The Day Of (An Operations Guide)
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Site Coordinator's Guide The Day Of (An Operations Guide) |
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What Is RegDay (FAQ) RegDay 2007 2007 Site Listing Add Your Site Promotional Materials Handouts & Pamphlets Volunteer For RegDay Site Coordinator's Guide Overview Securing A Location Recruiting Volunteers Promoting Your Site Obtaining Materials Talking About ISRR The Day Of RegDay Previous RegDay Info 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 RegDay Home 
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Contents:
As the site leader, you should arrive at your site as early as feasible to begin setting up. 45 minutes lead-time is not unreasonable. Be sure to inform your host (the manager of the store or whatever) when they can expect you and your volunteers to arrive. Once you have made that known, be prompt. First, take a look around. Is everything the host promised to supply there? If not, start a list, and ask them about it. Perhaps they just forgot. Once you have all that the host was to provide in place, bring in your supplies. Decorate your table accordingly, being sure to respect the wishes of your host. Be sure to tape down anything that you don't want "walking away" from the table. It is a good idea to tape down one copy of each handout you will be putting on the table. Then stack your handouts on top of the taped down copies. This will ensure that you don't end up giving away your very last one. Set out your pens, envelopes, mailing labels, etc. If your site is serving refreshments, prepare those as well. You will want to start the coffee pot brewing no sooner than 10 minutes before you plan to open your site - this will make sure that the coffee is fresh for your guests. Of course, if the coffee is for the volunteers, then start it earlier as appropriate. You may wish for your volunteers to wear name tags - that's up to you. Name tags should indicate that the person is a volunteer with "RegDay" and may include a RegDay logo. Name tags indicating membership in other organizations are not appropriate. You may also wish to consider having volunteers put their connection with the triad on their name tag (example: Jane Doe, RegDay Volunteer, Birthmother). This may seem strange, but imagine the door opener when a curious, in-the-closet birthmom approaches the table and sees another birthmom boldly and proudly identifying herself. Same for adoptees: "Wow, someone who understands why I feel this need to know…" Finally, set your chairs in such a way as to make the site inviting. Remember, your volunteers need chairs behind the table, too! When your site is all set up, gather your volunteers together for a final briefing. Remind everyone of where everything is, who to get answers from, and why we're here. 2. Working your site During the hours your site is open, you'll want to have an even split of duties and the time between your volunteers. You should have a least two people scheduled to be at your site. Now, if you plan to have your site open the full 10 hours the location is open, and you only have one other volunteer besides yourself, best of luck. But a group of 4 volunteers could easily person a site that is open for 6 or 8 hours. Remember, you will not be non-stop busy the whole time your site is open. Have something for everyone to do during the slow times. Take bathroom breaks, walk around the location, chat with your fellow volunteers. Just be ready to help out when "business" pick up. Help out… with what? The primary job you and your volunteers will have is answering questions. The main one being, "What's this all about?" Refer to Talking about ISRR (link) for answers to many questions. Volunteers will also be helping by passing out forms, helping folks to fill them out, answering questions about the forms themselves, and handing out envelopes with address labels. Finally, you and your volunteers are on hand to share your stories. You will find many people from all walks of life, triadians and those outside the traditional triad, who have been touched by adoption. This is a day to talk about that common thread in our lives, and to share our stories. That is what will make RegDay special for everyone involved. 3. Things to be prepared for The more pre-event publicity you generate through local calendar listings, flyers, newspaper articles, TV spots or PSA's, the more people you can expect to be at your site. Likewise, the more foot traffic a site generally receives (the more publically located), the more general interest you will be attracting. If that is the case, be prepared to run out of everything. That's a goal to shoot for! If, on the other hand, you've done minimal outreach or PR and are located in the back of a bookstore or some other out-of-the-way location, you may have to be prepared for only a handful of people to show up. Don't be discouraged! While some RegDay sites are booming all day long (in spurts), many only end up handing out a few ISRR forms and discussing adoption issues with a few others. Even if this is the case with your site, knowing that your site was instrumental in possibly effecting a few reconnections, letting triadians know they are not alone, or even educating the general public about adoption issues. The bottom line is, don't create a mongo site with tons of materials to hand out if you're not going to do a commensurate local outreach effort. That is setting yourself up for disappointment. If you don't have the energy or resources for getting flyers distributed around the neighborhood, getting into local calendars and contacting reporters for stories, and/or if you don't have a location with a lot of guaranteed foot traffic, you'll probably want to tone down the amount of materials you provide. Have 50 ISRR forms on hand, but 15 copies of the other materials may be plenty. If you end up getting more visitors than planned, have one of the volunteers run out to make extra copies of outreach materials at a local copy machine. Be prepared for questions you can't answer. People will come up with doozies! And many of them will have little tonothing to do with ISRR. Ask other volunteers at your table for help with the questions, or get the person's information on a sign-up sheet for a local support group that may be able to answer the questions better. Remember, we're volunteers, not experts in every field. People should be able to understand that if you explain it in a nice way. Be prepared for the media. Especially if you have invited them. Be sure that you have plenty of volunteers to staff your site before you agree to be distracted for an interview. If there are cameras involved (television or still), ask them to take pictures of the site while it's busy, then agree to an interview when things slow down. Be prepared for emotions. Yours, other volunteers', guests'. This is an emotional issue. Have tissues on hand for sure. Be prepared for a feeling of accomplishment, when you see that you've passed out ISRR forms and helped some people by the end of the day. :-) 4. Finishing and taking down the site About ½ hour before the official end of your day, start cleaning up. Make sure that all trash gets thrown away. Walk through the location (store, coffee shop, whatever) and pick up any of your materials such as handouts that may have been left aside. When it's time to end, end. Possibly your site is closing down before the location itself. Gather your materials, return pens and other borrowed items, and put the tables and chairs away. Find out from your host what else you and your volunteers can do to return things to normal. When you are all packed and ready to go, be sure to do the following with your host:
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