Viewing all threads tagged #ejc.
It appears that EJC 2015 is no longer going to be in Berlin.
I find it hard to believe that any EJA contract contravenes German law as there has been 1 or 2 EJCs in Germany before. Does anyone know what is contained in the EJA contract & what exactly is at fault?
#EJC
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
Blimey, that sucks really quite hard. Eggs on faces all round, plus a headache for the EJA.
It's easy to believe that previous EJCs didn't bother to run their EJA contract past a lawyer. Or perhaps that they realised the contract was unenforceable but thought this would work in their favour.
One of the Munich EJC core team was a lawyer so I am sure the EJA contract has been carefully looked over in the past, besides which the EJA is based is based in Netherlands so perhaps it would fall under Dutch legal jurisdiction.
It is unfortunate the venue the team found in Berlin is not suitable for an EJC, though the Berlin team did mention at Toulouse that their venue was very expensive so would involve significant increase in ticket price and there was the possibility that there would be no grass to camp on.
Didn't check the contract? Sorry, that just doesn't gel with my stereotype of precise analytical Germans.
It seems that the Berlin team who applied for EJC2015 is not the Berlin team who organize the Berlin Convention. That's what I heard for german jugglers. Also, it was stated that the EJA approval was relying on better proofs from that team. So in a way I'm not surprised (though sad that 2015 is still hanging).
Am I the only one who gets the feeling that the EJC 2015 team have been given a bit of short shrift from a lot of people purely because they are not the 'Berlin team'? I've read a number of comments on Facebook to that effect. There are many teams around the world that are not the 'Berlin team' who successfully organise festivals.
I think it might be because everyone could automatically assume an EJC in Berlin would be organised by the team who organise the very successful Berlin Convention every year that people have felt the need to point out that it is not the same people. I don't think it is intended to discredit them, there is something to be said for perhaps having organised a smaller convention before tackling organising an EJC, but it is not a pre-requisite. None of the previous EJCs have been organised by a "Berlin Convention Team" (though several of the people who organise Berlin Convention do help out at EJCs). I believe one or two of the Berlin EJC team do live in Berlin.
It was good of them to offer to organise EJC 2015 after nobody stepped forward at the EJA 2012 General Assembly, it is just unfortunate it is not possible. Hopefully there might be other people able to organise an EJC somewhere else in 2015 rather than there not being an EJC, but it is a huge commitment and of course there is less time to find a venue and organise it now.
I think that having the courage to "fail fast" and back out at this stage reflects well on the abilities of the team. It would be far too easy to try and plough on regardless and then have it go horribly wrong after a significantly larger investment of time and money.
Little Paul - - Parent #
This
Once again, I'm looking for thoughts / ideas on #volunteering at large conventions such as an #ejc ... As many of you will no doubt be aware, I've been a bit silly and have committed to be volunteer co-ordinator at both #BJC2014 and #EJC2014.
Unlike #ejc2013 (and many other recent EJCs), we will not have the volume of people present to justify having "full-time" volunteers, so I'm looking for creative, effective, and inexpensive ideas to help to promote the idea that everyone will be expected to do some volunteering during the convention... If the majority of people did one volunteering shift during the convention, then, with the exception of certain roles that require extra responsibility [i.e. handling cash/items worth substantial amount of money] the majority of tasks could be taken care of with minimal effort.
During #ejc2013, I had a few very useful suggestions from experienced convention goers as to how to make "boring" jobs such as badge control a little more interesting (or at the very least, less tedious). The most immediately useful of the suggestions was to have a table at any badge control points - especially at any external badge control points - so that people can prepare lunch / dinner. A two hour stint where you are preparing / eating a meal for one hour of it doesn't feel as if you are cutting so much into your day.
I would like to be more inclusive about volunteering - that it is expected from everyone [no matter how "serious" a juggler you are] so would welcome some discussion about how to widen the volunteering pool. There will, of course, be those for whom a two hour slot is not practical [i.e. those with young children], but I would like to see a situation whereby having volunteered is the norm, rather than for a limited few.
