Staff Check-In Committee for the 2015 VQG/SFVQA Quilt Show
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Staff Check-In Committee for the 2015 VQG/SFVQA Quilt Show Committee Chairs: Gayle Armstrong and Carole Mingus, both from SFVQA
PREPARING FOR THE BIG SHOW!
1. After we accepted the chairmanship of Staff Check-in, we found that 2 other people would be signing up people for volunteer positions and that another person would be creating the name tags. We actually had three separate committees within the one. Suggestion: Create 3 separate committees for this job: 1. Volunteer Sign-up Committee creates the volunteer sign- up boards and takes them to each of the quilt groups; 2. A person assigned to print the actual nametags from the two groups’ rosters; 3. The Staff Check-in Committee that coordinates the lists and nametags ahead of time, notes the assignments on the back of each name tag, creates an alphabetical list from the name tags for volunteer boards/rosters, gets aprons/white gloves/signs and more from the storage unit, creates some type of incentive for the volunteers to return their plastic holders at the end of their shift or day, and more!
2. There were two other volunteers that took care of the actual signing up of people for their volunteer jobs. The Steering Committee told them how many people each committee would need for the entire show, not the committee chairs. The Staff Check-In area had three people from 9:30-11:30 and for two people in each of the 2 hour shifts after until closing. We suggest 3 people at each session, then there are people to give a bathroom or lunch breaks for each other. Suggestion: Steering Committee chairs should call a meeting of their “people” and ask how many people they think they are actually going to need for their committee. Then, make sure the chairs understand that they are personally responsible to make sure that there are enough people signed up for their committee and ‘recruit’ a few if necessary. IF they do recruit they must inform the staffing check in of who those people are, where they are assigned, and when. At the event that they do not hold us responsible for physically finding or calling their people each hour. We will check the names to make sure the volunteer has check in, but we will not be responsible for calling, locating, or replacing them with our staff them at the show.
3. Those two people took the sign-in chart boards around to both the night and day quilt groups and tried to make sure that each committee had the people needed. Suggestion: Make sure the people clearly print their name for accurate spelling on the nametags and alphabetized rosters. Also, make sure that they include their full name, not just their first name!
4. After the sign-in chart boards were full (sort of) they created a chart of all of the positions for each committee on the computer. This was very helpful, but they could only type what they could read. Many of the names were misspelled and didn’t coordinate with roster or nametags. Suggestion: Check the names with that of the rosters.
5. There are many blank tag board name tags in the supply box. If they can be used, give them to the person who will be printing the nametags. In 2015, the actual name tags were printed by Lois Christianson. She also creates the computer generated SFVQA newsletter each month. She created a name tag for each of the names on the two quilt groups’ rosters, which was very helpful! Suggestion: Please, we hope she will do it again next time!
6. Ask your Steering Committee Chair if she could meet you at storage and take what you will need: This notebook, aprons, white gloves, plastic name card holders, 3 file boxes for nametags, metal sign holders, fat quarters, the supply box, raffle tickets, baskets, plastic containers for raffle, and anything else you see that you might need.
7. Now that we had the two sets of information, the tables of committee as to who had signed up for the positions at the show for both days (with misspelled names) and the actual names on the nametags, we tried to match them up.
8. Then we created an alphabetized list of the corrected names (sometimes we guessed) and the positions for which they had signed-up for Thurs., Fri., Sat., and Sun. We have included a sample of that list in the notebook.
9. After the alphabetized list was created, we began to write in pencil, as things did change, the assigned positions for all days on the back of each nametag. File the nametags into the three file boxes: A-L, M-Z, and unassigned. Suggestion: There are so many of our members who do not volunteer their required 2 hours. We do know that many of them have health related issues and cannot do this, but there are others who have no excuse. They know at least a year in advance of the date and yet many do not wish to participate. Yes, there are valid family related events that we do need to take into consideration, like weddings, births, deaths, illness, but let’s create something that would be an incentive for people to participate. We were thinking of a sliding scale for an entrance fee, ie: Sign up by February meeting and the entrance is FREE! Sign up at the April meeting entrance fee is $7 and at the show, &10!
10. Check the required volunteer numbers for each day against the number of plastic nametag holders that you have. If you need more, they were hard to find with a neck string, but check Staples and Office Depot. We needed to buy a box of 50 more. String them and then tuck the strings inside the nametag to prevent tangles. Also, make sure that there are enough sticker-dots, of two different colors in the supplies, as you need to put a dot on each nametag as they pay their admission fee for each day.
11. You are also responsible for collecting the admission fee for those who are going to be volunteer staff for each day. We created a sign in sheet, using ‘tables’ in Word, and a sample is in this notebook. Copy the alphabetized list of names, from the other roster, to make it easier.
12. You will be checking out aprons and white gloves that day, too. A check-out list sample is also in this notebook. We did not use a person at this station when they took the aprons/white gloves. We just let them print their own information and take an apron/gloves.
13. Check with the people who have volunteered to help the Staff Check-in Committee. Phone them and have personal contact on Monday before the show. If any cancel, try to recruit others ASAP! Then e-mail them a gentle reminder of their days and times on Thurs. They each signed up for a 2 hour, sit down, shift.
14. Check in storage for signs. If not there, make signs from index card stock. Samples in notebook
15. YOU do not need to do this, but you should think of a fun incentive to encourage then to return the expensive plastic name tag holder. Candy’s Quiltworks kindly donated about 25 fat quarters, found boxes of fat quarters in storage, and used some of our own stash to create 11 baskets of at least 15 fat quarters each. We grouped them by color, holiday, interest, and kids. As the volunteers brought back their holders, we gave them each 6 raffle tickets to place in the plastic containers of their choice. We had rolled and bound each fat quarter with a strip of paper and taped the paper together. We tied the rolls into bundles with scrap yarn and found baskets in storage. We labeled plastic containers (now found in storage with the baskets) that we put inside the baskets with the bundles! At the end of the show, we took the baskets and bundles home and drew the tickets. Each person may only win one bundle. Bundles were given to each quilt group president to be distributed at their next meeting.
