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“Volunteering can be an exciting, growing, enjoyable experience. It is truly gratifying to serve a cause, practice one’s ideals, work with people, solve problems, see benefits, and know one had a hand in them.” Harriet Naylor
WordCamp Boston volunteer selling t-shirts to raise money for Haiti
Starting at 7am on a really cold January morning isn’t so great, but once I arrived, I felt better. I was greeted by warm smiles and people busily preparing for the day ahead. I joined a team of people willing to work behind the scenes, quietly and efficiently, ensuring that everyone had whatever was needed.
I turned up as a volunteer because I found out about WordCamp too late to buy a ticket. Several of the other volunteers were in the same boat. I believe that things work out the way they’re supposed to. After a while, it didn’t seem to matter that I wasn’t in the room with the speakers. Interesting stuff happened back-stage.
Top 10 Things I Got Out of Being a Volunteer for WordPress WordCamp
- Coffee, snacks, lunch and free parking!
- My blue hoodie! All of us “vollies” wore blue zippered sweatshirts to help make us easily identifiable to WordCamp attendees as people they could depend on for answers to questions.
- Meeting new people!
- Picking up excellent information as we sat in on portions of the various sessions.
- Helping to raise money for the people of Haiti by selling t-shirts and sweatshirts.
- Ensuring everyone felt comfortable, relaxed and had whatever they needed (chairs, drinks, napkins, all kinds of stuff)
- Blending with my volunteer teammates as if we’d been working together forever.
- Lots of goodies…especially if there’s stuff left over like bags of swag and extra t-shirts that are too big or too small.
- Adding many new things to my To Do list from listening to experts discuss the best ways to do things.
- Satisfaction of a job well-done. There may have been people complaining, but I didn’t hear any.
And a really good bonus: First priority to buy tickets for next year’s event!
Would I do it again next year? Absolutely! I made a video to remind me and everyone else of the day we spent together at WordCamp Boston 2010.
Cheryl Ragsdale is a creative writer combining her interests in Martial Arts and having fun to present lessons in living a healthy, juicy life on her blog entitled ThatGirlisFunny
I had a great time volunteering as well, and got a lot out of doing it too. Oh, and I loved your video, I saw it the other day. Nice job.
Hey Jared,
I got more out of the day than I expected. I actually loved being backstage helping out. The video was fun to put together. Looking forward to next year!