A detailed schedule is helpful for all events with more than one volunteer, or with more than a few dozen attendees. (So, most CodeDays!) We call this sort of detailed schedule a Run of Show, and its goal is to ensure everyone from managers to volunteers to venue staff are coordinated to deliver a great experience.
Clear can automatically generate your Run of Show from your schedule, although some organizers still make their own in Google Sheets. Whichever system you use, you'll want to include the following:
- Contact information and titles for all managers, staff, and venue contacts.
- Show notes, both pre-event (anything unusual which all staff should know) and at-event (anything unexpected which happened, like a fight).
- Schedule:
- Public commitments: workshops, meals, etc in the published schedule attendees see
- Venue expectations (such as doors being unlocked or locked)
- Setup and cleanup periods (including details about what will be set up when)
- Food or supply runs (including shopping lists, order numbers, and who will go)
- Activities (like midnight karaoke)
- Food/snack setup, attendee staging, etc
- A/V setup periods and instructions (kickoff/closing)
- Volunteers going on- and off-shift, and sleep shifts
If you're using Clear for your Run of Show, it will automatically populate the contact information, show notes (using the Show Notes event page), and public commitments. You'll need to add internal events using the Schedule event page.
Volunteer Scheduling
Once you've created a preliminary Run of Show, you should have a good idea about your staffing needs. It's important not to overwork your volunteers (or they won't come back), so you should try to ensure no one works more than 12 hours during the event.
The easiest way to schedule volunteers is to create a Google Spreadsheet with the times on columns, and volunteer names in rows. Have volunteers highlight their desired shifts by coloring in the cells next to their name.
You should set a lock date for this schedule, and then add staff on-/off-shift events to your Run of Show. You can then send volunteers the relevant training in the CodeDay guide.