Another point for discussion is what to do with "early arrivals" that arrive too late for setup. At many EJCs there has been a mini influx on the evening before the convention is due to start, with no real plan for what to do with these jugglers. As the food stalls are not fully functional, these jugglers tend to mill over towards the catering for those who have been involved in setup - to the point of which, for some years, they have eaten so much of the food that there has not been sufficient remaining for those who have been hard at work all day. In most situations, it is not practical for the team to force these late early arrivals to remain offsite - as having them rough camp outside the convention site would annoy locals and the authorities - not a good way to start the convention... In Millstreet next year, this may be a particular issue due to flight schedules, so I'm curious as to what people think is a reasonable solution to this growing issue..
I realise that this has turned into rather a long post, but feel free to comment on small portions of it!
Let early arrivals onto site... for an extra fee of (?£25?), irrespective of any pre-reg costs paid. Advertise this heavily beforehand. It should help to discourage early arrivers. Otherwise, tell them to wait in the car park.
Don't expect people to volunteer for 6 hours as the Toulousians did. If I hadn't already been running an event, my reaction would have definitely involved a Foxtrot and an Oscar. 2 hours is reasonable, but perhaps give people the chance to do just an hour. It would need to be carefully handled though (u18s and parents of u10s?), to stop everyone going to the easy option by default.
Daniel Simu - - Parent #
For gift idea's:
At the NJF I gave away about 500 wooden clothpins. On one side there was written 'NJF 2013' and on the other side a compliment such as
and many many more in many different languages.
I wrote most of them before the start of the festival but some people hanging out at the volunteer desk also made some.
My job as volunteer coordinator would be to walk around all day and say hello to everyone doing volunteer work. To each and every person I spotted I said 'hey, you deserve a "kiss"' and pull out my kiss pin ;). It was both really funny and practical and allowed me to personally thank everyone. Instead of handing these out at the volunteer desk I went around myself. Of course there were some volunteers I might have missed or people who would come up to me and tell me they deserved another pin, but overall it was a lot of fun!
The other organisation members carried pins around as well and many people publicly wore the pins on their clothes to show their volunteer dedication. I would walk up to people I did not know and ask them how many pins they had already gotten. "Just one? Ah so you could take over the badgecontrol right now, here is another one!".
I don't know if this idea is practical at an EJC, especially since there will be way more people to manage but if you have enough volunteer coordinators to build a relationship with all the volunteers (which I think is important, even if they only help you for an hour) it might be something.
Mostly I just wanted to share the results of this experiment here :)
Last but not least: When cleaning up on the last day there were these 3 kids: "Daniel, we got only 15 pins now but we still need more, what can we do for you?". Very useful leverage, these pins ;).
Nice to know that pins have worked in the Netherlands.... the badges at recent BJCs have been very popular - so it's good to know that this type of idea has worked in more than one country. At BJCs kids have been begging for litter picking jobs so that they can collect more badges.
As per Void's suggestion I might throw a few 1 hour badge control slots into the timetable for people who may struggle to do two hours in a row. I too think that 6 hours volunteering is unreasonable to ask from all but an "elite" few [i.e. us poor suckers at registration desk on opening weekend...]
There is a reason why I haven't mentioned any of the proposed solutions to the early arrivals problem - I want to hear what jugglers think is reasonable without being biased by previously discussed options.
I can't say that we will implement suggestions, but they will certainly give us food for thought.
Owen Greenaway - - Parent #
Maybe this is a silly suggestion but in Toulouse if, while collecting my pass on the first day, they had said "would you mind volunteering on Wednesday at 2pm for 2 hours; it doesn't clash with any performances?" I probably would have said yes. In the end I didn't actually do any volunteering at the EJC. A credit card sized bit of card with the date, location, time and basic instructions for volunteering would help people remember, compare and swap with others. Signs in the queue saying "Which type of volunteering would you prefer to do?" and a huge pile of volunteering cards would imply to me that everyone is meant to do something. Even when buying the ticket on the website there could be a page asking "Which volunteering session do you want to sign up to?" and a "none" option at the bottom. I think the wording makes a huge difference.
At my first few conventions I would read "the site opens at 12" and make sure not to arrive before 12. I've now turned up to lots of conventions at 12.20 and non-volunteers have already arrived, pitched their tents, had lunch and juggled. It sort of makes the whole opening time feel a bit meaningless. Wording on the website such as "strictly no access to the site before 12" might put off some people even if it wasn't upheld on site.
