Volunteer Assignment

Alana Fabbricino

Monday November 7th 2016

821-701-422

Assignment 1 – Part A

Individual Volunteer Plan (5%)Student Name: Alana Fabbricino

Event Name: Aurora Skating Club Ice Show

Submission Instructions: HARD COPY ONLY DUE: ONA: Fri Sep 30 by 3:20 pm ONB: Mon Oct 3 9:50 am

Location: Aurora Community Centre

Volunteer Date(s) & Time(s): Friday, April 29th 2016 4:00pm-9:00pm Saturday April 30th 2016 9:00am-9:00pm

Volunteer Job Title: Backstage Co-ordinator

Total Volunteer Hours: 17 hours

Primary Role Responsibilities (identify 2-3):• Overseeing other volunteers to go and get proper skaters/numbers and head

backstage

• Organizing all the numbers when they are backstage and sending them on the ice

• Create the pace of the show.

Personal Goals (identify 2-3):• Working in a very fast pace environment to get the feel for special events

• Help out with the skating club that I used to skate at

• Make network connections with other volunteers working the show

Event Concept

Purpose of the Event: Fun event for Skaters and their family & friends

Event Theme: “Skating Through the Decades”

Event Venue: Aurora Community Centre

Event Target Audience: All Ages

Timing of the Event (season, day of the week, time of day, duration): The event was held at the end of the skating year in the spring. There was a dress rehearsal on Friday at night for a few hours and then there were two shows on the Saturday. The matinee show was from 12:00 p.m -2:00p.m and the evening show was from 6:00 p.m -8:00 p.m

Volunteer Position Registration1. Outline what you have done or what you plan to do confirm this volunteer opportunity. I’ve been volunteering every year sine I quit skating 5 years ago. This year I asked the co-ordinator if I could have more responsibility she discussed it with the board and they decided to give me a much bigger job then I had the previous years.

2. Identify your primary contact person for this opportunity.My primary contact for this opportunity was Allison Greenwood who is the Ice Show Co-ordinator.

Section 1 – Journal

Event Concept

Venue Considerations: I feel as if the Aurora Community Center was a perfect place for

the venue just because the way the seating is set up around the rink and the ice pad is large. It

also has a bunch of nice change rooms from the hockey teams that play there for the skaters

and it has a perfect backstage for the skaters to wait before they go on the ice.

Event team, contractors and other stakeholders: The event team was all made up of

volunteers. The event team is a complete volunteer basis consisting of participants parents who

are also part the Aurora Skating Club Board and skating coaches who do not get paid for

working and planning the event. The board and skating coaches use their networking skills to

find other volunteers, which consist of, alumni skaters, their parents, siblings and friends. All

the parents on the board and the coaches are the ones who are responsible for the

organization of the event and decorating the whole venue. Some contractors who are a part of

the team are the security company. The skating club has been using the same security company

for the event for 10 years. However, there are only a few paid security guards, the rest are,

once again, volunteers. Even then lighting guys are volunteers, they however rent the lighting

and sound equipment.

Competition: Some competition event organizers would run up against would be other

figure skating clubs in the area. Ice Shows are a very common thing to have for skating clubs

because it gets the skaters a chance to do something fun with their friends and showcase their

talents for family and friends, as well as, helping to bring in some money for the skating clubs.

Direct competition would definitely come from other skating clubs in the GTA who run a similar

Ice Show which are usually are all around the same time.

Regulation: Special permits are definitely required from the Town of Aurora for the use

of the entire Aurora Community Centre. The whole community centre is used for the ice show

and they entire place is rented out for the entire weekend. On Friday is the set up and dress

rehearsal, Saturday is the show day, and lastly event take down which usually happens on the

Sunday.

Community Impact: This event impacts the community in a large way. It has been going

on for 20 years at the same place. It takes event every two years. Not only skating parents and

family members purchase tickets but also people in the community who want to come out and

support their local figure skating club. Since the skating club is a not for profit organization, the

money from the purchased tickets go towards helping to pay for the ice show as well as money

for the skating club. This helps the skaters have a place to skate locally as well as providing jobs

for skating coaches who live in the area.

