Pride Sunday
The first phone call I received this morning was from Megan. "Where are you?" she immediately asked, bypassing the normal "hello."
"I'm just leaving my house."
"Argh. I need you here now!" she replied and hung up. I was afraid that this was the Megan I was going to have to deal with all day. Luckily, when we got to the site at 6:30am, she was in a good mood.
The morning was filled with little things that needed to be done. Vendors needed tables and chairs, trash cans needed to be moved, and lots of other little things. I hadn't made my list for the "Volunteer and Staff" entrance that listed names of people that were allowed into Pride for free (people associated with groups other than Pride). Russell and Jennie (who were staffing that entrance) needed that list before people started to arrive.
At 8:30am, Austin, Eric, Keith, Ellie, and Evan arrived to pick up some nice cars that were going to be used in the parade. I didn't have the address of where to pick them up, so I had to carry Megan's laptop into the Leonardo to find internet access.

Austin driving the Corvette

Ellie and Rep. David Litvack

Keith and Jackie, the lesbian.

Eric with some people who I don't know.

Evan and Boyer Jarvis, the Pride Grand Marshall
Having Megan's laptop was very helpful throughout the day and I'm glad we used it.
(As I type this, I'm getting stressed out because of the mess that Pride day was. I don't want to rehash the memories!).
At 10am, I met my volunteers who would be helping me with Parade crowd control. We walked over to 4th south where I handed them off to Megan. We planned the crowd control issue very well, yet when we got to the parade route, the police informed us that plans had changed. It wasn't a big deal, but managing the parade volunteers took up my time until 10:55am.
The gates were to open at 11am and one of the gates wasn't ready. When I walked to the NW entrance, tickets had already started being sold--at the wrong table! This year, we separated where patrons could buy tickets and where they could enter the festival. This is the way most large venues handle ticket sales.
Since there was no person in charge of the NW entrance at the time my volunteers showed up, they did what they thought was right. I had to stop ticket sales, move my volunteers, and keep 200 people waiting to buy tickets at bay. It got so bad that I started selling tickets with exact change, something that was actually very successful. In my new Abercrombie shorts, I stuffed lots and lots of cash in my pockets (yes, I put everything I got back into a cashiers box!).
That mishap took about an hour of my time to fix, then another problem came. Volunteers that I had scheduled for the beverage area hadn't arrived yet. I had to pull volunteers from other areas to staff the beverage area. The whole day turned into a "we need more volunteers here" day.
Some staff members hadn't scheduled volunteers, so sometimes a radio call would come asking me for volunteers. Because we were shorthanded anyways, I didn't have any to send. I felt badly for some of these requests.
Other requests were just plain stupid. One person asked me for a volunteer who was "familiar with Pride policies" to answer questions at the GLBT Center's booth. I told her that she needed to familiarize herself with the policies and be that volunteers.
Another person asked me if I had volunteers to help a band move their stuff. I told that person that I had no one at the time and wanted, but didn't, to ask why the band didn't have any groupies to do it.
In the middle of the day, Troy (beverage coordinator) said that we ran out of ice. Apparently, he had only bought 500 pounds, an amount drastically small for a festival of our size. Brian took the Budget truck to buy some ice from local grocery and convenience stores. Then, Troy said that we ran out of water. Megan and Brian took another trip to the store (and Center storage where we had 50 boxes of water).
After about 4pm, everything was downhill in terms of stress. Sure, there were little things that were stressing me out, but I managed them.
At 6pm, I gathered volunteers to make people leave. I wasn't as concerned as I was yesterday with getting people out of the park. I knew we'd be there cleaning up for awhile.
For Pride cleanup, I had a group of about 40 people from the JobCorp who wanted to get into Pride for free and were willing to help cleanup. Yesterday, I was informed that the lady in charge accepted free tickets from someone else and therefore didn't need to volunteer. I was, first, angry that she was bailing out, and second, angry because she did not contact me (who arranged the free tickets in the first place).
Needless to say, the cleanup part of Pride took a LONG time. Luckily, I had some GREAT volunteers who stayed and helped out. I'm amazed that some of these people stayed around and helped even though they didn't have to. I know I owe them all one.
Every year, a giant rainbow flag (6 yards x 100 yards) needs to be rolled up. We pulled it out of the truck and I told everyone that they should wrap themselves in it because it's easier to carry that way. The photo opportunity was priceless, so I told Megan to take some pictures. Troy, the beverage coordinator, yelled that we shouldn't be playing and ended up storming off the premises. I was really disappointed in his attitude and dismayed that he just left.

Aren't I cute?!

Jennie wrapped in the Pride Flag

Russell loves him some Pride flag

The bondage that is Pride

Nick

Moving along...
For about one hour, ten volunteers and I gathered 180 garbage cans (the kind that you put in front of your house) and moved them to the curb. Most were full of garbage and heavy to pull/push. By this time, we were all very tired and ready to go home. I told Brian that this is what Hell must be like--and endless supply of garbage cans that we have to put on a street.