When several thousand people are collecting their passes asking every person what volunteering they want to do (and waiting for an answer) will add hours to the queue for registration/collecting pre-registration.
Having a large and very visible volunteering desk near registration would be a good thing, but when people first arrive their priority often is pitching their tent so they can put down their luggage. And you would also need more volunteers to man this stall when you might otherwise be using them for last-minute-set-up/registration/info-desk
Maybe all other places (eg workshop timetable, show schedules, food stalls, toliets, showers, open stage venues etc) could repeat the message "Have you volunteered today" somewhere on them and the volunteering desk being close (or signposted from) info desk as that is another place people go to.
I don't recommend the idea of letting people pay to arrive early, because
- your early arrival time will just become the unofficial start of the event
- people may arrive early for the early arrival
- you are incurring more responsibility for their health and safety when site build may not be complete
Also, https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/books/chapters/0515-1st-levitt.html?_r=0
I suggest heavily advertising that early arrivals will be turned away (even though it is not necessarily practical to follow through on this). Perhaps when they do arrive they could be directed to a kind of "holding camp" at the most inconvenient end of the site, and if you give your volunteers their passes, then you can informally badge check parts of the rest of the site and ask the caterers to badge check when serving.
The "strictly no access before xx:xx" was attempted this year. As expected, it was totally ignored.
Little Paul - - Parent #
It would probably have been honoured had there been a fence across the entrance with a sign on it saying "piss off and come back when we're open" but I didn't see any evidence of that.
Unfortunately convention sites are exciting hives of activity often with people's mates on site. Regardless of signage they always look open.
I think this is a growing problem. I've worked the day before & the day after the past 2 BJCs. There were a number of people who turned up on the day prior to BJC 2013 who spent the day lounging round their tents playing guitars. People who turn up prior to the convention then start partying while everyone else is working really makes the genuine volunteers feel like shit.
Lots of people turn up for set up, but very few hang around for take down. There are those that want to be on site early to have an extra day of partying but when the party has finished they are not interested.
Little Paul - - Parent #
My point was less about signage, and more about blocking off the entrance to the site so that early arrivals are physically barred from entry. If you're feeling really flush, an extra days worth of security guard paid to sit there and say "no" would work too.
OK so you still need a way for legitimate volunteers to get on site, but a big sign which says "we're closed, volunteers phone this number" would sort that out. Anyone who phones that number would have it made clear to them what was expected and a job allocated. Whoever comes down to unlock the gate could guide them to somewhere they can leave their stuff and introduce them to the volunteering team.
The site layout at BJC2013 would have allowed this, if it had been fenced off at the road. Though if you can manage to allow access to the car park that would probably be seen as a little more sociable by local residents as at least early arrivals would have somewhere to park and sit/wait until they were allowed in.
I totally get the "my friends are on site" thing and the irritation about early arrivals not pulling their weight. I've been there done that, and had a go at people for sitting on their arse while I was lugging heavy things about.
Often it's resulted in a "oops, sorry - how can I help?" and another juggler is converted to the ways of volunteering...
Little Paul - - Parent #
Oh, and ObCourgettePasta - Today I didn't have a lemon, so instead I picked some runner beans from the garden sliced them along with some red onion, and put them in a jam jar with a good slug of cider vinegar and a bit of balsamic for good measure. A pinch of salt, then lid on. Cook the rest as per the usual recipe, but about 5 minutes before the pasta is done, drain the beans/onion and add to the courgettes.
A rather nice variation.
Don't think I have any cider vinegar on hand at the moment. I'll have to remember to give this a go next time I do. I tried a baked falafel recipe this evening. It was good but still not as good as Svendborg.
As I was one of the volunteers with Orin who turned up early to work at BJC 2013 and was not happy about other peoples laziness. If you turn up early you work, if your not willing to work don't turn up early.
and to clarify for anyone reading this who fancies volunteering: if you want to come early and help, please ask first. Too many volunteers is just as bad as too few. And please don't bring your kids early unless they were explicitly invited.
People who don't have a two hour slot free can just go look at the "things to do" list and pick off a quick thing like delivering TP?
