Volunteering 2023

[lazymagnet]

Heyyy!

hope ya all well.

Shelter lot - anyone seen the email come in today? 29th march is the last day to cancel your spot - so it’s before the resale date. Interesting!💕

[MichaelsBeard]

6 minutes ago, lazymagnet said:

Heyyy!

hope ya all well.

Shelter lot - anyone seen the email come in today? 29th march is the last day to cancel your spot - so it’s before the resale date. Interesting!💕

Yep. Bit disappointed in this 

[MrZigster]

2 hours ago, lazymagnet said:

Heyyy!

hope ya all well.

Shelter lot - anyone seen the email come in today? 29th march is the last day to cancel your spot - so it’s before the resale date. Interesting!💕

2 hours ago, MichaelsBeard said:

Yep. Bit disappointed in this 

It's always before the resale. I'd imagine it saves them a load of admin. Forces you to pick a side : Do you give up your place and hope you get lucky, or take the place you've got, or (an outlier if you're a moneybags) take the place and get lucky but donate your cash to Shelter?

A no brainer giver the odds imo unless you're rich and/or charitable

Edited March 14, 2023 by MrZigster

[Leyrulion]

2 hours ago, MichaelsBeard said:

Yep. Bit disappointed in this 

Another point against volunteering with Shelter.

[MrZigster]

2 hours ago, Leyrulion said:

Another point against volunteering with Shelter.

Are Oxfam/Water Aid/Recycling etc. different then? Be interested to know.

Always presumed they would have had the same "before the resale" thing to save on the admin of people cancelling late because they got lucky in said resale. Gives them a few more weeks wiggle room to play with their numbers maybe?

Hope this makes sense.

Edited March 14, 2023 by MrZigster

[Leyrulion]

22 minutes ago, MrZigster said:

Are Oxfam/Water Aid/Recycling etc. different then? Be interested to know.

Always presumed they would have had the same "before the resale" thing to save on the admin of people cancelling late because they got lucky in said resale. Gives them a few more weeks wiggle room to play with their numbers maybe?

Hope this makes sense.

Wateraid is a £150 deposit returnable minus £25 fee 30 days before the festival. 

Oxfam is 8 weeks before Glastonbury. Resale has always been 9-10 weeks before the festival. 

Recycling is refund minus £50, but it operates off recommendations so presumably they aren't putting forward friends who would jump ship for the resale and that wouldn't get you a place in future if you did that. 

 

I don't think there's that much admin time  involved in the places. Especially Oxfam's side. With no shift rosters to manually check against it might even be a pretty automated process now to remove them from the festival and begin the refund process once they receive the emails.

Anyone using Microsoft flow for their work can tell you that this sort of stuff can take a tenth of the time it used to. An email titled "cancellation" could probably trigger that whole process and you'd only have to do 2 or 3 clicks. 

Then they just collect the places and manually open up the spare ones, which we know Oxfam will have no trouble filling.

 

 

 

[MrZigster]

3 minutes ago, Leyrulion said:

Wateraid is a £150 deposit returnable minus £25 fee 30 days before the festival. 

Oxfam is 8 weeks before Glastonbury. Resale has always been 9-10 weeks before the festival. 

Recycling is refund minus £50, but it operates off recommendations so presumably they aren't putting forward friends who would jump ship for the resale and that wouldn't get you a place in future if you did that. 

 

I don't think there's that much admin time  involved in the places. Especially Oxfam's side. With no shift rosters to manually check against it might even be a pretty automated process now to remove them from the festival and begin the refund process once they receive the emails.

Anyone using Microsoft flow for their work can tell you that this sort of stuff can take a tenth of the time it used to. An email titled "cancellation" could probably trigger that whole process and you'd only have to do 2 or 3 clicks. 

Then they just collect the places and manually open up the spare ones, which we know Oxfam will have no trouble filling.

 

 

 

Thank you for your speedy reply (wish I could type that fast). A lot to unpack there.

Genuinely surprised about the cancellation after resale thing.

Is there a forfeit for cancelling on Oxfam?

How do you know all of this lol? Have you worked for all of them?

You are definitely correct about no problem in filling spaces for any of them. They probably have to deal with more cancellations than Shelter though I'm thinking.

Probably correct about how simple it is/could/should be by now. But. Given the documented complete balls ups of over promising places over the last couple of recruitments I do wonder about certain organisations IT skills. 

[philipsteak]

6 hours ago, MrZigster said:

Thank you for your speedy reply (wish I could type that fast). A lot to unpack there.

Genuinely surprised about the cancellation after resale thing.

Is there a forfeit for cancelling on Oxfam?

How do you know all of this lol? Have you worked for all of them?

You are definitely correct about no problem in filling spaces for any of them. They probably have to deal with more cancellations than Shelter though I'm thinking.

Probably correct about how simple it is/could/should be by now. But. Given the documented complete balls ups of over promising places over the last couple of recruitments I do wonder about certain organisations IT skills. 

I wanna say £20. There definitely is and it's around that if not that.

[stuie]

6 hours ago, MrZigster said:

Is there a forfeit for cancelling on Oxfam?