Yes, those are all full (sorry about the picture quality)

Scott and Melissa tired from moving trash cans.
I had a box in the middle of the closed street that had two electric screwdrivers and their batteries. At about 11pm, I looked for this box and found that it had been run over by a truck and a battery was destroyed. Tired and angry do not go together. The truck was the Diamond Rental truck (the rental company that provided canopies, tables, chairs, etc.) and I wanted to yell at the driver. I found a group of Hispanic workers and yelled, "Who drove this truck?! Where is the driver?!" They all looked at me and pointed in different directions. I knew that my attempt was futile, so I got over it.
At 11:30pm, everything was mostly clean and the truck was packed. We took a picture of the people who lasted until the end. By this time, I had been on site for 17 hours. I drove my car home and, after reading the news, went to bed.
Today, I decided that I'm not going to be involved with Pride 2007. I didn't have any fun today because I was overwhelmed with problems. I had a bigger role than a volunteer coordinator should have and I wasn't expecting that. Brian and I decided that every year during Pride, we're going to do something fun that's not associated with Pride. Maybe in a few years, I'll be back, but not now.
Here's my critique for Pride 2007:
*Every area needs a supervisor who is a committee/board member or trusted friend of organization; entrances, ticket sales, each beverage area, every area that involves money.
The big problem at the NW entrance happened because there was no one there in charge.
*Parade needs to be in charge of entire area; including end/parade monitors.
Much of the NW gate problem was my fault. I should have been over there, but I was managing volunteers for the parade area. It should not have been my responsibility to do that.
*All committee members need to know and help out with the entire picture.
I think only a few people saw what "Pride 2006" was: Jere, Megan, and me. That's why Megan and I had leadership roles in making sure everything ran smoothly. If other board members saw what we saw and helped, things may have gone better.
*People need to anticipate volunteer needs for entire day; set-up, strike, etc.
When I needed volunteers to be doing something, a committee member told me that they needed x amount of volunteers to help them. If I would have known they needed volunteers at that time, I would not have been short staffed.
*All committee & board members must stay until park is cleaned or until a reasonable time.
It's offensive that committee and board members of the GLBT Center left the cleaning of Pride to under 20 volunteers. They all had an interest in Pride and should be helping to clean up. I asked them to help with cleanup at all our meetings; obviously, my plea fell on deaf ears.
My volunteer crew that assisted me this year was absolutely AWESOME! Eleata, Kate, Scott, Shawn, Melissa, Nick, Elizabeth, and my lovely Brian were absolutely more than I could have ever asked for. When something needed to be done, they did it, no matter what it was. Jennie and Russell also did a fantastic job and were there until the very end. Having them was a godsend since the volunteer and staff entrance needs the same person there all day.
Jere did a great job as the Pride coordinator this year. He was much more involved than the coordinator last year and I think everything he planned was a success. I'm glad he was always available to meet and quickly responded to questions. I think we understood each other on what needed to get done for Pride. He didn't micromanage and let me make decisions on my own. I'm so glad he was in charge! Great leaders make it easy to follow.
If I had to give myself a grade for my performance as the volunteer coordinator for Pride 2006, I would give myself a B.
One big mistake I made this year was not overstaffing volunteer areas. I think I did it last year, but this year I failed big time. Volunteer coordinators need to remember that only 50% of volunteers actually show up. (Actually, after looking at the numbers, 77% of volunteers that signed up through me showed up.)
I also think that volunteers did not understand the checkin/checkout process. As simple as it was, I think the fault lies in me not training Russell and Jennie better. They did a fabulous job at the Volunteer and Staff entrance, but I think they needed more information to handle things that came up. I only blame myself.
The volunteer area needs to be separated from the rest of the festival because we had people come in and out of the area who weren't supposed to be there. We had food and drink for the volunteers and I fear that people just came, saw, and took. Dominique, from last night, had a volunteer shirt on even though she didn't volunteer. There needs to be more control on who is in that area.
Whoever is the volunteer coordinator for next year will get unfettered access to me and my knowledge base of what to do and not to do. I want Pride 2007 to be successful, just not on my watch.
I'm tired and want to stop thinking about Pride.
For more of my pictures, go here.
For TONS of Utah Pride pictures, go to Jere's flickr account. He took as many pictures as I should have.
4 Comments:
"B" ?!? Your performance was worthy of an "A-" at the very least.
All you do is make excuses and blame others. It really is quite foolish and self-indulgent. Do you ever take responsibility? You volunteered for this and you knew what was required, did you not?
"Much of the NW gate problem was my fault."
"As simple as it was, I think the fault lies in me not training Russell and Jennie better. They did a fabulous job at the Volunteer and Staff entrance, but I think they needed more information to handle things that came up. I only blame myself."
Um, anonymous... exactly how did you miss comments like this? Or are you being sarcastic? Jesse not only takes responsibility, he took on more responsibility for the success of Pride than was, strictly speaking, in the job description he signed up for.
I agree with Jere. Jesse did much more than anyone else on Pride Sunday. I was thinking about what I did and it does not even compare to what he did.
Mr. Anonymous, the day Jesse starts blaming others for things that go badly is the day he becomes straight. I've never met a more responsible person than Jesse Michael Nix. :)
(And I'm totally not just saying that because he's my friend, well, maybe I am, but stil...)
Post a Comment
<< Home