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So much has been written about the negatives of LFCC - some by myself - and yet.....what I would love to see and have info on is who volunteers and what are their experiences and if I was interested in volunteering myself what would I get out of it/what does it really entail?

 

Who knows - I may do it to help prevent another weekend like this.

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Send that email now, it will be one of the best things you could do as all of the crew are lovely people (especially the ones that you thought were complete meanies) and they will be your best friends and you will feel part of the family. Good luck.

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I did comment in a thread that was unfortunately deleted how helpful and kind the man in charge of Carrie Fisher's queue on Saturday was. He managed the queue very well and allowed me to be one of the last ones to get her autograph as I was one of the few waiting at the end. He did not need to help me by allowing me to join the queue but did. This act of generosity allowed me to meet someone I had always wanted to meet and wouldn't have been able to otherwise as my number wasn't high enough so a big thank you to him

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I'm not crew but i have to say, the older gent managing Stan's photo queue in the second session (not sure if he was there for the first) was an absolute diamond. He put up with mine (and many others) moaning about everything and nothing. He went out of his way to try and cheer people up and make them laugh, he even got a smile out of me which isn't easy to do lol. An absolute star through and through... I hope he had a good weekend and people didn't make it anymore stressful than it probably already was.

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az-ophi - I'll put a couple of things here since you asked.

Background? I have a day job that involves dealing with classes of up to 30 teenagers at a time. I was one of the Gamersmakers for the 2012 Olympics and I've been a volunteer for SM in MK and London for nearly 10 years now. I'm not exactly small (height or width!) and I'm not exactly quiet either! The good days - they're the busy days when you don't really have time to sit around and not do a lot, when you're always doing something, no matter how little, and when you actually make a difference for someone. You'll usually find me in a photoshoot area on at least one of the days during a weekend and actually it's a job I quite like doing... most of the time. Yes, even on Saturday in photoshoot A!

Speaking of which...

Axel - if you're talking about today (Sunday) that would probably have been Phil (though he'll kill me for referring to him as "older") and if it was Saturday it would have been me. You'll be glad to know we both got through the weekend largely intact :smile:

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What makes me keep coming back? Erm.. I'm a certified lunatic and a total geek? In all seriousness yes I am a bit of a geek, I've made some good friends at these events and there's always a healthy unofficial rivalry between those of us who get jobs like photoshoots to outdo each other. We'll even give each other a helping hand occasionally (thanks for returning the whiteboard Phil!).

You don't volunteer because you want to sit with a guest thinking that it'll get you special privileges because it won't and there's no guarantee you'll sit with one anyway. It's hard work, no matter what job you do, but it's usually fun and, if at the end of the day, if you've made even one person's experience better then it's rewarding. No, you'll never please everybody, but then that goes for all jobs in the big wide world anyway.

What attributes do you need? Common sense, stamina and a loud voice are good starting points :smile:

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Today I asked the girl sat at George Romero's desk very simply (while he was away on break) if he was due to do a talk at all (I was surprised he wasn't down for one but things do change)? She looked at me as if I had three heads. I soon realised she was French and probably didn't understand me.

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I was with my mate who asked a volunteer where the Michael Madsen photoshoot would be taking place. She looked at him confused, looked at her ipad showing the timetable, couldn't see him, then actually asked my mate "Who is Michael Madsen?"

Words defy me.

Edited by whysoserious79
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There was a lovely girl on Saturday, nearing the end of the day who let my friend into Lena's autograph queue with me. I was 699 and he was 701, the cut off was at 700!! so we were able to get our autographs together and made the experience with Lena even more special as we got a bit more time with her due to there being two of us. Thank you to whoever you were!! :D

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I think Saturday on carries queue was Karl :)

 

As a crew member it's hard. We work loooooong days in the same heat as everyone (or cold at Mk) but like BFR said we do it for the joy of seeing people meeting their idols or seeing people find a place where they can be themselves. It's fantastic and we get rewarded with the friends we make and the Thanks at the end of the day

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Hi there, my name is Karl and I was the guy doing the queue for Carrie Fisher on Saturday. It's damn hard work and I'm paying for it now but like others have said, it's comments and thanks like this that make it all worth while. Thank you guys soo much for taking the time to come here and thank myself and others. It means the world to me

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lets face it the event is now just too big for volunteers to be mostly running it .It needs more professionally trained staff.If showmasters can't afford it then they have to bite the bullet and scale down the size of the event. Some of the volunteers even with the best intentions in the world are just hopelessly out of the depth. I gave up on most of them on saturday because they just didn't have the knowledge or the know how.Not their fault if they haven't recieved more than a few hours instruction on the previous night on what to do.

