Looking for Volunteers - Super Ex Petfest

[charlie]

btw, where is it taking place, I only have a bike

I think it`s still @ Lansdowne Park .
Come on  guy`s, lets make this happen, OVAS will benefit so much from this exposure.

[Crumpet]

I'm good for a couple day shifts early in the schedule as far as I know, but I will be out of commission from the 22 on.

[freshwater]

Still at Landsdown Park as far as I know.

I think it`s still @ Lansdowne Park .

Great, close enough 2 bike.

[RedFish]

I can put in some hours, I don't have a huge amount of fishy knowledge, but I can be enthusiastic about the club.

My two cents is do the weekends only, or could you be a pet of the day?    Our rat club is a pet of the day and it is very successful.   I know it is helpful to have two people so one can take a break if needed.

My time is somewhat flexible, I would be able to put in 4 hour stints here and there.   I cannot do it Aug 16-17.

[charlie]

I`m wondering if there are issues that are causing members to be reluctant to volunteer, if there is maybe we can post them  here & have them cleared up . At last count i think they are 1200 plus members here & only a handful willing to volunteer some time to get the club the benefits from such a event   .
Regards

[Saltcreep]

I`m wondering if there are issues that are causing members to be reluctant to volunteer, if there is maybe we can post them  here & have them cleared up . At last count i think they are 1200 plus members here & only a handful willing to volunteer some time to get the club the benefits from such a event   .
Regards

If others are like me, they're still looking for more information. I do have time available but, I'm not going to get myself into a situation where I don't know what is expected of me and end up over my head with no way out of the pool. Has this been done before by OVAS? What are the facilities? What is the set-up? What do we do when we're there? Why are we there?

I know much of this was covered at the May meeting but as I've noted in another post, I've seen the pictures and there weren't 1000+ members at that meeting.

[PaleoFishGirl]

We only have ~250 paid members of OVAS.  There are ~1200 site *users* registered but not all of them are active at any one time.

OVAS has indeed manned a booth at Petfest, more than once.  Perhaps some of the people that were there at that time could shed some light on what was done there?

[charlie]

We only have ~250 paid members of OVAS.  There are ~1200 site *users* registered but not all of them are active at any one time.

OVAS has indeed manned a booth at Petfest, more than once.  Perhaps some of the people that were there at that time could shed some light on what was done there?

So here is my question, are we only looking for paid members to volunteer?, I myself was not @ the May meeting, but from another post in another thread by bigdaddy,  it was stated that  you don`t need to be a guru, Just people who love the club and want to share that enthusiasm with others, that been said i agree more info on the needs & expectation shold be laid out  .
Regards
http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=17700.0

[PaleoFishGirl]

No, no, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you have to be a paid member to volunteer!
Lots of our forum users don't even live in the area... that's all I was really getting at (but should have said!).

There is no need to come out to provide knowledge about fishkeeping... as BigDaddy said, just bring your enthusiasm for the club!

[babblefish1960]

As it stands now, the exhibition runs for ten days, from about noon until the barns close, which I believe is about 10 pm. We would get passes for everyone involved to enter free, and we need a reasonable commitment of about 4 hours from volunteers.

It is indoors in an animal barn I seem to recall, there are facilities, we would have a table, some cached laptops as well as playing the photo contests and perhaps some other videos.

We need people to stand there and just smile, and when someone asks, tell them about the joys of being in a club where you share your passion for your pet fish.

In the past we have had some tanks set up, but this requires a different level of commitment in borrowed equipment, we even had years ago a betta bowl show and tank displays, however there were some thefts believe it or not.

There should be at least two people at all times, especially if we do set up some tanks,  but if we get enough volunteers, it should be fairly simple to cover a small stint once or twice.

Alternatively, if there are not enough volunteers, we can also opt for the two weekends only approach, but setting up tanks would then become problematic but not impossible.

So, it is your call people, we are there not to sell memberships as such, we are simply there to get exposure and to let folks know we exist and spread a little enthusiasm about the zany world of fishkeeping.

[artw]

We had a pretty extensive setup in 2002, as Babble mentioned with lots of fish tanks on display,  we had a betta bowl show,  a planted tank contest,  and lots of neat raffle draws...   but it took a LOT of work and manhours.

I'll sum it up quite simply here for you folks:

The more volunteers we have,  the more "cool stuff" we can do. The sky is the limit, really.    If you are willing to bring a little tank and set it up and maintain it, very cool.  if you want to volunteer to set up and run a betta bowl show,  very cool.   If you want to sit there for 4 hours and talk to people, if that's your forte,  very cool. As I say the sky is the limit here.

[babblefish1960]

I will add to what has already been shared, and as Art says, we can do whatever we want if we get enough people, that the most difficult shifts that we absolutely need filled if we stay the entire ten days, is the afternoon shift. So if you're a ten o'clock scholar, we have a job for you, the afternoons during the week when most people are at work.

The weekdays are the 16th and 17th of August, and the 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd of August. If you think you have a moment to spare for OVAS at the exhibition, pipe up and we'll make it so.

If we do set up equipment, we will need extra help in the setting up and tearing down at both ends of the Ex, so mark your calendars and hopefully we can make a good go of this.

[normc]

I live in Orléan is there parking available, or an alternate way to get there.

[babblefish1960]

OC Transpo goes to great lengths to put additional buses on route for this, and I believe there are special point to point shuttles too. As for parking in the neighbourhood, well, there are many restrictions, most of the streets that are available have a 3 hour limit tops, some only 2 hours, and of course there are the folks that rent out their driveways for ridiculous prices, and probably, if you need to come in a car, expect to pay quite a bit to park on site.

From Orleans, Kanata, Barrhaven and many areas actually, there is park and ride which makes a lot of sense.

[dpatte]

I just noticed this thread today even though Im on several forums daily.

I can volunterr, but not sure which days. When it comes to organizing, I would like to be involved so I can share with whomever is managing it some of the issues we ran into last time. Mostly - we where short-staffed, and also had some parking issues. Setup and teardown was timeconsuming - and again we where short on helping hands. Of course now we have alot more people that are aware of the club - mayb just not this thread.

I loved the 10g contest. People sign up to setup a 10g tank of their own, then let the visitors vote on it. It was very popular. We even had prizes.

[dpatte]

I couldnt even find this thread after posting on it. Maybe thats the problem. Can it be marked in red or something?

[PaleoFishGirl]

It's a sticky... we can't get it much more 'marked' than that...

[dpatte]

last time we found that it needs at least two people manning the booth at all times. One to talk to people, and one to prevent people from tapping on tanks, etc. And of course - bathroom breaks.

I think we ned to work out a schedule. Can we use the calendar module here for that?

[normc]

I should be able to help during weekdays.

[sweetness85]

i'm not the greatest person to chat about fish but i ansolutely adore this site and i can be there at least 2 whole days.  i live at bayshore so it'd be a long drive for me to go.  if i could get picked up and dropped off i could make it for about 5 or 6 days.  if i'm needed i'll do whatever i can.  i have some spare 20g and 15g tanks and some fish that like to ride in the car too.  if there's any way i can help out i will.  i have a car but not alot of extra dough these days so i would be able to take someone with me on the 2 days that i can go with the car