Seeking volunteers for Designing Artists Academy 2018

Please email us at: hello@youmewenpo.org if interested. 

2018 Volunteer Roles

Core DAA Team:

DescriptionàCore team members are selected to be a part of the camp planning efforts from various points in the process. Some will be involved from the start (February) while others come in at March, April, May, or June timeframes. Depending upon the role will determine at which point the volunteer engages. With enough volunteers to cover off key areas, the workload should be manageable.

The most important thing to keep in mind for any DAA role is a laser-sharp attention for details… and then some! We are always looking at things to get sidetracked or changed, so each volunteer must enjoy detailed work and anticipate things that might come along during the planning or onsite—as they always do!

The following is a list of Core DAA Team roles:

·      BUDGET LEADER. Michael Clemons will own this piece and provide budget direction to key core team members as needed. Michael will sign off on draft budget and keep a spreadsheet of estimated and actual expenses. He will be the person who handles payment, reimbursement, etc. from planning to onsite.

·      SPONSOR LEADER. Michael Clemons will also own this piece. Includes financial and/or volunteer sponsorships. Michael will source both types of support, get confirmation and then hand off to other team members where support is needed. Example- once a sponsor is confirmed, Amy Moyers will coordinate directly with the sponsor to arrange schedules and volunteer roles. Onsite (and for orientation), Michael will take the lead to greet and oversee sponsor volunteers to ensure things run smoothly for everyone. Amy and Miho will prepare an orientation packet for all the sponsors prior to camp.

·      VENUE LEADER. Michael Clemons will own this part as well, with support from designated team members. This involves venue research and site visits. Once a venue is confirmed, full venue details, maps, venue staff contacts will be posted to Basecamp for the entire team to have access to these details. Michael will designate an onsite Venue Operations volunteer (see further down for this description) to help manage operations onsite.

·      CAMP CONTENT & ARTIST RECRUITMENT LEADER. Amy Moyers will lead the design of the camp schedule, content as well as sourcing for artists and other types of volunteers, with key support from Miho Walker. Anyone on the team is also encouraged to share artist leads with Amy & Miho.  Amy and Miho will prepare an orientation packet for all artists prior to camp, guide them on budget initially, and introduce the artists to our workshop leader.

·      HOMES COMMUNICATIONS LEADER. Fully bilingual volunteer needed. This role is critical to the success of the camp. This role helps pitch the camp (with support materials) to the homes, answer any questions/concerns, and secure camper registrations in by a certain date. Quite likely communications will be with about 3-4 homes. This volunteer also works with Miho Walker (TBC) to help group campers according to age once we’ve received all the registrations. Prior to camp, the homes communications leader will also communicate final camp schedules, workshop descriptions, bus pickup/drop-off times – by way of an orientation packet – prepared by Amy Moyers and Miho Walker. Onsite, any changes in schedules, new campers joining, or issues occurring with campers will be managed by this volunteer as well – all with support from Michael Clemons.

·      CAMPER TRANSPORTATION LEADER. Fully bilingual volunteer needed. This role will source 2-3 bus/shuttle vendor options and present to Michael Clemons. Likely we’ll need 3 buses and this volunteer will be tasked to communicate all of our schedule needs with the vendor and communicate final schedule/times with HOMES COMMUNICATION LEADER (HCL). Onsite, this role is the contact person for any changes/issues with daily bus schedules and will relay any information to the HCL as needed.

·      EXHIBITION PARTY LEADER. Michael Clemons will lead the planning but will appoint 1, maybe 2 volunteers to help source, coordinate, execute food & beverage, party supplies, entertainment, room layout. Michael and volunteers will work with WORKSHOP LEADER to ensure artwork displays and camper performances are integrated into the party plans/layout.

·      WORKSHOP LEADER. Fully bilingual volunteer needed.  This role works closely with Amy Moyers and Miho Walker to make sure workshops are all set to go both [before-and-during] the camp. This involves working directly with confirmed artists and guiding them on their budget for workshop materials, helping procure if needed, communicating guidelines on reimbursement for travel, collecting workshop descriptions and bios, and ensuring the artists receive their orientation packet, along with their group’s information (first name and age) prior to camp. Onsite, this role is an active one working with 4-5 workshop artists each morning, from greeting them, introducing them to team staff, and ushering them to their workshop room so they can prepare for their session. During the sessions, artists might have requests/concerns, so it’s important this role is constantly checking in with the workshops. Other onsite-only volunteers will be assigned to help with this task.

·      CREATIVE SESSIONS LEADER. Fully bilingual volunteer needed. This role will work closely with Amy Moyers leading up to camp to understand the afternoon sessions/schedule. They will also coordinate with Michael on any materials, supplies needed for these afternoon sessions. Onsite, this volunteer (with support from Kid Conductor) will ensure the sessions go smoothly – greeting guest artists or other volunteers slated for a session, delivering their bentos if they join for lunch before the afternoon session, making sure they have all the materials they need, and providing information on travel reimbursement where needed. During the session (there will be two groups/two concurrent sessions), this volunteer will help both groups of sessions with Kid Conductor support. This role will also source 2 t-shirt vendors for camp t-shirts for campers, staff and volunteers. Work with Michael on budget and payment. Make sure t-shirts arrive a few days before camp orientation.

