Hello everyone.

I am in need of volunteers - more people, in fact, than listed
themselves on the program, so I'm sending this to all of you. Below
are the things I will need people to do.

If you can do any of these, please reply to this email with just the
cropped list of things you CAN do. I'll assign people to tasks once I
have enough to fill everything.

If we don't have enough volunteers to have one task per person, then
we'll just have to have more than one per. This is a case of more
hands = lighter work. :-P

All morning volunteers (other than those busy picking things up) will
need to assemble at 8 AM at the front of MLK. Doors will open at 8:30,
but we need to start setup earlier than that; most of it can be
started as soon as we get bodies on the ground, and the sooner the
better.

I will help out with all of these of course, but my main job will be
to stay at the conference, field questions, direct everyone, and
handle emergencies (hopefully we have few!). I can only be in one
place at one time (I'm not *that* advanced at meditation), and there's
a lot of stuff to get done - so please help out!

As an extra inducement: all volunteers get one entry into the raffle,
currently consisting of 4 cards for a free regular smoothie at Jamba
Juice, and 2 gift certificates to Smart Alec's.

Thanks,
 Sai

MORNING SETUP: (19-25 people)
* Make & post signs (giving directions, nearest bathroom, etc - to
post all over the conference building) - 2-4 people
* Get equipment to Tilden (need 3-4 people in decent shape)
* Set up equipment (3-4 people capable of wiring together cameras,
speakers, a mixer, etc - preferrably one savvy person in charge and
others to help)
* Setup registration table (cashbox, registration tags, physical
setup) - 1-2 people
* Move & setup flag & banners on 2nd floor balcony (1-2 people, one
preferrably with tough gloves [motorcycle, gardening, work gloves etc]
or tough hands, to handle the wire rope on the flagpole)
* Pickup food from Noah's (1 block down) at 8:30 AM - 3 people
* Pickup coffee from Starbucks before 8:30 AM - 1 person, must have car
* Pickup food from Andronico's - ditto; would use a gift cert &
shopping list picked up there or from me
* Pickup food from Berkeley Bowl - ditto
* Setup food at Tilden - lay out food, plates, knives, etc - 2 people
* Emergency Gopher - 1 person with a car & cellphone willing to go
immediately to pick up any miscellaneous supplies that turn out to be
necessary, any time before or during the conference (hopefully not
needed, but need to have someone on standby just in case)

REGISTRATION TIME: (6-7 people)
* Man registration desk - need 2-3 people (Anna?) who can handle cash
& checks, write name tags in pretty / legible handwriting, add
identifying dots as appropriate (e.g. registered, speakers,
volunteers), and record all transactions.
* General gopher - 2 people for taking care of any miscellaneous tasks
that may crop up during the conference
* Question-answering - 2 people familiar with the area to answer any
questions people have (e.g. where are bathrooms, parking, ATMs, etc
etc)

DURING CONFERENCE: (11-15 people)
* Run videocamera - preferrably one person for the whole time (for
stylistic continuity), to run the video camera, make sure it's pointed
and zoomed correctly, aim at audience members asking questions and
back at the speaker for the answer, swap tapes about once an hour
(timed to be between talks), etc. 2-3 people in shifts if noone's
willing to take it for the whole time.
* Man registration desk - need 1-2 people to handle any latecomers
* Field audience questions / mic gopher - one person at a time, but
enough people (or people doing it long enough) to have one person on
duty all the time - to get the wireless stick mic to any audience
member asking a question, and possibly to collate & pick out questions
if there are too many to fit everyone
* Pick up food from Smart Alec's (1 block down) at 11:45 sharp - 4
people (will miss part of last talk)
* Set up lunch (same as earlier) - 2 people
* General gophers - 2 people

EVENING TAKEDOWN: (16-23 people)
* Checkout - opinion book, emails, etc - 2-3 people to handle people
leaving, make sure that everyone has filled out and submitted the
feedback forms, give directions as needed
* Cleanup - 6-10 people to handle all miscellaneous cleanup - take
down banners & signs, dispose of all food or related waste, etc etc.
* Equipment takedown - 2-3 people to disassemble all equipment and
prepare it for moving back into storage
* Move equipment to Dwinelle locker - 3-4 people to ferry it back to storage
* Runners - 3 fast people willing to skip part of the last talk, to go
to different nearby restaurants and report back to me on how much free
space they have (which one to take over for the 'afterparty' will
probably be a last-minute decision based on the answers)