This page should have info about Volunteers such as:

• Expected needs
• Staffing schedule 

"This convention runs on blood, sweat and volunteers."

Volunteers are vital to the success of our convention. While Convention Committee are also volunteers on this page we will be focusing on our General Volunteers.

Notes of Note:

• Shifts are in 2 hour increments. (unless otherwise noted)
• Majority of shifts are door sitting .
• Door Sitting is sitting outside a convention room, checking for current convention badges and asking people not to remove food/drink from Hospitality. If there is a issue contact 'The Watch' do not engage if someone insists upon entering without a badge. Each room where you door sit will have a walkie-talkie.
• Convention Door Sitters can not earn points for sitting private room parties. Private parties must provide their own ID checkers/door sitters.
• Children 8-11 may volunteer but for no more than 4 hours a day and must be in adult custody after 8pm.(see Gophers & Children Policies)
• Children 12-16 may volunteer but for no more than 6 hours a day. (typically falls under Volunteers. See Children Policies)
• Only those 12 and over can win/earn the 1yr membership. (this is a full price membership, since under 12 gets in half price they are excluded from winning)

Volunteer Coordinator Duties - Pre-con:

• Gather a working list of potential volunteers.

This can be done by getting names from Registration, promoting on social media, cultivating a list from previous volunteers and whatever other options you wish to use.

• Coordinate with each Department regarding which type of volunteers and how many they will need for the entire convention. Laying out dates and times. 

For example Art Show will need 5 to 10 bodies Thursday before con to assist in set up. They will need 1-2 volunteers to sit door to check for badges during Art Show hours. They will need a bag checker during Art Show Reception. ETC...

• Contact your volunteer pool and get schedules and at-con contact information from them.

IE: John has free time Saturday from 3pm to 10pm to sit door. While this will not be doable for everyone if you can even nail down a third of them it will be super helpful.

• Remind the Department Heads every meeting that if they do not request or state possible need for volunteers before the convention, they may have to provide their own during convention.  

Many departments will wait till the convention starts to state that they suddenly need 4 bodies to accomplish a goal. Thus creating a lot of undue stress for you and them. This may seem to fall under "Coordinating with each Department" but because of it being such a reoccurring issue it deserves its own bullet point.

Volunteer Coordinator Duties - At-con:

• Thursday - Ops and Logistics will need bodies to do loading and unloading. Art Show and Dealers will need prep bodies to put up the panels, help place tables and the like. Many times Ops will provide their own people but coordinate with them just in case.

• Friday - Your day starts around 10 am. Even though the Convention doesn't start until Noon we will need people in place to keep curious con-goers from entering areas that may still be setting up. Such as Dealers/Art Show, Ballroom, Registration, Hospitality.   Once the convention opens we will need door guards for Dealers/Art Show and Hospitality. They will rotate out approximately every 2 hours.  While many departments will provide their own support staff you  may need to send bodies to Registration, Hospitality, Art Show/Dealers, Ballroom, Filk and Greenroom. Your day ends at 9pm when "The Watch" takes over.

• Saturday - Your day starts at 8am. It is a rinse/repeat of Friday.

• Sunday - Your day starts at 8am. Door Sitters end at 4pm. However that is when tear-down occurs. It is also when the Volunteer Raffle occurs.
• Dead Dog aka Volunteer Party occurs AFTER all the tear down and load out has occurred and the truck has returned from all deliveries it can make on Sunday. This is a collaboration of Hospitality, Ops, Logistics, Watch and Volunteers.

Volunteer Raffle:

The volunteer raffle is our way of giving back to those that give so much. In addition to swag provided by the con itself (1 paid membership to next years convention, tee shirts and random other artifacts) it is also your duty/pleasure to contact the dealers in the dealers room to see if they'd like to donate an item for the raffle. Here is the form to use as a receipt for dealers who donate. Make sure to get a fair market value for the donated item(s) on both sections of the form.

OryCon Donation Document (2017-7-5).docx

How to do the raffle: 

Typically each hour or two hour volunteer time is worth 1 ticket. Hours are kept by you though you can provide them with an index card that a committee person has to sign off on stating that they completed their 'shift'. Extra tickets can be provided at your discretion for taking shifts that no one wants, doing hard or complicated tasks or any reason you or another committee person deems worthy. At the raffle a designated person grabs a number out and the matching number gets their choice of item. The one year membership can be either raffled off or given to the person who has volunteered the most/done the most/at your discretion.

  In addition to earning raffle prizes there is the Hero of the Realm Ribbon. Which is given to those most deserving as a special thank you. There are only 5 given each year.

*Committee/Heads of Department are not eligible for the Volunteer Raffle as they get in at free or reduced rate.