Welcome to my Visions blog for V5! I'll start by saying that I'm really excited to be here. I usually try to only take classes I have a personal interest in, so I usually like most of my classes, but I walked into a realization during a studies course today that I am there to absorb information. Classes are essentially what you make of them. I really try to learn from critical studies courses; while I'd probably rather be putting my hands on film equipment and making creative decisions that I can call my own, I still don't SUPER hate the studies and history classes I have to take, because I still hope that subliminally they'll make me a better filmmaker. But it gets redundant sometimes and starts to feel useless. This week, we watched a film — now, I'm not saying it was bad, but I did not particularly enjoy it — and listened to a professor tell us why we were wrong about reasons we cited that made it "different." For the first time in my college career, that I myself recognized at least, I found myself in a lecture where I felt like an object. Anyway, the point of that story is that Visions feels like the opposite for me, which is so exciting. Not only is it a class where I'm an active member, but I'm important. I have responsibility and a certain level of control over certain things. If I don't perform, not only is that a bad grade, but it will affect actual people. That's terrifying and exhilarating. But it doesn't feel useless, which is so important. And I'm really excited to be part of it.
Anyway. Actual response to manual/job description readings now.
WHAT I LEARNED: I'm 1000% responsible for wrangling enthusiastic, hardworking, skillful volunteers to help pull off V5. I pretty much knew that going into the class, but one thing I didn't realize was how structured the process is. There's a recommended protocol, and week-by-week steps to complete. And it starts as early as NOW. The more I think about it, the more this job excites me, because it reminds me of the absolutely wonderful and fantastic and thrill-filled time I spent volunteering at Cucalorus 20 in November. I took a lot of volunteer slots, was very clear about my skillset and experience (including in the early stages), and showed up for my shifts ready to work. I consistently got tossed around to other stations and venues (I was in the box office department) and had to learn a lot really quickly (like, on-the-spot kind of quickly), but it was great. I spent a reasonable deal of time around some of the people in charge of hoards of volunteers (Tommy van Arsendale, Ryan Jaccard, Winthrow Newell, etc.) and found it amazing that Cucalorus runs on volunteers because people want so badly to be a part of it. It's really inspiring to think about! So, I feel like my job is not only to recruit the volunteers, but to generate excitement for it.
WHAT I NEED TO DO (by mid-February):
- create a volunteer spreadsheet & share with class
- "During the first week of class create a Google Spreadsheet and title it “Volunteer Needs by Department” and share it with the class. This should include a column for “Director’s Name,” “Department Name,” “Number of Volunteers Needed,” “Volunteer Duties,” “Recommended Shift Time per Volunteer (hours).”"
- Talk to Luqi about volunteer tab on website with paragraph, telling people there will soon be a call for volunteers
- "First, there should be a paragraph informing site visitors that there will soon be a call for volunteers (give dates as soon as possible). Second, there should always be information on the website regarding the benefits of volunteering and a list of incentives for volunteering. In the past these have included a free badge to the event, free food, an official Visions T-shirt and admission to the after party."
- Ask directors to come up with volunteer needs
- Attend Visions events and organize and create volunteer signup sheet
- by mid Feb., email early volunteer signups with initial interest email
- Attend meetings with ACE to establish volunteer needs
This concludes my first Visions blog post. Until next time,
Ashley
Excellent reflections AND planning!
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