OK, time is short, and so is the help! As always, we are short handed, and if you would like to volunteer for the International Mead Festival on February , the IMF wants YOU! Oskaar and I are now on the main organizing team for the IMF, and we thought we'd bring the gang in to help out.
There are many jobs, a number of which require living in the vicinity of Denver, CO (or able to get there in a reasonable period and spend time on work there). Many others are virtual jobs, jobs which take place only during the festival proper, and jobs that take place just before or just after the festival.
There is no formal pay for these jobs, we all work as volunteers for the festival. You may get some or all of the following for your efforts (it varies per job, and is at the discretion of the organizers): free mead, attendance at the staff parties (which are legendary and feature *100's* of bottles of mead), free tickets to the IMF, free t-shirts, free glassware, and other such things. Who gets what will be decided by how much they can afford, how many hours of work the job entails, and other criteria. They'll tell you what perks come with the job, when you get it.
What is needed:
There are many jobs, a number of which require living in the vicinity of Denver, CO (or able to get there in a reasonable period and spend time on work there). Many others are virtual jobs, jobs which take place only during the festival proper, and jobs that take place just before or just after the festival.
There is no formal pay for these jobs, we all work as volunteers for the festival. You may get some or all of the following for your efforts (it varies per job, and is at the discretion of the organizers): free mead, attendance at the staff parties (which are legendary and feature *100's* of bottles of mead), free tickets to the IMF, free t-shirts, free glassware, and other such things. Who gets what will be decided by how much they can afford, how many hours of work the job entails, and other criteria. They'll tell you what perks come with the job, when you get it.
What is needed:
- Ticket taking - door management: This would be taking tickets, selling tickets at the door, getting out Will Call tickets, giving out the info packets, t-shirts, glassware and other items that get dealt with at the door.
- Judges for the Home Competition and the Commercial Competition: If you have experience judging wines/meads/beers, then you can apply to judge at the Festival here.
- Stewarding at the competitions (pouring, putting out and retrieving the meads in the competitions, and answering questions from the judges about the meads - you'll have help). The first round judging of the Home Competition is in Denver in January. Second round, and the Commercial Competition Judging will be held at the IMF. Send an email to Marie here if you are interested in stewarding for the IMF, and make sure to tell Marie if you have done it before, and when you can be there.
- Setup and teardown: If you plan to attend the IMF, and can be there a couple days early, or stay a couple days late, send an email to Gretchen Bliss here to volunteer to help set up, tear down and transport stuff back and forth in Denver.
- Videotaping seminars: There will be 4 seminars, and we're bringing a video camera this year so we can have both video and audio. Someone needs to volunteer for one or more seminars to mind the camera, and make sure all gets taped. Contact me for this.
- Cleaning up audio data from last 2 years: I've got all these huge audio files from previous talks, and they need cleaning up, and putting them together in a coherent format (there are stops and starts in them all), so we can put them up on the Meadfest.org website to sell to raise money for the festival costs and the IMA costs. I can't seem to find the time to get them done, and if you've experience in audio file manipulation, you can give it a go, and keep a copy of all the files for your own use (though we ask you not to share them so the IMF/IMA can make a few bucks from my and my teams efforts in taping them). Contact me for this
- Pouring at mead tables in the tasting room: Most meaderies send staff, but some cannot, and we need to provide folks that will pour and adhere to the pouring rules (only so much, don't favor your friends, etc.)