Not sure I like the idea of having badge control people making their lunch on duty. Sounds like a big distraction from checking badges.
I do like the idea of selling crew shirts (at or near cost) to people who have done a zillion hours.
Also suggest laying out the entrance so that people go past registration and then past "sign up to volunteer", as if the one is expected to follow from the other, and having happy enthusiastic people on the volunteer desk grabbing people as they come through and asking them to book a slot. Obviously the layout needs to accommodate serious through flow of people, but you already know that!
Thanks Emily for the useful suggestions... the preparation / eating of food did slightly worry me at the start when it was first proposed, but I've been reliably informed, that, in practice, it means that you will have a slightly larger group of people doing badge control [about 4] rather than just 2.
Charging people for admission does bring in all sorts of liability issues, which organising teams would prefer not to have to accept, especially when the site is not complete. I like the idea of having a "holding camping area" - perhaps in the part of the campsite with the least morning shade...
One idea that had been proposed was charging a deposit off these late early arrivals that would be refunded once a certain amount of volunteering had been done... however this does go against it being completely voluntary in nature. Generally, I'm looking for ways of making it a bad idea to arrive on the Friday afternoon/evening [unless you have arranged to do so as you are working on reg desk on the Saturday]...
I will definitely be trying to make it as easy as possible to volunteer next year - everyone can expect to be nabbed just after they register. Are there any tools that would make this easier [I've already written some scripts that would mean that you could easily sync volunteering times to a google calendar...] - one of the main issues I've had with people signing up for volunteering "too" early in the convention is that they often come back to say that it clashes with workshops and then keeping track of which volunteering slots are still empty becomes a bit of a logisitical nightmare.
Little Paul - - Parent #
I don't have much to offer on the volunteering side of things beyond what's already been suggested - but if early arrivals are eating food prepared for the setup crew, then I do have a simple suggestion which might help.
Everyone involved in setup is given a meal ticket, which had to be presented to get their nosh. It needn't be a "free meal" ticket, just a "priority queuing" voucher. Late comers wouldn't get one of these tickets without a minimum 2hr effort
Any left over catering can be sold to the interlopers after sufficient time/volunteers have been served
I was having this discussion with some people at the EJC this year. Sometimes I just want to go to a convention to have fun and not do any volunteering. For some people this is the only holiday we will have in the year and want to relax and unwind from work. We paid money, we want to enjoy it. We don't want people coming round hounding us to volunteer multiple times a day and making us feel guilty for wanting some time off from work.
An idea we had was to have another level of payment. If you don't want to volunteer you pay more and get something that identifies that you have paid more and not get press-ganged or guilt tripped into volunteering (different coloured wrist band?). This extra money can pay for cleaners, or some other volunteer role to be done by a professional/hired person. Or can support a "work for free ticket to EJC/BJC scheme" whereby someone gets free ticket but has to sign up for x amount of hours volunteering. Good for those who can't afford convention.
Also, from when I do volunteer, often you don't want to sign up to a pre-arranged time etc (because of shows/workshops/etc..) but sometimes find yourself with a free hour. Some conventions have been open to this 'drop by' volunteering, but some have said no. If you say no to a volunteer they won't feel as open to come back to offer their help again. I remember from my first conventions, for some people having the confidence to go up to offer to do some volunteering is a big thing. To be met with "no, you have to sign up at X time for X hours" is a crush and are less likely to offer again or sign up in the future. Saying "we have nothing to do now, but please drop by again when you have some time, or if you can book in some time later on in the week it would be helpful" is a much better way!
Thanks for your considered reply. I have been asked how it would affect the price of a convention if we were not to rely on volunteers: the honest answer is it would probably more than double the admission price and it would completely change the ethos of the event. When people say "this is my holiday, I've paid to get in so I don't want to volunteer", my heart sinks a little - because the same applies for me (I've paid either the same price, or I got a cheaper ticket because I tend to preregister in the first few days), even though I volunteer at every convention - except for one-dayers at Universities, because I probably wouldn't be of much help.
There is definitely a scope for having random, unscheduled volunteering jobs - these tend to be along the lines
and I think that it is very important to have these jobs for people who want to ease themselves into volunteering...
