Minstrel Staffing

The good news about the changes in the Minstrel staffing positions is that some people are stretching into new rolls which is great. That was one of my hopes with changing things up a bit. There are still some wrinkles that need to be ironed out, but any change is going to involve some mix-ups.

Mike Agranoff has mentioned many times that up to 40 people may be getting in free to a giving show. By the time you add up the volunteers working that night, the people using their ticks from working a different night, and people who are using their second time passes, the number can quickly add up. This can dramatically affect the payment the performer receives. Moving forward I would like to propose a couple of possibilities for helping this situation:

1) Removing the tick. All volunteers would still get in free the night they work, and people would be able to continue to use any ticks they have on record, but no new ticks would be added. Some might argue that this would make it more difficult to get volunteers. Even with the ticks, there are some positions that are difficult to fill, and Amy has to go begging nearly every week to fill them. Clearly getting in free and having a tick are not incentive enough to fill positions.

2) Move toward the Sanctuary model that works so successfully with cookies. We could remove the Bakers and having the Floater who buys the supplies pick up cookies. We often have as many as 3 Bakers which is $27 right off the top, and if they earn a tick for another evening, that's another $27 dollars we would not earn. No one complains about the cookies that are offered at Sanctuary. We could still have home baked fare for the Special Concerts which would in some ways rationalize the higher price we charge for the Special Concerts. What we have done in the past was offer home baked items at Minstrel as well as Special Concerts, but there is a slightly higher charge for Special Concerts at which no donation jar is put out.

I would like to get input from the board and see if there is a consensus about which route would be preferred as a way to reduce either the number of volunteers or the number of free admissions. Whatever we try, we could institute it as an experiment, and if there are too many complaints, move back to square one. I think one of these is worth a try, and I will be interested in your thoughts.

Deborah Graham