Good read.

I’m still interested in volunteering and such, but I can’t go so far as to really jump in and say what I’d be able to do when just yet. My own life scheduel’s a little flakey, and I wouldn’t want to say that I’d be at X for Y hours if I don’t even know if I can go to such and such convention.

You all do a great job, I’m sure you know what works and what you’re all capable of.

I will be the first to admit that FC’s over-the-top version of staff rotation can sometimes cause issues, but the one thing it does help with is preventing some of the burnout issues. There’s no a priori assumption anyone will be in the same position one year as the next (even though it very, very often happens that way), so everyone has to make a conscious decision to re-enlist, so to speak.

At the annual “firing party” (it’s official name), where everyone is “fired” from their current position, and has the chance to approach the new exec and say, “I’d like to do it again,” it’s not uncommon for people to say, “not this year, I need a year off.”

Perhaps it’s as easy as going up to all of the staff at the post-con meeting, before planning for the next year starts, and asking, “do you want to continue another year, or take a break.” Volunteers will tend not to back out until it IS too late, unless you give them an obvious chance to do so earlier. (And shortly after the con is best, IMHO, since how hard it was is still fresh in their mind, along with how rewarding it was.)

The flip side, of course, is too much staff turnover. It’s a hard balance to meet, especially in a volunteer organization.

I’d also say, in addition to the “24 hour turnaround” (lord knows I don’t always follow that rule! :> ), there’s the issue of following up a later, to make sure the “hiring” (in the case of staffing issues) actually happened.

I think the bottom line, though, is that communications are critical, in all parts of the effort. I’d have to say 90% of everything I have ever seen go wrong at any con (be it one I watch from the inside or outside) seems to stem from one person not really understanding what the other was saying/doing/planning…

In the three or four completely unrelated volunteer groups I’ve worked with, every one has been plagued with some form of communications issues. Then again, so has every company I every worked at. :>

I view it as the job of the organisers to spot incipient volunteer-burnout and take action to manage it before it turns into a reality.

There’s a problem in that the willing workhorses will inevitably find new tasks migrating towards them – until the infamous straw breaks the camel’s back. This feeds into to my earlier comment about clearly defined roles scopes and responsibilities – if all the volunteers know and understand what’s expected of them then they’re less likely to feel difficulty or a sense of embarrassment when telling someone “that’s not my job – I don’t do that”.

Look for those to make an appearance in “Part 2: Advanced Methods”.

Its a thinly veiled ruse to lure heterosexual men into the family.

Well, duh. Of course, just when you think you have someone firmly in the clutches of gheyness, some of them have to go off and get married. That really confuses the rest of us.

😉

FOR SHAME.

I used to have shame. I traded it for a lovely set of assless chaps.

Excellent point about follow-up. I’ve always made it a point to try to respond to all inquiries to official con addresses within 24 hours, if possible. It’s unreasonable to expect that of others, I suppose, but it’s a good starting point. Also, I’ve been in the habit that if there are multiple people on an e-mail alias, all responses get BCC’ed back to the alias so that everyone involved knows that a question has been dealt with.

I agree also on the “new blood”. Burnout can be a natural progression all too often, and it’s important to have people available to backfill vacated positions. Ideally, they’ll have had some experience with the department in question, but I suppose that’s a luxury we can’t always have…

And that’s a really good point about keeping in touch. I need to create a better way of tracking my staff’s e-mail addresses while splitting time between two e-mail clients.