Minstrel Staffing

I apologize for the length of this report, but I believe it covers some important ongoing problems at Minstrel.

There are definitely some issues regarding Volunteer Staffing. We have trouble consistently filling certain positions for Minstrel. Right at the top of the list are Bookkeeper and Kitchen. Week after week, Amy has to beg for these positions to be filled, sometimes (as was the case for the Tracy Grammer show) right up until Friday! Arm twisting and bludgeoning are common to get positions filled. More and more often…way too often…people have ended up working two positions because not enough people signed up.

I thought dividing the Head Staff position to make it possible for people to sign up for the style of work they like to do would help alleviate the problem of finding left brained geniuses. What I’m finding is it doesn’t matter whether you call it: Head Staff, Bookkeeper, Bean Counter, or Grand Pooba, no one wants to do the job. I believe it is because there are too many issues around the tally sheet. It is too complex, and if you get one thing out of place, the final answer when you submit is wrong. You have to spend the next half hour figuring out if it’s your mistake or something going on with the tally sheet. There are invariably people who come into the room with questions or even a friendly hello right when you're in the middle of a count that throws you off. They don’t have this problem at Sanctuary because they don’t have such a complex system. It ABSOLUTELY needs to be simplified, or this will continue to be a problem getting people to sign up.

Kitchen is another matter! It absolutely made a huge difference in the job when we started asking for volunteers to help clean up at the end of the intermission. When that happens, there is actually a fighting chance that Kitchen might be able to get in to see the first song of the second half (although I find that when I work Kitchen, I ALWAYS miss part of the second half, no matter who helps tear down). Kitchen ends up being the one to solve the puzzle of how to get everything to fit back in the bin after everyone else has gone back in to enjoy the show. There have been times that things are crushed because whoever worked the week before just threw things in there without any regard for what they were destroying. I’ve received complaints that when you pay to get in, you shouldn’t be asked to volunteer to help. The complaints were not from people who seem happy to help out at the end of intermission. All I know is it’s a serious ongoing problem.

I often end up signing up for Kitchen, not because I get my ya-yas from it but because it is still empty on Thursday evening, and it’s a job that needs to be done to make the show go smoothly. If we’re going to continue to have home baked goods, which seem to be so important to so many people, we need to come up with a way to simplify this position or divide it into more people each week so no one ends up with the whole thing. I believe our goal of only serving snacks and drinks at intermission, NOT before the show, may help…a bit…hard to say. I also believe that transitioning to trays of cookies rather than wasting a gazillion little paper plates each week is a worthy goal. One of the places I visited for the Volunteer Appreciation event said that one of their standards is that there are no paper plates or plastic utensils used on their site. They put their money where their mouth is as far as their green footprint. We should think about how we can be more thoughtful on this issue.

It has been suggested that I create a checklist for Kitchen so people will have a reference of what to do if they haven’t worked the position a lot. I created the list, sent it out for review to the people who suggested it, and I never heard back. This last Friday the person who signed up to work Kitchen turned out to be a brand new volunteer for that position, and she was overwhelmed to discover she was on her own not having any idea what to do. Fortunately, people came to her rescue, but we shouldn’t have to count on that. I realize the checklist is an important guide to have on hand in the accordion folder for reference. I will be going over this list and having it laminated and placed there.

All in all our volunteers are our treasures that make Minstrel go on week after week. Even so, Friday evening of volunteering after a week of working for a living should not be such a burden that no one wants to do it.

I will gratefully accept any and all suggestions for resolving this ongoing problem.

Now, if you slogged your way through all that, there is some good news on other fronts.

As far as the Volunteer Appreciation Event, I am in negotiation with the Madison Elks club. I have been by to look at their space, and I think it’s a lovely room (certainly compared to some of the other locations I visited). The guy is somewhat hard to reach, but he knows I’m interested, and I have been promised that he is a man of his word and will call me back. I hope to have this issue solidified by the time of the Board meeting.

The first step in the Halloween show has been met, and that is finding primary performers to introduce and end each act. By primary performers I mean people or groups who actually are professional or semiprofessional performers who agree to create a special Halloween name for their presentation and perform in costume.

Olga and Geri will be leading in the show. Ken Galipeau will be bringing it to a close once again as he did last year. Fil Wisneski, and Mitch Radler will be filling in the middle slots. I’m looking forward to a fun evening on Friday, October 28, and I hope you can all plan to make it to the show.

Deborah Graham