Cons and volunteering

[amanda_lodden]

I'm no longer in my teens (nor my twenties), which means that when I attend a gaming convention, I do silly things like sleep for an entire night and relax in between games, and "food" means an actual meal rather than scarfing something down while walking to the next game.

I've considered the possibility of volunteering at GenCon for the last few years, and I've always been put off by the fact that they'll reimburse you for your badge if you work 16 hours, and they'll do jack-all if you work 15 hours and 59 minutes. 16 hours is a lot of time-- the guy at Volunteer HQ pointed out that it's "only 4 hours a day" but that ignores the fact that 1) 4 hours a day is 25% of my waking time, and 2) we go home Sunday, which means that I only HAVE about 4 waking hours on Sunday.

What it occurred to me to ask this year, though was this: "Do hours worked roll over to the next year?" Because for a con that's crying for volunteers all the time, it seems like having a way to encourage people to work multiple years, even if it's a smaller block of time each year, would still result in more willing volunteers. It would also mean that after the first year, you've got a pool of volunteers who have already been trained on at least one thing, which means you don't have to waste time training a newbie over and over.

GenCon does not roll hours over between years, but I still think it's a good idea, and I would like to put that suggestion out for the world. There are more cons than just GenCon, and a common theme among them is "we need volunteers!"

Comments

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

It seems pretty gauche to me to expect people to pay for their badge *and* volunteer (although I could see the reasoning behind it if it was less than, say, 6 hours). But you're absolutely right - 16 hours over the course of a few days is a bit much to expect if someone's hoping to, y'know, attend as well.

Unfortunately, given the level of organization I've read about at many cons (i.e. not much), I can understand why they'd be hesitant to roll over hours - from a sheer bookkeeping standpoint, it'd be difficult to make sure everyone was getting tracked properly, and that records were accurate from one year to another, and that people didn't get upset when their hours weren't recorded one year (and that people weren't trying to game the system by claiming hours the previous year that they didn't actually work). It's a shame, because it *is* a good idea, but it seems that what most cons need even more than volunteers is volunteers who are good at organizing shit, an even rarer breed. :)

[amanda_lodden.livejournal.com]

In the age of databases, it's not all that hard, but if you're worried about it: put the onus on the volunteer. Give them something that's not easily counterfeited as a "coupon" for a particular number of hours, and tell them that to get the credit for the next year, they have to bring those coupons and turn them in. No replacement-- if you lose your coupon(s), you're SOL.