Interview with Laurie Siblock (Part Four)

Laurie Siblock
Special Events & Community Liasion
Lang Pioneer Village Museum

Getting “THE INSIDE SCOOP” focuses on specific questions that may help festivals, events, organizers, and others interested in SUCCESS in their endeavors! You are very good Laurie at problem solving, managing people and as hectic as it is with all the chaos you seem to maintain your professionalize and composure. With 10+ people at a time calling out your name with questions at peak moments during an event (problems that need immediate answers), you still seem to manage. It is my understanding that you have a system to help you stay organized … could you share some of your “secrets” with us! Laurie tells us … “The single most important thing that I do to stay organized is to write EVERYTHING down. Even the most mundane and seemingly small things get written down on a Special Events Task List and each item on the list is assigned to a particular person so that one person is taking responsibility for that item. It’s amazing what can fall through the cracks when no one in particular is responsible for making something happen. For example, I’ve heard of a culinary event at which, after all the guests had gone home, the organizers discovered that the desserts hadn’t been served! As an event organizer, I’ve got to think of every last detail to support each aspect of the event. EVERYTHING needs to go into the task list right down to who is bringing and setting out soup spoons to accompany the soup. Getting everything down, assigning ownership and then checking in with people to make sure things are on track are very important before every big event”. “In order to organize volunteers for events, all volunteers complete a Volunteer Availability Form at the start of the season on which they indicate which Special Events they wish to help with. I use that list to fill volunteer needs for each event and contact each volunteer weeks prior to the event to ensure they are still available and to discuss their role at the event with them. I also have a database, Volunteer Works, which tracks what skills and knowledge volunteers have so that when I need a volunteer who can spin, for example, I can look up in my database and see who might be able to help with that. I know the volunteers quite well, so most of that is in my head anyway, but it is important to have it down so that if I am not here someone, who may not know the volunteers, could easily take”.
(To be continued)