a little short so I offered the extra time to help make ends meet.  12 hours for me is a good cap because I like to hit the RPGs and each shift I work cuts out exactly one RPG session that is available to me.  16 hours would have excluded a fourth session so I don't think I would have been excited to work a fourth shift.  I can't honestly say if a free con shirt would have made me want to work another four hours, but I wouldn't have thought twice about doing it for an "exclusive" volunteer shirt.  That's not ego, that's all geek.  You can buy the con shirts, you have to earn the volunteer swag and that makes it special.

From: cyrissia at hotmail.com
To: deptheads at strategicon.net
Subject: RE: [Deptheads] We need more volunteers
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:32:54 -0800

It seems to me that we could mitigate that and distinguish our volunteers at the same time.  Say for example that we add a free con shirt with 16+ hours of service.  If you volunteer well in advance your shirt is ready and waiting on Friday evening.  This is especially important if we make the volunteer shirts a different color and/or add the word "volunteer" prominently under the Strategicon logo.  Everyone at the con knows at a glance that you are a volunteer who has put in some serious hours.  Late additions who get in their full hours will still get the same shirt, which they can pick up at the next con.  (Yes, I know that I'll have to inventory and store them)  I think that would save us the hassle of trying to guess at how many extra shirts we'll need and it really incentifies volunteers to commit in advance.  The flip side is that we'd probably all need to contact our volunteers a little earlier than we have in the past.  Then
 again, I have no idea how far in advance we'd need to order the shirts or the added cost of modifying the design.

> From: ealdrich at mac.com
> To: deptheads at strategicon.net
> Subject: Re: [Deptheads] We need more volunteers
> Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:49:06 -0800
> 
> I like the ideas put forth in the various emails, but as much as I 
> like the TShirt idea, it's not so simple -- we'd have to take a guess 
> as to how many extra to print. I'll do it, but I'd expect a few misses 
> the first few time as we try to get the numbers right.
> 
> Eric
> 
> On 24 Feb, 2012, at 06:21, Tim wrote:
> 
> > I agree with Victor. People volunteer for different reasons but the 
> > hardest ones to get are the ones who work the 'desks'. I think 
> > adding a t-shirt for the 16 hour level works. We could also do a 
> > raffle for a free badge next con. I think anything that awards 
> > "best volunteer" or some other subjective criteria will cause a lot 
> > of grumbling and is something that can be abused.
> >
> > I volunteered at these cons going back to the early '80s. 
> > Originally I did it to save the $30 (I think) admission fee. After 
> > doing it for a few years, I got burned out and found it was more 
> > enjoyable to just buy a badge and have no responsibilities other 
> > than to play games.
> >
> > So my thought is a raffle or a set number of (48?) hours will get 
> > you a free con badge.
> >
> > Tim
> >
> > On 2/24/2012 12:01 AM, Victor B wrote:
> >>
> >> 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.
> >
> > -- 
> > Hadrian decided to build his wall so the Scots would be left 
> > undisturbed in their never-ending war against their mortal 
> > enemies... the Scots
> > _______________________________________________
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> 
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