[Deptheads] We need more volunteers

[Robyn Nixon]

Well said!!


On 2/24/12 12:01 AM, "Victor B" <fhoenix88 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 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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