·      BENTO & DRINKS & ICE LEADER. Fully bilingual volunteer needed. This role will source 3 bento options based on budget and present to Michael for approval. This volunteer will manage all communications with bento vendor regarding updated #s, dietary and allergy restrictions, and schedule of delivery. This role works with the home communications leader and workshop leader to get any dietary/allergy information. A spreadsheet/document will be created by the volunteer and maintained on a daily basis as we approach the camp –and onsite as well. Onsite, this role is responsible for accepting bento deliveries, arranging payment to the vendor with Michael, organizing for workshop groups, artists, staff and volunteers. They will determine the best system for distribution and have 2-3 onsite-only volunteers working with them to distribute bentos and drinks.  In the afternoons, this role also organizes and distributes an afternoon snack and drink for the kids before they depart. Again, Michael will likely order snacks from Amazon unless we receive a donation. Coordinate w/Michael on # of drinks needed each day for campers, staff, volunteers. He will likely order drinks from Amazon unless we receive a donation. Additionally, 2-4 coolers will be needed (check with Michael) and daily ice delivery will be needed to keep drinks cold. Source 2 ice vendor sources and present to Michael for approval and schedule delivery times with the vendor. Work with Michael to arrange payment to ice vendor.

·      DAA PROMOTIONS LEADER. Really anyone on our team can help promote DAA via their own IG or FB account! Amy Moyers will be responsible for posting on IG and Facebook, with support from Michael during the camp.

·      VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT. Marie Atsuko Gray (TBC). This role is tasked with finding additional onsite-only roles not covered by sponsorship volunteers. These will likely include Kid Conductor role, F&B support, group mentors, workshop support, creative sessions support, bus greeters, etc.

In most cases, volunteers slated for an entire day or just A.M. or P.M., can take on 1-3 tasks throughout the day. Additionally, Marie will help us identify volunteers for the needed roles listed above. Onsite, Marie will be greeting all volunteers, distributing the daily schedule printout with assigned roles (or online version the volunteer can access with their phone) and helping support throughout the day. Each afternoon, Marie will have a briefing with the volunteers (and our core DAA team) that day to get any feedback. Marie will also be responsible for helping lead the orientation day before camp starts (along with Michael and core team members). Finally, Amy Moyers & Miho Walker will prepare a camp orientation packet in EN & JP that Marie will be able to distribute to all the general onsite volunteers.

Onsite-only volunteer roles:

·      CAMP KID CONDUCTORS (CKC). Fully bilingual role. Two CKC’s needed for the entire camp – one will handle the morning communications, the other will handle the afternoon. They can switch it up each day as they’d like. In the past we’ve only had one CKC for the entire camp and we’ve found it’s too exhausting. The role of camp kid conductor is to serve as the main point of communications for the campers (and volunteers). This role provides consistency and builds rapport with the campers. It is a very active role and incredibly engaging! Onsite, these two CKC’s will be the ones the kids look to for guidance and information. Each morning the campers will be greeted by the CKC where daily announcements, introductions and information about the day will be shared. As campers move from one activity to the next, it will almost always be the CKC who directs the campers on what to do and where to go. And while kids are in their actual sessions, the CKC can support where needed. These two are the heart of DAA onsite and serve as role models for the kids. Every year, kids truly love the camp kid conductor. It’s a demanding role but so rewarding. While I’ve put this role under “onsite only” – we’ll want to loop these two individuals into our team by June if not a little sooner. Marie (Volunteer Recruitment Leader) will make sure they have the orientation packet, detailed information about their role and some background on how the camps typically work and the kids they’ll be working with. They will be at the orientation as well.  

·      GROUP MENTORS x3 or 4 – maybe more. Fully bilingual. This role is similar to the camp kid conductor but on a more focused level – working specifically with the same group throughout the camp, all day long, serving as its ‘leader’ or ‘mentor’… we usually look to get uni students back for the summer or very mature H.S. students. But we also have older adults take on this role too. We always ask the age group they might be most comfortable with. The group mentor participates in all the activities alongside kids, encouraging them, and ensuring their safety at all times. In many instances, we cannot secure a group mentor for the entire camp so we have them at least for 2-3 days in a row if possible and then sub out for a new mentor. The ideal is to get as many mentors for the entire camp if possible. We will definitely have 3 groups and possibly a 4th, so that’s why a minimum of 3 or 4 mentors – and more if some cannot work the entire camp.

·      WORKSHOP VOLUNTEERS. Bilingual and English-only OK. Typically we have about 10 kids in a workshop session, along with 1 artist, sometimes with 1 or 2 assistants. To make the session comfortable, we ask no more than 2 additional adult volunteers join the workshop. Marie will work with Amy to see how many additional volunteers we need once sponsors have confirmed their participation.

·      ONSITE VENUE OPERATIONS VOLUNTEER. Bilingual is ideal. This role will be dedicated to supporting Michael Clemons onsite – dealing with a variety of tasks as assigned by him. This role will be brought into the team about 4-6 weeks prior to event (or as Michael determines).

·      GENERAL SUPORT VOLUNTEERS. Bilingual and English-only OK. Bento/drinks/snacks distribution, bus greeters, general camp setup, workshop room setup, creative sessions setup/support, lunch-hour playtime monitors, exhibition party support, daily camp cleanup.

These are some of the main support roles we’ll need onsite each day. On average, and addition to the above volunteer roles, trying to secure between 5-10 general volunteers each day is ideal.