So, how much more would you be willing to pay not to be hassled to volunteer? An extra €75/100?
One of the risks of having people with "free entry for volunteers" is that you assume that once they are onsite that they will all show up for the work required... this is difficult to enforce at larger and long events. What happens is that the people who do show up are then overworked, overtired and stressed. Anything but a holiday. It also creates an "us and them" atmosphere.
What I don't want next year is what happened at this years EJC - where I did well over 60 hours in the week [I pre-registered for a "no-shows" option, knowing that I probably wouldn't get the chance to see most of them anyway]... this is my annual leave and has taken about a week to recover [especially as by the end of the convention I was sick]. I would like to encourage a situation where everyone does between 1-2 hours during the convention (there are always the "heavy lifters" of those on registration / information desk and also those involved in running shows as familiarity with systems is a major advantage here).
There is a major disadvantage of asking people to sign up for volunteering particular hours when they arrive on site - most of the workshops are not on the schedule by then and people also don't know much about whats in each show - there ends up being a major job for the volunteer coordinator finding people to fill slots at the last minute as those who signed up at the start of the week did not show up because it clashed with another (more desirable) event.
Before this starts to sound too like a whinge fest, I have found one of the best reasons to volunteer is that I have collected friends from around the world by volunteering - its a great way to break out of your small social group :)
Not related to volunteers, but I do wonder whether there's room for a substantially higher priced ticket which gets you nothing more than the lower priced ticket except a smug sense of satisfaction at supporting the BJC financially. There's a lot of people who would quite happily pay a more realistic price, even though the prices are kept low for the benefit of the many who really can't afford it.
Little Paul - - Parent #
Not necessarily directly connected with this post, but it's something I've been thinking/reading about a lot recently (in other contexts) is the whole "nudge psychology" stuff which seems to be popular these days. I'm sure a lot of it is snake oil, but some of it makes sense.
How you phrase the call for volunteers may make a significant difference to the number of volunteers you get. Essentially by making it easy for people to do the "right" thing, and hinting that "loads of people already do the right thing" to make it less onerous because well, if everyone else is doing it why wouldn't I? Framing it as "no one volunteers, we need help" puts people in a "well I don't want to be the only one" mindset.
So perhaps with each ticket sold, the confirmation email could include something like "Every year hundreds of atendees volunteer during BJC to make it run smoothly, for more info talk to a volunteer!"
Obviously it's going to be super hard to actually do any experimental verification of this at a BJC or EJC, but it might be worth thinking about.
Scott Seltzer - - Parent #
What I thought was effective at the previous EJC Millstreet was giving volunteers tickets to use the internet computers.
Richard Loxley - - Parent #
It's interesting that you mention flight schedules affecting arrival times. I imagine this is because there's perhaps one flight a day that someone can catch, and so if they arrival on that flight on the first day, they'll miss part of the day. So they arrival a day earlier "so I don't miss anything".
Perhaps part of the problem is scheduling convention events right up to the start and end of the event? What if the first and last days had no entertainment/shows/workshops/etc whatsoever, they were just "arrival" and "departure" days? That might remove a bit of the incentive to stay longer just for scheduling reasons?
Richard Loxley - - Parent #
Another thought about discouraging early arrivals/late departures. At Bungay it used to be the case that the toilets didn't arrive until the day the punters arrived. So if you arrived early as part of the set-up crew, you had to pee in the hedge, and if you required more than that you had to travel into Bungay to the public toilets. I think that helped dissuade 'tourists' from arriving early to extend their holiday!
Similarly the one year that I crewed at Glastonbury festival, on the last day we were warned to fill water containers before the last morning, because they turned off all the taps on the final morning to encourage people to go home. We were told the water would be turned back on later for the tear-down crew to use, but the shock of finding the facilities being unavailable incentivised the vast majority of punters to leave promptly!
Not sure that either of these suggestions could be applied to BJC or EJC, but perhaps they might inspire some variation that could work?
thegoheads - - Parent #
"What if the first and last days had no entertainment/shows/workshops/etc whatsoever, they were just "arrival" and "departure" days? "
IIRC that's basically how the IJA fest was every time I went. I found it rather cool, for that very reason. The first day of the convention is just "open juggling" as is the last day. It gives people a huge window to show up on the official first day and leave the official last day without missing any scheduled events.