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY SHOW DAYS!
1. Gayle and I were there by 8:00 AM and the door was already open and the room was full of the raffle baskets, quilt hanging equipment, chairs, etc., so it took us until almost 9:00 to get the room ready for volunteers to check in. Volunteers for Staff Check-in were asked to show up by 9:30, but many of the steering committee and committee chairs wanted to register, get their tags, and be off to their own stations to greet their own volunteers, as they showed up at 9:30 or 10:00. Suggestion: Staff Check-in Chairs arrive at 8:00 to set up the room. Have Staff Check-in committee volunteers begin their first session from 9:00 AM-11:00 AM. All the Steering Committee and Committee Chairs must check in between 9-9:30 and volunteers from 9:30-10. We think one person could pull the name tags, one person could collect the money, put the sticker on the tag, and give the people their instructions/answer questions. Next time we will ask for 3 people on our committee for each time slot: 2 to check the people in 2. Having the notebook with the scheduled assignments was great. We did use the both the roster and the schedule to check where people who were supposed to be at specific stations and were not. We also used it to check on committees who had not signed anyone up for those positions and might need someone. Suggestion: A. Ask people to sign up early and to stick with their commitments, unless illness or emergency. We are depending upon them. For those who just showed up on the day of the event and wanted to help, we say thank you, but it would have been most helpful if they had just signed up in the first place. B. Dividing some of the committee positions would make for less confusion: Merchandise/Shopper’s Reward, White Glove/Greeters.
3. People wanted to leave their purses, bags, and purchases in our room. We did not want to have the responsibility of taking care of people’s personal items. Suggestion: Ask a Girl Scout senior troop to set up in a room where the people could, for a small fee, leave all of their belongings for the day. We know that we have seen this happen at Road to California and we could do it too!
4. We spent about 30 min. each day seeing the show. When I walked into the north door of the Concord room and the south door of the Gulf Stream room, there were no greeters to check for dots or wrist- bands. People just went in and out as they pleased. Suggestion: Make sure we have greeters at ALL open doors for rooms that contain quilts. Need to note that greeter positions are sit-down position.
5. As people brought back their plastic holders, they did take time to fill out the raffle tickets for the bundles of 15 fat quarters. We think it was a good incentive to help them to remember and take the time to return them. Question: BUT was it worth it? Would people bring back their badge holders with out the fat quarters? Was it better to have bundles of 15 fat quarters than just getting one?
6. Most people came in with $20 bills. Suggestion: The cash box really does need to come with lots of $5 and $10 dollar bills, so we can give $15 in change.
7. Many volunteers would walk into our area and say, “….. committee has no one at the desk, what do we do with the money?” or “We can’t find any white glove people in …. room.” They would then expect us to find these people by calling them, actually go out and look for them, or ask if one of our people could take over that job. Suggestion: A. The meeting before the show should be a mandatory meeting. At the meeting, each committee chair is given 20minutes to meet with their volunteers to go over exactly what they will be responsible for doing at the show and to show up on time to relieve others. B. When at the event, IF the chairs are not going to stay at the job location, the volunteers must be given the cell phone numbers of their committee chairs to solve staffing problems and other issues. Tape it to the table! C. We will only check the volunteers’ names to make sure the volunteer has check in, but committee chairs are to be responsible for calling or locating their own volunteers at the show.
8. We folded and counted all of the aprons (32) before they went back into storage after the show. We had many members from both groups ask if they could buy one. Suggestion: We might look into ordering more and selling them before and at the show in 2017!
AFTER THE SHOW….
1. Unpacked the car and repacked the boxes to go back into storage.
2. Washed all of the white gloves and only the aprons that really needed it. Folded the gloves into pairs and folded counted the aprons. There were enough of both and there is no need to buy more, unless you wish to sell them at Merchandise.
3. Created a report notebook for the Steering Committee. STATEMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS FROM VOLUNTEERS:
1. Many people could not find the “rest of the quilts.” They had a hard time finding the Gulf Stream room. Suggestion: Print a hotel map in the brochure or include it as a separate piece of paper. It would help volunteers as well as visitors to the show.
2. We know that there was chocolate available at two vendor sites, but members were asking for just plain milk chocolate (Hershey). Thought: Vendors may not like the competition of us selling chocolate. Another thought is we could sell it at Merchandising.
3. The Featured Artist did not have her own name tag, but her helpers did! Suggestion: Ask someone to create a special quilted name tag for the featured artist or make sure her name appears on the list of Committees.
4. The Committee Chairs need to come up with a short statement as to the jobs of the volunteers in their committee. “OK, now that I’m here, what do you want me to do?” If they don’t have notebooks already, the Chairs need to create one at this time. Suggestion: Ask each of the 2015 Committee Chairs to create a time-line notebook, with examples of forms, signs, etc. for their committee. Also helpful would be a small statement, in outline form, as to the different jobs available once volunteers get to their station. Let them pick a job and do it! That would also relieve the chairs, so they don’t have to be directly involved every second.
5. Notify everyone that there is admission at two doors, not only at the main entrance. Suggestion: Announcement at quilt meetings before show, listed on map included in brochure, give map of hotel to volunteers before show, and signs outside in parking lot to mark the way.
14. Wristbands are expensive and hard to see by greeters. Suggestion: Why not use a hand stamp instead?
15. No advertisement, if going west on Sherman way. People missed the street. Suggestion: We need another banner on Sherman Way that faces east.