When it comes to organizing the YearlyKos Convention, there are two major elements that go unnoticed by most of the attendees. First is the amount of money it takes to put on a convention of our size. And the second is the number of volunteers it takes to make things work. We’d love to highlight the costs involved to increase the number of donations we receive, but for now, we will focus on the volunteers.

Going into the first YearlyKos Convention, I knew we would need a large number of volunteers, but where I would need them was still unclear. As the weekend progressed, we identified more areas where we needed volunteers with specific skills. In the next few months, I will be focusing on some of these volunteers who gave their time and talents but go almost unnoticed. I want to start with a pair of strangers who, within a matter of hours, became a well-oiled machine. I like to refer to them as “Mal and Al”.

Malcolm Sturchio’s wife was a member of Daily Kos and since Mal was going to be in Las Vegas the weekend before the convention, she suggested that he email me to volunteer. Given his experience I assigned him to the Media Team to do check in. When Nolan mentioned he needed someone with production experience to stage manage the evening events, I thought of Mal and switched him over to that task. (Another volunteer named Jeff Fullington stepped into the position of Media Check in and did an equally excellent job.). After that, the rest of the weekend was a blur. Malcolm took over meeting with the hotel staff, the sound people, the speakers, everyone involved with putting on the keynotes and evening events worked through Mal and he organized them all and made it look effortless.

Another volunteer request came in, again from Nolan, to have someone assigned to be the VIP escort. This sounds easy, but it takes a certain personality type to professionally handle VIP’s. It requires a combination of tact, patience and the ability to let insults flow over you. You never know if the person you are meeting will be the salt of the earth or toxic waste and you have to be prepared for either type. It’s kind of like the old board game “Mystery Date”. You never know who will be on the other side of the door. I knew from her volunteer application that Alisa Roost had been a personal assistant and had extensive theatre background as well which meant she possessed those skills and would be a good person to handle this responsibility. Alisa spent the weekend getting the VIP’s where they needed to be on time and did an exceptional job. She offered her skills again doing publicity for our March 10th fundraising event in New York and was a big part of that successful as well.

Their story is similar to so many others who changed gears or gave much more time than they anticipated to make the first YearlyKos Convention the success that it was. They didn’t get the spotlight and most of them don’t need it, but they deserve it. So keep your eye on the website for future volunteer spotlights. And when you meet them at YKC, take a minute to shake their hand and thank them for their hard work.

 Volunteers