worldcon volunteers

[sergebroom]

It is my understanding that, last week, the organizers of the upcoming worldcon were bemoaning the lack of volunteers. That's rather strange. A friend and I both volunteered months ago and neither of us ever heard a single thing back.

Comments

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Worldcons often have a difficult time tracking volunteer requests. I suggest writing to the Chairs (see the committee page (http://www.anticipationsf.ca/English/Committee) for contact information) rather than the volunteer address. Tell them what you just said above and also where you were interested in helping.

It has been my experience that the largest group of volunteers end up being recruited by personal contact, rather than through scatter-shot appeals, forms, or web sites. It's really not that much different than real-world jobs in that respect.

While as a former Worldcon chair myself, I don't like putting extra work on my successors, I also know that when I was doing my turn in the barrel, if there were people who were falling through the communication cracks, I would want to know about it.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'll try again. I expect that they're very busy right now.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Yes, we always are. It's an axiom (thanks to sethb that Worldcons always need six additional months to plan, but they need those six months when they are 30 days out.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

By the way, I'd like to thank you and every living worldcon organizers for spending all that time to throw those big parties. You probably hear criticism more often tham praise, just like the organizers of any kind of party. Me, I first met my wife thanks to woldcons.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Me, too. I was posting flyers for a San Francisco in '93 bid party when I met my future wife (pictured with me in the icon) in the halls of OryCon in Portland.

Thanks for the kind words.

[ant-mediarel.livejournal.com]

Folks have been going through a backlog of volunteer forms . . . ( :

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Would you then prefer that I hold off on adding yet another email to the glut the concom has to go thru? Just in case it helps tracking my volunteering form, my email address is 'serge/underscore/LJ/at/comcast/dot/net'.

Thanks for making the con possible.

[elaine-brennan.livejournal.com]

A private reply about your volunteer information is forthcoming.

[elaine-brennan.livejournal.com]

Please don't suggest that people write to the chairs -- they've got more than enough on their plates right now!

I have taken on the responsibility of handling pre-con volunteers, and am working my way through the backlog of forms that have been submitted to Anticipation.

If you see or hear people querying whether their volunteer forms have been received, ask them to write to volunteers@anticipationsf.ca, since there is now a real human being responding to messages in real time.

[xeger.livejournal.com]

Hm, yeah -- volunteers have a distressing habit of falling through the cracks in big things... I haven't managed to get my brain far enough away from the drive-sleep-work (Er, not in that order, mostly) cycle I'm stuck in now to actually get to the point of volunteering, either.

[ant-mediarel.livejournal.com]

Even if you don't manage to fill out the form on the website, if you want to volunteer at-con and ask the nice folks at the Info desk or Registration they'll be able to tell you where to go.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

drive-sleep-work (Er, not in that order, mostly) cycle

Today's young people! When you reach my age, you'll have learned to do those tasks simultaneously.

See you in 4 months.