Get Involved

Hi there!

Thanks for your interest in being staff for BayCon! We'd like to get to know you a little bit and see where you might fit in with our crew as well as give you a bit of basic information about our staffing procedures.

So let's start with you:

What's your convention volunteer experience? Have you just been a volunteer/gopher? Or have you been general staff or run a department or other larger piece of the puzzle? Is there something you have helped with at a convention in the past that you enjoy and want to do again? Do you have any special skills or hobbies that could translate into what you bring to the table?

A rough outline of our staff structure is as follows:

The Chairman functions at the Executive level and, with the assistance of the Vice Chair, oversees the whole event. S/he directly manages the Vice Chair, the Division Heads and any other Committee level staff that may be in place, and reports directly to the Board of Directors of our parent company Artistic Solutions, Inc. The Chairman and his/her direct reports make up what we refer to as the "Committee", which meets for a short session prior to each general staff meeting.

The Division Heads, with the assistance of their Division Seconds, manage focused divisions containing multiple departments and report to the Chairman. The Division Heads are part of the Committee.

The Department Heads, with the assistance of their Department Seconds, manage departments of anywhere from 3 to 25+ people and report directly to their respective Division Heads. The Department Heads, Department Seconds and Staff make up the "Staff" level.

Every volunteer staffer must complete the following paperwork:

  1. The Artistic Solutions Volunteer Application. This form and the verification of your government issued ID establishes you as a part of our Volunteer Pool. This form is valid until you move/your address changes or the ID expires.
  2. The BayCon Placement Request form. This form is completed every year and is specific for the event in question. You must already have the Volunteer Application on file for this form to be processed & accepted. This form must be complete before it can be turned in - it is not the job of the HR coordinator to obtain approvals. Once all approvals are in place, the $30 Staff membership fee is due at the time your form is submitted to HR.

The $30 Staff Membership does not cover a staff t-shirt, in the event that one is produced. Staff shirts are an additional optional expense and usually run about $15 - they must be paid for in advance and we order only the quantity and sizes that have been paid for.

Every Placement Request requires two signatures to be complete. The Chairman is appointed by the Board of Directors as a whole and "hires" one level down (primary signature for Division Heads/Committee level) and approves two levels down (secondary signature for Division Seconds, Department Heads & Seconds). Division Heads "hire" one level down (primary signature for Department Heads) and approve two levels down (Department Seconds & Staff). Department Heads "hire" one level down (Department Seconds & Staff) with approval from their Division Head.

It is expected that in addition to the prep work and meetings all volunteer staff will work an average of 8 hours a day over the course of the convention. While the convention runs from Friday through Monday, many positions require work during load in on Thursday and/or Load out on Tuesday.

If you feel that this time commitment will impact/hinder your attendance of the convention too much, we also welcome you to consider becoming a "gopher". You would purchase a full membership at your convenience and after signing up with our Volunteer/Gopher department and volunteering 16 hours over the course of the convention you become eligible for either a refund of your membership fee or a rollover to the next year.

Starting in August we hold regular staff events and meetings (see below for schedule) throughout the year leading up to the next BayCon with one after convention event to wrap things up. These meetings and events generally occur on Sundays with an occasional item on a Saturday. Meetings are monthly through the end of the year and pick up in frequency in the beginning of the following year. Division Heads & Seconds and Department Heads & Seconds are expected at all meetings if at all possible and all other general staff are welcome. There is only one all staff mandatory meeting, and that is the last meeting before the convention. Other meetings that are critical and that you are strongly encouraged to attend are the ones where we have set the staff hiring deadline (in the event that you do not yet have a position) and the housing deadline (so that you can be sure your hotel arrangements are correct). We do have a recording secretary for the meetings and those notes are posted to the staff email list a few days after the meetings so that even if you miss a meeting you will still find out about important items. The meetings are an excellent time to connect with & coordinate with other staffers as well as to hear about developments and contribute to the running of the convention.

Meeting Schedule

Thanks for reading this through. We look forward to hearing details about your desire to help BayCon. Please e-mail the deapartment with whom you are interested in working. If you can't find that information on our contact page, please contact us at info@baycon.org and we will connect you with the appropriate department.