MINSTREL STAFFING

Minstrel staffing currently has 158 members on its Constant Contact list who get the emails every week sent out by my Right-Arm, I-Would-Be-A-Dead-Duck-Without-Her colleague, Amy Livingston.

We have added about half a dozen names to that list in the last few months, and several more people do volunteer fairly regularly, usually by baking, and have declined to be put on the list, for whatever reason. We also recently had Harry Grant, a professional sound engineer who runs the Windgap Bluegrass Festival, join our volunteer list for Sound, which is wonderful.

We've started asking just before the break for volunteers to help us break down the kitchen at the end of intermission to lighten the load on the kitchen staff, which has proven to be helpful, and people seem to enjoy pitching in.

The hardest positions to fill have been kitchen (because it requires the most work in the beginning, and cleanup means missing much of the second half of the show) and Head Staff (who misses most of every show due to having to be in the lobby).

So volunteers need to be motivated to come to the Minstrel, but be wiling to miss the show... not a great scenario.

There is a move afoot, and I hope it moves faster than it has, to have audio piped into the lobby, which would address some of these issues.

I will take any and all suggestions regarding how to juice up our volunteer list, and I would urge those reading this who haven't volunteered in a while to come up and see me sometime!