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I just want to say a MASSIVE thank you to all the volunteers I came into contact with this weekend. You were amazing. I was on crutches the entire weekend after an injury (I should have stayed at home but I am far too stubborn) and was in pain the entirety of the time.

 

You guys were awesome and were checking in to make sure I was okay. Giving up your seats so I could sit for 10 mins to get my breath back. Letting me perch on the edge of tables. Bringing me to the front of photoshoot queues when the pain was too much honestly my weekend was made by your kindness and it means so much to me.

 

Despite the pain I had an amazing weekend thank you and thank you again!

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Red shirts and Blue shirts ... all tried their best but I think there was not enough planning so they were all up to date with how things work

 

Yes some of those I spoke with were lovely and tried their best ... including a blue shirt lady on the door Sunday morning

 

But some ( and it's not their fault ) knew virtually nothing when asked a question , I was wondering past a VQ ticket hand out person who I overheard being asked by a customer was Michael Madsen in and where was he - the blue tshirt replied they had no idea - I stepped in and pointed the lady in the right direction

 

I think more / better pre-planning is needed for these crew members so they can all be ready for the mass of bodies & questions that come at them

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lets face it the event is now just too big for volunteers to be mostly running it .It needs more professionally trained staff.If showmasters can't afford it then they have to bite the bullet and scale down the size of the event. Some of the volunteers even with the best intentions in the world are just hopelessly out of the depth. I gave up on most of them on saturday because they just didn't have the knowledge or the know how.Not their fault if they haven't recieved more than a few hours instruction on the previous night on what to do.

What do you mean we are not "professional"? Most of the Showmaster crew are highly trained, every day that we volunteer we gain more experience. My favourite job is GA or Runner on the sports section,as I am not a sports fan, so i'm not tempted to get all fangirly over them and it is usually a quieter environment (I'm HOH). I find it quite daunting to GA so I am relieved I've not had to do that so much as its a huge responsibility. I don't like the green room so much because I am very nervous about spilling tea or coffee down some poor celeb. :blush: Photos are very sociable, the different teams build camaraderie. LOL and queue control is the most exhausting job imo. You are on your feet all day and loose your voice. Many of the volunteers have been doing it for years and do all the events and some of us are not able to do as many events (I've been crewing for almost three years and have done about six different events so far most in London and one in Cardiff)

 

I got into crewing by peer pressure, several of my friends who crew suggested it and I just tried it to see how I felt. How did I feel? Like death warmed up! It was bloody awful. But I made even more friends and then hung out with people who I thought I hated and found out they are actually really nice. (I am a cheeky cow given half the chance so was kinda deserving of being told no on many occasions but now I am so pleased that those women didn't make judgements bout me and I actually count them as friends)

 

I think that all newbies have had a baptism of fire this weekend and deserve applause, in time they will learn to direct all questions to the information desk by the front door. I feel so sorry for you not getting your question answered but it's quite overwhelming and if you couldn't be bothered to print out and bring maps, shedules, autograph price lists etc then how do you expect that poor hapless crew member (probably dashing to the toilets) to have it all to hand? Yes before you start saying that's unreasonable to print out all the info and bring it; I am anal enough to print out all the info and the crew handbook and bring it with me, I even printed all the info this saturday when I wasn't crewing. :whistling:

 

Oh and who the heck is this Marsden guy? :angel:

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I printed out the maps & the schedules & all the info I could which was on here and the main website

 

It wasn't clear where the raffle prizes were being given out or winning numbers announced - I asked pretty much everywhere including the main Organisers Booth - not one single person knew the answer

 

Remember a lot of people don't access the forum and a lot of people can't or don't print things out

 

At the end of the day it is the responsibility of the organiser and the crew to help all customers at the event - not the customers to fend for themselves

 

I didn't meet Madsen ( actually not a fan myself ) by at least I knew where he was lol maybe I need to become a crew member ;-)

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