Managing Volunteers

In 2011 we ended up spending twice as much on volunteers than we intended. Every single penny was worth it, from food to tshirts. Here are some recommendations:

• Plan on giving your volunteers breakfast and lunch every day, and plan at LEAST one special dinner for them. They won't always show up for each one but it will be appreciated.
• Give them special schwag and make sure they stick out. People should immediately know who to go to to get help. Tshirts are great, pants are better, and clean underwear would probably be a bonus. In 2011 all volunteers happily wore bunny ears and we highly recommend this stunt again.
• Walkie talkies were essential to making things run smoothly. Go for the good stuff and go hands free when possible.
• Offer accommodation and free conference tickets. They might not take you up on the accommodation but you WILL cut into their conference going experience so make sure they aren't getting screwed. If there are people who go over the top to make things awesome, set aside $1500 from the budget as a thank you. In 2011 we distributed this money to our designers who went above and beyond thinking they wouldn't get paid.
• There is no such thing as too many volunteers. At minimum you need 2 volunteers for each room/track and at least 2 to run the registration tables all day. They can tag team on running the rooms and will often be doing things like running to get mike batteries, extra dongles, whatever. Have them dedicated for the whole conference and half of them available ahead of time for loading, setup, etc...
• At first we tried to have a list of things like "person X is responsible for a,b,d and person y in in charge of c" but that didn't work at all. Embrace the mayhem, make sure you have good communication, and everything will be fine. There will rarely, if ever, be a point where you will have too many volunteers on hand.
• Having an "office" for all of our shit and as a place for bunnies to get away from it all was our savior. Volunteers always gathered here. Stock it with whiskey, bourbon, a printer, and damn good internet.
• The list of volunteers is in Mail chimp and there is one in google docs as well. Ask any of the previous volunteers for help, ideas, etc...
• Stock up for opening day. Have extra people on hand to help with the mayhem. Things will go wrong and you will need them. Have extra people that aren't your standard volunteers to run the registration table. People looking to drum up business are good people to ask for this. Apparently local teenagers work well too.
• Remember: If they aren't having fun, you are doing it wrong!