Risk: Risks that could have been involved with delivering this event is having the

volunteers getting injured. They could’ve gotten injured because at the end of the show all the

volunteers are asked to come out on the ice during the finale in order to give them a thank you

in front of the audience. This means the volunteers are taking a risk to go out on the ice with no

skates on, they have the potential to slip and fall and really injure themselves.

Revenue and Expenditure: The three largest sources of expenditures for this event

would probably be the rental of the venue. Since they rent out the entire community centre it is

definitely one of the top expenses for the skating club. Another large expense would probably

be the costumes that all the skaters wear. Some skating levels have 3 different routines which

means each of those skaters have to be provided with three different costumes, which the

skating club pays for. The last item that is seen as a large expense would probably be the lights.

They have 8 different spot lights that are operated by some volunteers and some staff from the

lighting company. The spot lights are definitely very expensive to rent and they rent them for

two days. They need these lights for the dress rehearsal to teach the volunteers how to operate

them as well as testing out the lighting for the show.

The three largest revenue sources at the show definitely are the purchase of tickets for

the event. Since there are so many people who are purchasing tickets it definitely brings in a lot

of money for the skating club. Also they have the sale of 50/50 tickets at the event which brings

a lot of revenue in for the club. The last large source of revenue would probably be purchasing

CD’s of the event. The skating club hires a videography company to video tape the whole event

for skaters and their families to then buy and take home with them. Not all the money goes to

the video company because the skating club does their own packaging and disc burning, they

just hire a videographer to professionally tape the event. Most skaters and their families go

home with a video of the events that night.

Management of Volunteers and Staffing

Role of the Event Manager: The event manager has a lot of responsibilities. The event

manager at this event is not only managing the entire event but she is also a skating coach. She

has to be on the ice when her skaters are out there as well as choosing costumes, organizing all

the volunteers to make sure they know what they are doing, as well as, helping set up the

décor. She has the help of one of the other skating coaches who is also an event manager. They

work as a team in order to make the show run as smoothly as possible. I had a lot of interaction

with the event staff. As the backstage coordinator I had a head piece which helped me keep in

touch with the two event managers because I help create the flow of the event so I needed to

keep in touch with them in order to communicate with them who we have backstage waiting to

go on the ice and who is already on the ice waiting to start their performance. We also have

guest skaters who we pay to come and skate (in previous years we’ve had Patrick Chan) so I

have to make sure I keep in touch the with event managers if the guest skaters need anything.

Staffing preparation and training: Nothing was really done in order to prepare me for my

shift. I just got there and the event manager gave me everything I needed. She basically just

told me that I set the pace of the show and I need to have the first 3 skaters in the back so

when there is someone on the ice, the next three skaters should be in the back and I’ll send

them up one by one once each routine is done. I feel like since I’ve participated in the past 16

ice shows I know basically how the show runs. This is my fourth ice show I’ve volunteered at so

I basically knew what I needed to do. Maybe for someone who hasn’t done it before, they

should probably have someone in the back helping them like a skating coach or one of the

event managers on the dress rehearsal night so they can organize themselves properly for the

event day.

Staff/volunteer allocation: There were definitely enough people to run the event. Most

of the actual staff included the skating coaches. Even though they do not get paid for the event

it is fully voluntary. The only place that needed more volunteers was the security and

backstage. The security needed more volunteers in order to make sure the skaters who go

upstairs to sit in the stands and watch are back downstairs in time for them to go on the ice. It

required me using my runners which are supposed to stay backstage to make sure the next

couple numbers aren’t in the stands if they aren’t in their dressing rooms. Also I needed more

runners which go to the dressing rooms and get the skaters who I need backstage. There were

at least 15 different dressing rooms filled with skaters and for the first show I only had two

runners and for the second show I had three. So it was a lot of work to make sure the skaters

were backstage and had their skates on and were all ready to go. Other than that, all the other

areas definitely had enough volunteers and everything ran smoothly. It was just very hectic

backstage and we definitely could’ve used maybe two or even three more volunteers. I felt like

every time I would need to send a runner my other runners were already gone and going to a

change room. For the event there were approximately 30 volunteers.

