Volunteer Information

A huge *thank you* for helping us to make WCSF an awesome event! We wouldn’t be able to put on WCSF without the help of you, our volunteers. You’re the best!

VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION:
In-person volunteer orientation will take place at the Automattic Lounge:

  • Friday, October 24, 6:30 pm PT, in person, 132 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA. We’ll provide pizza and drinks. If you’re taking public transportation, we are a short 12 minute walk from Montgomery Street BART or a 15 minute walk from Powell Street BART.

There are several parking structures around the area. Here are two that we recommend within 5 minutes walk of Hawthorne:

  • California Parking 690 Harrison, SF, CA 94107
  • Archstone Parking 1 Saint Francis Place San Francisco, CA 94107

If you’re planning to come Friday night, please RSVP, so we can make sure to order enough food.

If you are unable to attend the orientation, and did not attend one of the online orientations, you can view this 10 minute video of the orientation hangout:

We encourage you to take public transportation, especially in light of the World Series games being played Friday-Sunday night. Traffic will be heavy from around 2pm on each day until after the game starts, and again once the game ends, around 9pm or later.

THE MAIN EVENT:
WordCamp San Francisco is taking place at Mission Bay Conference Center (1675 Owens Street, San Francisco, CA 94158).

If you would like to use public transportation (we encourage you to!) we have provided details for getting to Mission Bay Conference Center from downtown SF. Click here to see full details and a map of downtown with BART/MUNI stations displayed.

All volunteers will receive a fancy (pink!) volunteer t-shirt. You can either pick one up at the in person volunteer orientation session on Friday evening at Hawthorne, or pick one up at registration when you arrive to Mission Bay.

If you are working the early morning shift (7 – 9 am), please note, there is no convenient coffee shop near Mission Bay, so grab breakfast/coffee before you come. Breakfast will be set up around 7:45 am if you can wait that long till your first cup of coffee/tea. 🙂

If you are working setup, please arrive no later than 7 am. We aim to open both registration and the swag store at 8 am sharp!

Plan to arrive to your volunteer station a few minutes before your scheduled shift.

VOLUNTEER ROLES:
Pre-Event Prep
Meet at the Automattic Lounge at 132 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco on Friday afternoon from 1 – 4 pm PT to help sort/fold/roll t-shirts and transport them to Mission Bay.

Pre-Event Check In
Check in contributors and volunteers at the Automattic Lounge at 132 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco from 4:30 – 6:00 pm on Friday. See Registration Team details below for more info.

Registration/T-shirt Team
1.    You’ll be assigned a group of letters (A-B, etc) for LAST names. Tables (or sections) divided by: A-B, C-D, E-H, I-L, M-O, P-R, S-T, U-Z
2.    When you hand the badge to the attendee, mark them as attended on the web app.
3.    If you can’t find someone’s last name on your list, send them to Special Registration. If you can not find their badge check with the volunteer in charge of the letter of their first name. If a badge still can’t be located send them to Special Registration.
4.   Lanyards will be self-serve over by the Happiness Bar.
5.   T-shirt handout will begin after lunch and go until 5:45pm. If people need to leave before lunch, we’ll deal with that on a case-by-case basis.
6.    We’ll check IDs and give out after-party wristbands when people come to get their shirts. When the t-shirt “caller” asks for the shirt from the t-shirt “finder,” the “caller” will then check the attendee’s ID and give them the appropriate wristband while they’re waiting for the shirt to be found. Blue wristbands for 21 and over must be put on at pick-up. Red wristbands are for those under 21 or with no ID. Wristbands will be required to get into the after party
7.    We need to be out of Mission Bay by 7pm OR ELSE. Please help break down afterwards and earn lots of WordPress karma points.

Swag Store
1.    Some people will help customers, others will ring up purchases.
2.    We’ll be using Square to process credit card and cash purchases.
3.    There will be extra stock in conference room one. Feel free to replenish stock throughout the day.
4.    We need to be out of Mission Bay by 7pm OR ELSE. Please help break down afterwards and earn lots of WordPress karma points.

Room Runners
1.    There will be 5 volunteers in each room: the MC, the time keeper, two microphone runners, and a session tweeter.
2.    Twenty minute  sessions will have ten minute  question and answer periods. Five minute lightning sessions will be back to back, with one five minute question and answer for all speakers in that lightning session cluster.
3.    Time keepers, you are all that stands between us and total schedule chaos! Please make sure the speaker can see how much time she/he has left.
4.    Emcees or Time Keepers, if the speaker is running over, please use your charisma and devastating good looks to lure her/him off the stage.
5.    Microphone runners will each take a side of the room. Please coordinate!
6.    If a speaker does not arrive on time to be miked up and get his/her computer hooked up, please send a runner down to Special Registration for Siobhan.

October 25-26, 2014