2012 Westfest Volunteer & Staff Appreciation Party - in the GLEBE

2012 Westfest Volunteer & Staff Appreciation Party

Location: The Clocktower Brew Pub in Glebe

575 Bank Street, 613-233-7849

Date: Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Time: 6:00pm until 11:00pm

Please note the LOCATION CHANGE, NOT in Westboro! Party is now at the Glebe location, 575 Bank Street 613-233-7849, in the private room downstairs. Same location as last year.

There will be food, drinks, prizes, karaoke and more! Hope to see all the Westfest Volunteers & Staff there!

View Westfest Volunteer Locations in a larger map

Going Googly with Google Maps

May 7, 2012

Ok, I admit, I'm going a little Google Map crazy.  But until last month I had no idea that you could create & save customized maps in Google (button is called "My Places"), and I keep finding new Westfest reasons to do so.  So for your edification, here are all my maps, which will continue to be updated as new requests or additional info is provided.

Westfest Storefront Postering

In addition to Daryl's team, my personal thanks goes to volunteers who stepped up and have done storefront postering, in particular:

• Susan along Bank & Queen
• Keri along Bank & Somerset
• Katie along Carlingwood

There are a few areas left in yellow to be completed, and in red still to be assigned, so contact me if you want to take some posters off my hands.  We will be starting pole and billboard postering soon, likely on several Thursdays before the festival so that they are visible over the weekends.  So let me know if you are interested there too.

View Westfest Storefront Postering in a larger map

Westfest Office Directions

Claudia will be contacting volunteers shortly who offered to assist with light office work, such as laminating VIP, Staff, Volunteer & other tags so they can be distributed before the event.  If you are free during the weekdays and want to help out, please call Claudia at 613-729-3565 to find out weekdays & times.  For those driving or taking the bus to the office in Vanier, this map should give you the directions that you need.

View Westfest Office (Vanier) in a larger map

Westfest Volunteer Locations

I wanted a simple map that I could share with the volunteers, to let everyone know where the Volunteer Tents, the bicycle parking, the various entrances & gates, and the barricades, are.  Here's what I've come up with, and the 2 key locations are:

• Blue "i": Volunteer Tent in the Main Stage audience area, where (starting on Friday at 3 pm) Main Stage Volunteers are to pick up their t-shirts and Sign-In & Out; and
• Blue "question mark": Street Merch Tent on Richmond Rd at McRae, where (starting on Saturday at 9 am) Street Volunteers are to pick up their t-shirts and Sign-In & Out.

View Westfest Volunteer Locations in a larger map


Please let me know if I'm missing any other locations that are important during the festival and should be added.

Draft 1 of Volunteer Schedule - Holes & Chasms

May 4, 2012

I`m glad I got an early start on the schedule this year, `coz we have some holes to fill.  We have lots of challenges this year, needing more volunteers than ever in the evening at Main Stage, needing volunteers with Smart-Serve, and offering more services to the public in addition to the Street Merch tent and free Bicycle Parking.

So here is my first attempt at the Volunteer Schedule, based on interests & availability you gave me at the Orientation Meeting and thus far on-line - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0ApBD8li5O4KEdFFmamgwajBuUWxwb2syNVhqM1o3MEE&output=html.  At the top of the page, click on either

• Schedule by Date to see the following 3 scheduled by date:
1. Main Stage in Green,
2. Street Merch in Blue, 
3. Street Marshals in Grey; or
• Schedule by Name for an listing of shifts sorted by first name.

Here's the holes & chasms that I'm still looking to fill:

• Sat & Sun night Bicycle Parking. I may split the shift into 4 hrs each so folks can work 1/2 the night at the Main Stage
• More people with Smart-Serve for Sat & Sun nights
• More people for Sunday morning
• More people for Sunday night

So please review the Draft Schedule, then:

1. Send me an e-mail to confirm your shifts, and whether there are any empty spaces that you would like to fill.
2. Contact me anytime between now and the festival for any changes, or any new people you've recruited for the festival weekend.
3. We will have NO Pre-festival Volunteer Registration this year.  Instead, t-shirts & tags will be available at the Street Merch & Volunteer Tents for when you Sign-In for your first shift of the weekend.
4. Reminder:
• For a Main Stage shift, Sign-In is at the Main Stage Volunteer Tent; audience entrance will be between the LCBO and the Superstore, Volunteer Tent will be at the back of the audience area.
• For a Street Merch or Street Marshall shift, Sign-In is at the Street Merch Tent which will be at McRae and Richmond in front of the LCBO.
• I have made a Google Map below with locations that the Volunteers need to be familiar with.  

View Westfest Volunteer Locations in a larger map


Thanks all!

Pre-Orientation Crazy

Orientation:
1. The determination of the relative position of something or someone (esp. oneself).
2. The relative physical position or direction of something.

11:55 am May 1, 2012

And here it is, the time of the year that I start to go a little bit crrrrraaaaazzzzzyyyyy! When friends & family try to talk to me, and I'm staring out in space thinking about the 20 more things I need to get done today (10 of which I'll fail to complete).