-Steve
pumpkineater23 - - Parent #
"What if the first and last days had no entertainment/shows/workshops/etc whatsoever, they were just "arrival" and "departure" days? "
I've always liked that for certain festivals too. The 'pre-day' eases into it and then the 'after-day' softens the landing.
I'm not convinced it would make much difference. Even if there are no scheduled events we all know that when a critical mass of jugglers is achieved (ie more than one) things spontaneously happen.
I've found this works well for Play Festival (having just returned). The "nothing" days make it feel more relaxed and less rushed, which I like as it means you can turn up anytime that day/or leave, without having to miss anything. I remember the at BJC Southend Gandini closing show that I wasn't sure if I could see it as it cut close to my train home. At EJC this year, I had to miss the parade and the games due to my flights being on the Saturday (which was the advertised last day), though the reason for my flight was a late booking.
(This is a little off Dee's original topic now)
Richard Loxley - - Parent #
There's also a big need for publicity about volunteering. Before BJC2013 there was a lot of talk in advance about encouraging volunteering.
But when I was there I personally saw no signs asking for volunteers, I was never asked to volunteer, and I didn't see anyone wearing any badges provoking a discussion of "oh, where did you get that?" / "I got it when I volunteered!"
I'm not knocking BJC2013, and I'm assuming that some volunteering publicity did happen. But there are so many other messages competing for people's attention. I slipped through the net, so I guess other people did too.
...and there were lots of cards detailing jobs needed pinned on the window of the ticket office, & there was Dee & others shouting about the jobs that needed doing...
But I think that's the point, in a reception area with lots of jugglers passing through, many of which are friends that you may not have seen for a year it is really hard to get a message through. In the reception area people are generally interested in getting registered or looking at the workshop board.
In fact what about putting volunteer jobs on the workshop board? The workshop board is probably the most looked at bit of space on a convention site. Provided the board is big enough a lot of jobs could be listed at the day & time that they are required.
I think getting the message that volunteers are required is the smaller part of the problem though. Getting people to actually do it is the tougher part of the problem.
I don't think putting the Volunteer jobs on the workshop board is a good idea. I find it hard enough to read what is on it on the first place! Would I would consider is putting it maybe above it? The jobs/times are in the line of sight of the workshops then people could figure out what they might have time to help out with.
At EJC there were a lot of posters asking have you volunteered yet, I think that would certainly help.
Richard Loxley - - Parent #
Indeed, I didn't look very hard, because I didn't spontaneously think 'oh I need to volunteer, I'd better go look for where to do it'. The people who have already decided to volunteer will probably find the information, I was thinking more about encouraging more people to volunteer who haven't considered it in the past.
As Orinoco said, the problem with the registration area is it's so busy with information: about registering; about workshops; about other conventions; about transport; and loads of other stuff. It's information overload, and in a place where people are usually on their way somewhere.
How about advertising jobs in places where people are pausing and have less to do, so might be more inclined to read it? And have more free time to volunteer? I'm thinking vertical display stands on tables in the bar and cafe, posters on the backs on toilet doors, that sort of place.
Of course, the general ethos about volunteering needs to be communicated too, and that might be best with the personal touch, face-to-face encouragement, or with viral marketing with something like badges. The little perspex men (was that Doncaster?) were very good at that since it was themed with the (desirable) convention pass, and very visible, so it encouraged dialogue about where they came from, and lust over getting hold of them!
It might be worth designing this from the ground up when coming up with the convention pass - make the volunteers badge the cool version of the pass, and a more basic version just for entry. So you only get the upgrade to the cool pass when you volunteer, and everyone will ask you how you got the cool pass :-)
It could be as simple as printing two versions of a pass, one with the logo in black and white, and one in colour. If you volunteer you swap your black and white pass for the colour one.
Signs on the back of toilet doors is a really easy, cheap and effective way of telling/reminding people to look at for volunteering jobs that need doing.
that should say ...to look at (location of jobs listing) for volunteering jobs that need doing.
Subscribe to this forum via RSS
1 article per branch
1 article per post