Hello to our lovely volunteers from the Eastercon 2027 Unconfined team.

Pre-con Volunteer Roles

Unconfined would like to thank you for volunteering — or thinking about volunteering — for next year’s Eastercon. We have some exciting roles that could do with filling fairly soon, if you’d like to consider them.

Volunteering is a great way to gain or build on your experience and knowledge. And there will be freebies for volunteers! The time commitments given are rough, flexible and may change as we get nearer to the con.

If any of the roles sound like they’d appeal to you, please email us at  [email protected] as soon as possible and we can tell you more.

Fan table cover at FantasyCon:

Are you attending FantasyCon in Glasgow in October?  If so, might you support us by taking a turn staffing our fan table please?  This could be for as little as an hour up to as many hours as you wish.  You would be briefed before taking your turn.

Accessibility Assistant:

Description

One or two people needed for: working on solutions to accessibility issues raised by convention members. This will be a very broad role, ranging from conducting accessibility audits of various convention functions and spaces, answering accessibility queries raised by members, helping members with hotel bookings etc.

Skills or experience

Useful to have performed accessibility-related tasks before. It is essential that one person lives in Glasgow. People in the role will need to answer emails with tact, sensitivity and discreetness. Be confident in asking for information or help from others. Be able to work to deadlines and to keep on top of workloads.

Time commitment

Variable. At peak (e.g. hotel bookings, in the lead-up to the convention) 3-4 hours a week, but usually around an hour spaced over the week answering email.

Discord Moderator/Administrator:

Description

Come volunteer with us and lurk on our Discord!  We need someone to assign people roles, make new channels, post announcements and make sure everyone is following the server rules.

Skills or experience

Previous experience moderating and/or administrating a discord server/training desirable.

Time commitment

Roughly an hour per week just now, which will increase as we get nearer the con.

Leafletters:

We need people to drop off Eastercon leaftlets/posters to their local bookshops, game cafes, libraries and fandom hotspots.  This is to raise awareness of the con and help us create a buzz.  Can you help please?

Con presence coordinator:

If you spend a lot of time at cons, would you be interested in coordinating our con presence? This role involves organising our table and volunteers at other conventions, (booking tables, organising flyers and fan-bait, keeping us organised in our quest to take over the world).

Platform manager(s):

Description

Schedule social media posts and stories, reply to comments and messages.

Time commitment

Approx. 1 hour per week.

MIMO (Move In, Move Out) Lead:

Description

To do the planning, coordination and communication relating to the moving in and moving out of convention kit.  The role has the potential to be split into two sections for moving in and moving out.

Skills or experience

Requires a well-organised individual capable of managing small teams, coordinating time-sensitive tasks, managing manpower across various tasks and liaising with other areas to assist with third parties such as dealers and art shows. The Logistics & Facilities Team Lead (Marc Morris) will provide full support.

Time commitment

The time commitment will be low until the end of December when we will begin to draw up plans including a list of deliveries and scheduling them into a timetable.  Critically, the role requires the individual to arrive the day before the con.

Next volunteers’ newsletter

These come out every few months, with the next one dropping into your mailbox around early November.  But if you’re keen to get involved, do feel free to contact us any time at [email protected].

And finally …

I’ve recently enjoyed ‘Burning Brightly: 50 Years of Novacon’ (2021) edited by Ian Whates.  It comprises of a number of excellent (of course!) short stories provided by the convention’s guests of honour over the years.  I particularly liked the twist in ‘Softlight Sins’ by Peter F. Hamilton where, in an experimental punishment, a death-row prisoner is due to have his memory wiped, but instead the unexpected effect is to regress him to a past life.  It doesn’t go well!

If you’ve got any questions, suggestions, want to volunteer for the above or other roles, or if there’s anything else you’d like us to know, please email us at [email protected].

Best wishes from

Lesley Scott, Unconfined Volunteers Coordinator