Event Execution

Overall Flow and Coordination: The overall flow of the event was great. We started the

first show right on time and finished right on time. All the skaters were always on the ice at the

perfect time and no one was ever late. The whole flow of the show depended on me since I was

the one sending the skaters out and making sure they were backstage. The second show we

started it a little late because it took people a little bit to get to their seats. Once the show

started it went smoothly. All the skaters were once again on the ice according to schedule and

even for the finale we made sure every single skater was down in the back and all lined up to go

on the ice. Once the skaters were on the ice backstage we pair the older skaters with the little

learn to skate skaters because some of them can’t skate alone. Once we had them all paired up

on the ice backstage and ready to go the special guest skaters finished their routine and the DJ

played the finale song and they were off on the ice. The second show finished a bit early

because everything ran so smoothly. It was a perfectly executed event and everyone couldn’t

be happier about how the event ran.

Marketing and Sponsorships: There weren’t any sponsors for this event. Sponsors

definitely would’ve helped the event out a lot considering the skating club is a not for profit and

all the staff consisted of volunteers. Having a sponsorship would have probably brought more

attention to the event. It also would’ve probably helped the skating club pay for some awesome

prizes and they could’ve probably done some sort of raffle or something. Also they could’ve put

more money into décor and signage for the marketing aspect of the event.

Event Promotion: The event wasn’t promoted that well. They had a flyer in the local

newspaper about the event as well as a poster that was posted in the rink where the Aurora

Skating Club skaters skate. If they had more ways or more money to promote the event it

would’ve created some more buzz through the town and more people would’ve shown up. It

also would’ve been great publicity for the skating club because maybe parents who have little

children would come to the show to see what they do and would sign their child up for skating

the following year.

The volunteers were recruited by the skating coaches asking parents and board

members if they knew people who either needed volunteer hours or if they knew anyone that

could help out. Most of the volunteers are the same every year because either they are

parents, siblings or relatives of the participants.

Participant Experience: Yes, the participant experience was positive. Even though it is a

really stressful time for everyone, the participants seem to enjoy themselves because they get

to have a fun day and night with all of their friends. They also get to perform for maybe some

family members who have never been able to watch them skate before.

Section 2 – Discussion

1. Some key learnings I will take away from this event is I got to experience working in a

very fast pace environment and it helped me work on learning how to smoothly run an

event. Also it helped me think on my feet. When an issue arose I had to think very

quickly because it is such a fast pace event, which will help me with running future

events. Another thing I learnt while running this event is that you cannot always rely on

volunteers. There were multiple volunteers that did not show up to the event day which

left us short staffed. This taught me that it is better to over staff with volunteers then to

have just enough and then on event day be short staffed.

2. Some recommendations for this event are, that they should seek out some sponsorship

opportunities in order to help fund the event. Sponsorships will also help market the

event in order to get the word out. This will help the event gain more buzz and have a

much bigger turn out. Another recommendation would probably be to have more

options for food. For food and beverage options they just have the regular concession

stand and vending machines. Maybe if they had some sort of bake sale it would help

raise money for the skating club, as well as, giving the option for delicious home-made

treats for the spectators. My last recommendation for this event is to have some sort of

transportation available for spectators who live in the area. The parking lot was really

full and it was impossible for spectators to find a parking spot so they started parking

along a very busy road which caused issues for other drivers. Having transportation

available would be ideal that way the parking lot isn’t too crowded and that way there

are spots for participants and volunteers.

3. The biggest factor that led to the success of this event was that the participants put on

an amazing show. All the costumes were so nice and the whole ice show was perfectly

timed. It also helped that the theme of the event was relatable and so was the music

selection. It was amazing to see how excited the participants were to get on the ice and

showcase their talent to all their family and friends. The light guys did an amazing job

and the event managers did not let anything get in their way. The whole event was a

great success and all the spectators enjoyed watching it.

Section 3 – Confirmation of Participation

This photo was taking during my break between the two events. We had just gotten our puppy

a couple days prior so my boyfriend came on my break to the event and surprised me with him.