Re: Volunteering at juggling festivals

Posted by xchaos, 2012-06-18 23:46 BST

Last week i have been at the Berlin juggling convention and they had an interesting new way to 'motivate' volunteers.

When checking-in onsite one would not get the real badge, but instead was handed a postcard. The so called 'Looser badge'. Subtitle: 'I accept any work'. On the backside the need for volunteers was explained as well as the way how to obtain a real badge. Those were obtained from the volunteers desk after signing up for one hour (or more) of unpaid slavery. Organisers and special volunteers got real badges right away.

The people at the registration took care to properly explain the need for volunteers to keep the convention price low (30 EUR onsite price for 4 convention days with camping and breakfast 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. + very good gala).

This approach was an experiment this year and it went very well. The festival ran really smooth and had a cosy feeling although there were some 800 participants. It also reminded many people of the need for volunteers.