Yes, Westfest Volunteer Orientation Meeting is tonight, 6 pm at Clocktower Brew Pub in Westboro. And while every year the event goes smoothly, every year I nonetheless get into panic mode about 48 hours prior and lose touch with everyone around me.

Since I really should be doing something more productive than ranting in my blog today, here's the rough Agenda for tonight so you know what you are in for:

May 1 Agenda

Naomi, Volunteer Coordinator       5 min       Welcome & Introduction


Darryl, Street Manager                  10 min      Westfest Volunteer Principles

Elaina, Producer                           10 min       Westfest History & General Info

Kim, Security and Safety Director 10 min      Domicile Main Stage Security Info

Naomi                                             10 min      General Volunteer Rules
                                                        15 min      Review of Volunteer Positions: Street Positions, Main Stage positions & 19+ and Smart-Serve required for Beverage Ticket & ID positions
                                                        5 min         Introduce Senior Volunteers
                                                        5 min        Before leaving: Each person to complete the Yellow Sign Up sheet with their availability and interests

Next steps:
Naomi will send Draft Volunteer Schedule in 2 weeks, with additional instructions as required
Keep apprised of changes & developments on Westfest Volunteer Facebook Group, or http://westfestvolunteercoordinator.blogspot.ca/

And a new toy in Google Forms: for those volunteers who are unable to attend the Meeting tonight, please follow the link to submit this form to me:
2012 Westfest Volunteer Sign-Up, Availability & Interests


Thanks, and come find crazy ol' me tonight at the Clocktower!

Storefront Postering GO TO GREEN!

Postering Map - Day 1

Friday, April 19

On Tuesday, I got the call from Elaina that she needed help with storefront postering across the city, and could our volunteers help out?  Within 24 hours, the overwhelming response is - YES they can!


With all the responses rushing in, I needed a new way to keep track of Who is postering, and Where in the city.  My boyfriend showed me how to make a custom & updatable map in Google Maps.  After a bit of fiddling, I came up with the image in the top right, Postering Map - Day 1.  It's built like this:

• Red = Area not yet assigned to anyone for storefront postering
• Yellow = Area has been assigned, but touch-ups may be required
• Green = Area has been fully postered!

So our goal is to turn the city GREEN!


Hence, Google Maps - My Places is my new Toy du Jour.  Below is the latest map (see, already more yellow than on Day 1!), and I'm updating it as fast as the feedback is coming to me from the postering volunteers.  


View Westfest Postering - Storefront in a larger map



To anyone else who wants to join in the postering frenzy, here are the details:

• (a) You can call Claudia at the office (613-729-3565, Montreal Road Unit 1, Monday to Friday, 9 to 5) to schedule pick up of posters from the Vanier office. 
• Or (b) if Hintonburg is easier for you (I live & work at Hinton & Armstrong), send me an e-mail and I'll arrange a day & time to pass some of my posters off to you.

When you pick up your posters,

1. Let me know what area you plan to cover. so I can assign to you on the map and change the area to YELLOW (if you pick up from the Vanier office, please send me an e-mail with your area & approximate # of posters you picked up so I don't have to bother Claudia for the info)
2. Then be in touch with me every couple of days until your posters are all gone, so I know which areas or how much of the area you were able to cover, and can update the map to GREEN (and so that we don't send additional volunteers there). 

Please DO approach shops, restaurants, cafes, community centers, schools, etc. to request their permission to attach a poster to their door or front window or other space. If they have any Westfest questions or issues that are not directly answered on the poster (such as date, time, performers), please ask the proprietor to contact the Westfest office directly and they will be happy to help.


DO NOT attach posters to public billboards and poles - these will be done at the end of May so they aren't covered up before June.


Thanks again to all the Volunteers who have offered to help!

2012 Westfest Launch: Highlights & Reasons why I Volunteer

April 15, 2012

Reason #1: Elaina Martin's apparently boundless energy & vision.  I sit at the back of the room for the big Westfest media events, such as this past Friday's Westfest Media Launch at Clocktower Brewpub in Westboro Village.  And watch in awe as Elaina works the room and gets the media & the sponsors excited for another awesome line-up and another festival year.  With cameras rolling and flashing, the excitement is palpable and Elaina again does not disappoint.


The official Westfest Launch announcements & line-ups are all over the web: Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun, and Xtra.  For me personally, the highlights include:

• Westfest, 10 years in the making article, by Rosalyn Stevens.  This year is Westfest's 9th anniversary, which means that Westfest has been in the making for an amazing 10 years.  Westfest's history in a nutshell is available in this article, and for myself, I am amazed at how far we've all come.
• Yasir Naqvi, MPP for Ottawa Centre reminded me of Reasons #2, 3 & 4: because we are (#2) free, (#3) family-friendly, and especially for our (#4) All-Ottawa programming  all-day Sunday. We have amazing bands in Ottawa, and I'm thrilled that Elaina continues to dedicate an entire day to our deserving local bands
• Jim Watson, our Ottawa mayor, is a huge Westfest supporter.  But even he acknowledges that city and government funding is marginal compared to business funding that Westfest pulls in.  Reason #5: Westfest is funded primarily by the Westboro neighbourhood, who also reaps the rewards of the festival.  As an economist by training, I love Westfest's business & funding model. 
• Food news: Elaina has signed up Stone Soup Foodworks to be at the main stage this year.  So we the volunteers, and our audience, can enjoy Slow Food. Fast.  

