Volunteer Appreciation Gifts

Being VAG Lead is fun and rewarding, I won't kid you though, it is a lot of work pre-event. But, delivering happy thoughts for all volunteers, with gifts, hugs and great verbal THANKS for all their hard work is very rewarding on both sides, and makes all the hard work worth your efforts. Everyone wants and deserve to feel appreciated for their contribution to make this great event happen.

Below are bullet points to explain the duties of this position.

• • Most work is done pre-event. Other time will be organizing shifts, etc. to hand out gifts and uniforms during Work Weekend, during the event, post event Volunteer Appreciation Picnic and any other opportunity that is deemed appropriate to get the gifts and uniforms out to the appropriate people.

  • Have telemetry set up a Sparks position for you.

  • Research and purchase gifts and uniforms for all volunteers (Ignition, Spark and Event Volunteers). Research is important to set up a budget. Each department will also set up within their budget costs for gifts and uniforms that will overflow into VAG budget. Generally you will select approximately 3 items for the Leads to choose from for their gifts that they will hand out to their Event Volunteers. Plus gifts for Ignition (which include Board and Officers) and Sparks. Volunteers that have served 2 years on Ignition receive a special gift, a most awesome patch that depicts the essence of Apogaea and the option to purchase at a much discounted rate, a beautiful hemp and cotton hoodie to put the fabulous patch on.

  • Set up a budget. Work with Finance Department closely, they can help. Talk with all Leads in advance to see what their needs are for gifts and uniforms. Find out from each lead what inventory they have left over from last year.

  • Inventory all gifts in Apo storage and what the Leads have in there hands from last year. This will help with what needs to be ordered for each department. Some departments should have plenty of stock from last year to serve for them this year. Therefore some departments will not need to place an order.

  • Ordering items is very time sensitive. Get all information from Leads, item desired, artwork, quantity, etc. as soon as possible to allow time for the ordering/delivery process.

  • SET DEADLINES of when information is needed by Leads and STICK TO IT. You don't want to have to leave the event to go pick up an order that should have been delivered 3 weeks ago or received gifts after the event.

  • Work closely and discuss with all Leads via email, phone and in person their gift and uniform needs including any special artwork in which they want to incorporate onto the gift or uniform.

  • Meeting with Board Liaison, Volunteer Lead, Laminate Lead, Treasure/Finance/Purchasing Department to discuss budget, gift and uniform needs as a whole for Apogaea.

  • Work with Graphic Arts department regarding artwork for all items, unless supplied by a Lead directly.

  • Work very closely with Finance Department to set up vender accounts and payments. Payments are to be made at time of order or as close to time of ordering as possible.

  • Deal with orders from start to delivery, which includes actual order, payment, proofs, shipping, etc. Most items will be to shipped to your address. Some vendors are local and you will make arrangements to have them delivered or for you to pick up.

  • Find out exactly what type of format the artwork has to be done in for each vendor and work with Graphic Arts department to have design work reproduction ready for print, embroidery, etc. There may be a triangle of communication between you, the Lead of a department and the Artist to accomplish the final out come that is desired for the design.

  • Work very closely with the Volunteer Lead. That department will supply you with the complete lists with all names and counts for the different levels of volunteers for the event as a whole. This includes Board, Officers, Ignition, Sparks, Event Volunteers, Media, etc. This process helps with the making of the ID badges and the distribution of the gifts and uniforms.

  • Work with ID Badge department by providing list with names above so laminates can be made. This process will require work with Graphic Arts department designing the artwork for all the levels of laminates. Most of this work will be done with a communication triangle between the Volunteer Lead, ID Laminate Lead and the Graphic Artist Lead. You will hand out the badges at the time you will be handing out the gifts and uniforms.

  • Once shipments are received, organize and separate items per department for distribution at Work Weekend and during the event.

  • The best part, HANDING OUT THE GIFTS! This will be done during Work Weekend and during the event. Contact telemetry to have them post information regarding pre-arranged shifts of times, location, etc. of distribution of gifts and uniforms for both Work Weekend and during the event. All uniforms should be given to each department's leads at Work Weekend. All Leads will be responsible to take their department's gifts and distribute it to the appropriate volunteers. In a perfect world all gifts would be handed out at this time, but not everyone is able to come to Work Weekend. So, shifts will also need to be set up for distribution at the event. Most Ignition and Spark gifts will be handed out individually by you to each volunteer. That's a lot of Hugs. Yay!!!

  • Most of all enjoy what you are doing and remember, a smile and a thank you go a long way, especially to yourself.