Call for Volunteers

Are you looking for a great opportunity to get involved with the WordPress community?

We are in search of WordPress enthusiasts eager to lend a hand! WordCamps would not be possible without a strong volunteer base of people like you. If you’ve been thinking about attending WordCamp Birmingham and want to help out, we would love to have you join us! Volunteering at WordCamp is a fun way to meet members of the local and national WordPress community, as well as help contribute to making the event a success.

There are a variety of volunteer opportunities, each with different time commitments, experience requirements, and logistics. There are two requirements for ALL volunteers, regardless of the job or duration: be reliable and be friendly. 🙂

Look over the list to see if anything strikes a chord.  Then if you’d like to volunteer, fill out the volunteer form below to express your interest in volunteering.  Our Volunteer Wrangler, Ryan Marks, will get back to you and let you know which options are available and work out a schedule.

As we fill up volunteer positions, we will remove the filled positions from the website.  So, if there is something special you’d like to help with, submit the form soon.

Before the Event

Printing – Feel like donating some paper and printer ink to the cause? Print up some programs and associated materials on plain white paper from your business or home office and drop them off at the Pelham Civic Center during prep week. Anything we can’t get covered by volunteers will be printed at FedEx Office, and we’ll need a volunteer to oversee that, too. An eye for detail is helpful.

Airport Pickups – Some speakers and VIPs will be flying into BHM and need to get from the airport to their hotel. While many will just take an Uber/Lyft, for some a ride from a friendly community member would be a nicer way to begin their WordCamp weekend. If you have a car and don’t mind doing an airport run or two, awesome.

During the Event

Hotel Shuttle – Some speakers and VIPs will all be staying at a nearby hotel. Drivers willing to do a run or two between the hotel and the Pelham Civic Center before and/or after the conference would be very helpful.

Set Up/Clean Up: Help with event set up and clean up as needed.

Registration – Check in registered attendees and hand out nametags & t-shirts. Sell walk-up tickets, take money and make change, using an iPad/Square reader.  Being really awesome with alphabetical order helps here.

Room Emcee – Introduce speakers/sessions and keep things running on time. Keep an eye on the clock and give speakers a heads up when they are down to 10 and 5 minutes, and let them know when their time is up. Brevity and wit a must.

Photography – We need your your unique vision and your photography skills to document the event with your camera.   To give you an overview of what we expect from you as an official WordCamp Birmingham photographer, we have prepared this page.

Video – We plan to have camera equipment in each room and need volunteers to act as camera operators. Good gig, since you can watch sessions at the same time. Video Experience Encouraged.  You’ll be trained on what to do.

Room Runners – Work with the emcees, video people, speakers, and everyone else working in the room to keep things running smoothly. Make sure there’s water for speakers, and provide support as needed for other event staff.

Happiness Bar – Answer questions and help WordPress users fix problems with their sites. Must be able to show level of expertise to be selected for this gig.

Food/Beverage – This is already taken of for the most part, but it would be helpful to have a few people keeping an eye on things. On Saturday and Sunday, we’ll especially need a couple of people to help around lunchtime.

Hallway Guide – Be a hallway monitor, answering questions and providing directions.

Miscellaneous Prep – Random helping here and there that doesn’t have a category.

Remember that if you volunteer, or are sending an employee to volunteer, you must meet the WordCamp Central guidance for volunteers.

WordCamp Birmingham 2017 is over. Check out the next edition!