And Reason #6 is of course, the volunteers themselves.  At this year's Launch, I was reminded of all the wonderful volunteers that I continue to work with, and the volunteer alumni who have moved on to other things:

• Gail, who volunteered as Volunteer Management in 2008 & 2009, and along with Suzanne & Leslie provided energy & excitement to the volunteer tent.  I am thrilled that she is now the Volunteer Coordinator for Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour, although Gail plans to come back to Westfest for our 10th year anniversary.
• Don & Jen - Don first volunteered in 2009, brought Jen into our fold the following year.  No matter what position I asked them to do, they did it with a smile.  Also, did you know they are the team behind foodiePrints, a local food & restaurant blog with over 5000 followers?  Don & Jen are getting married this summer, so are not available to volunteer this year.
• F.C. Estrella, whom I knew as Faye Estrella, and as a 2006 Floater who was also highly reliable at filling in at our Artist Gate.  In 2007 Festrell performed as a Westfest Spoken Word performer, and this year ze is the curator for Westfest Spoken Word!  From backstage to stage to stage curator - I love it!

I am looking forward to meeting more wonderful people this year.  And, a post of current Senior Volunteers to come soon!

Out with the Old (Pizza), In with the New (Beer)

Vicissitude:

• a : the quality or state of being changeable : mutability
• b : natural change or mutation visible in nature or in human affairs

per http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vicissitude

Thursday April 5, 11:34 pm

I've been intending to visit the Clocktower Brew Pub in Westboro since it opened in the fall, and even more so since my initial debriefing with Elaina. In 2011, Clocktower on Bank St generously hosted our Volunteer & Staff Party; I learned that for 2012 the Clocktower has stepped up their support and will also be our locale for the Volunteer Orientation Meeting on Tuesday May 1.

As with any change, I'm nonetheless a little sad that the Orientation Meeting won't be held at Moe's World Famous Newport Restaurant this year. Owner Moe Atallah has always been more than gracious to me and to the volunteers, and we will miss his pizza and the street-side view. My heart-felt thanks to Moe for all his support to the Volunteers over the years.

But the Clocktower sponsorship is a great coup, for the festival, the volunteers, and the Westboro neighborhood in general. So I needed a "reconnaissance mission" to get the lay of the new location, on south side of Richmond Rd, between Roosevelt & Golden Avenues. While on my mission, I discovered:

1. an open concept upstairs room
2. a area behind the bar that can be made private
3. Bytowne Brown ale - mmmmm beer!
4. that to meet with a manager, I should have come on a night when there WASN'T a Sens game and Good Friday the next day :-)

So there's lots of space, some of which we'll use for the Orientation Meeting, and the Volunteer & Staff Party (with the ever popular karaoke!) on Tuesday June 19. And I expect that the ENTIRE place will be filled on Friday April 13 at 10 am sharp for the Westfest Media Launch (yikes, coming up soon!). 

Having missed the manager however, I will (oh well!) need to visit again soon to try the mussels and another pint!

Springing Into Action

The wonderful thing about tiggers / Is tiggers are wonderful things / Their tops are made out of rubber / Their bottoms are made out of springs / They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy fun, fun, fun, fun, fun / But the most wonderful thing about tiggers is I'm the only one / IIIII'm the only one!  - Tigger

Mid-March, 2012

Spring sprung early in the Capital this year, and with these first warm days I am reminded that Westfest is just around the corner.


If I were a better Coordinator, a better person, a more organized person, I would be thinking about and involved in Westfest all year round.  Instead, by the middle of June every year, I have moved on to other things: summer vacation, the start of another school year, Christmas, work, family & friends, laundry, vaccinations for the cat, you know, life with a small "l".  So it always seems to be the smell of spring in the air that triggers the thought that, it is time to get back in touch with Westfest.


And so it was again this year.  I met with Elaina at the end of March.  I was briefed on developments for this year, and with Westfest there are always changes and new developments.  I attempt to debrief Elaina on my and the volunteers lessons learned from last year, but my memories are fuzzy, and I've found over the years that ultimately, she has learnt the same lessons without my input.


Elaina excitement is as infectious as always.  And I leave our first meeting of the year invigorated,  appreciated, and motivated to do my part to make this year's Westfest the best ever.  


This is my 8th year with Westfest, my 7th as the Volunteer Coordinator.  And every year it is a new beast, typically of the Tigger variety, to be tamed.  Which ultimately I love, I'm challenged by, and must be why I come back year after year.


Welcome Volunteers to Westfest 2012, the 9th edition.  Enjoy!