 

Cancelling any number of festivals within 7 days of signing up: No admin fee
Cancelling a place at a festival before the cancellation deadline is £20 per festival. (You will not be charged any more than £60 if cancelling more than three)
Cancelling after 6-week deadline (8 weeks for Glastonbury) but have already successfully attended one or more festivals: Lose half of the deposit.
Cancel after deadline with no valid reason: Lose all the deposit.
Cancel after deadline with a valid reason and you can provide evidence: £20.

[Leyrulion]

10 hours ago, MrZigster said:

How do you know all of this lol? Have you worked for all of them

Quick Google, I maintain a spreadsheet of all the volunteering options for Glastonbury so know where to find the t+C's pretty quickly.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Mp4ZMpJcffuwNSJBKKnEmfsdttyl0-kmpOHcPWVRD5E/edit?usp=drivesdk

If people are still looking for volunteering places there is still FE Staff, Green Peace, refresh West and attitude is everything who we're expecting volunteer places to come up in the next few months.

[Losing my hair]

Just had my Oxfam Festival Shop place confirmed. See you there. 🤩

[stuie]

7 minutes ago, Losing my hair said:

Just had my Oxfam Festival Shop place confirmed. See you there. 🤩

Congratulations! 🙂

[Spacey]

3 hours ago, Losing my hair said:

Just had my Oxfam Festival Shop place confirmed. See you there. 🤩

Me too

[med]

Glastonbury campaign roles have just popped up on Oxfam.

[mazola]

3 minutes ago, med said:

Glastonbury campaign roles have just popped up on Oxfam.

only for a minute, now gone

[chestwig]

I'm starting to give up any hope of spot with OXFAM or Wateraid...

Surely by now we should have heard from Wateraid about a space?

[incident]

2 hours ago, chestwig said:

I'm starting to give up any hope of spot with OXFAM or Wateraid...

Surely by now we should have heard from Wateraid about a space?

Tbh in terms of Oxfam - aside from the initial scramble, we haven't reached the point where places will become available in any quantity. There's absolutely no reason to get concerned now, with the resale probably about a month away and the cancellation deadline more than 6 weeks. Places will likely pop up a lot more frequently throughout May and even early June than they are now.

[Scrump]

4 hours ago, chestwig said:

Surely by now we should have heard from Wateraid about a space?

Not yet I don't think. I volunteered with them last year and didn't hear till early April.

Have some friends hoping to go with them again, having volunteered multiple times with WA, and are yet to hear back. 

 

Keep the Faith!

[Guest]

Has anyone been on all the different teams? What's the easiest work and best shift pattern, etc? If I volunteer I'd like the easiest ride lol

[giantkatestacks]

5 hours ago, Lucy F said:

Has anyone been on all the different teams? What's the easiest work and best shift pattern, etc? If I volunteer I'd like the easiest ride lol

A tedious answer but the best work/shifts onsite are the ones that suit you. For some that will be missing no music on shift for others it will be not getting up early etc etc

Edited March 19, 2023 by giantkatestacks

[incident]

1 hour ago, giantkatestacks said:

A tedious answer but the best work/shifts onside are the ones that suit you. For some that will be missing no music on shift for others it will be not getting up early etc etc

Yep very much so.

I'd absolutely hate doing Bar Work, and would avoid it like the plague, for a variety of reasons - but for others it'd be the best possible way in.

I think it's fair to say that all of the various options have their own pros and cons - most of which have been discussed quite extensively on this thread. Don't think it's possible to drill it down to a one size fits all answer - depends on what you enjoy/dislike doing, and what they value most about their time at the festival.

[balti-pie]

In the majority of volunteer roles you don’t get much of a choice of shifts - you get what you’re given, at least until you’re very established and able to get some input into it. This can easily take 4-5 festivals or more. 
In terms of what to do, I agree with the above really, it depends what you do! My day-to-day work involves lots of planning, high expressed emotions and events/incidents, so I want my volunteering responsibilities to be no more than ‘stand here, do as you’re told, finish your shifts’ and then I can go and have fun. I’ve thought about supervising but ill be honest, I just want to rock up and do as I’m instructed, and not think very much 🤣

[stuie]

37 minutes ago, balti-pie said:

My day-to-day work involves lots of planning, high expressed emotions and events/incidents, so I want my volunteering responsibilities to be no more than ‘stand here, do as you’re told, finish your shifts’ and then I can go and have fun. I’ve thought about supervising but ill be honest, I just want to rock up and do as I’m instructed, and not think very much 🤣

I used to feel the same, as normal work is stressful I wanted the easiest possible option. Then last year I got made a supervisor / gate team leader through no choice of my own and I actually really enjoyed it. I took the approach of how can I switch it up and keep this fun for everyone and while not exactly break the rules, be very flexible with them! I made sure everyone was doing something that was fun and if they wasn’t I’d change people around a lot. I gave people extra smoke and water breaks etc as it was bloody hot a lot of the time and if they wanted to go on break at a certain time and with certain other people I made that happen. It was actually quite rewarding! 😀

[chestwig]

16 hours ago, stuie said:

I used to feel the same, as normal work is stressful I wanted the easiest possible option. Then last year I got made a supervisor / gate team leader through no choice of my own and I actually really enjoyed it. I took the approach of how can I switch it up and keep this fun for everyone and while not exactly break the rules, be very flexible with them! I made sure everyone was doing something that was fun and if they wasn’t I’d change people around a lot. I gave people extra smoke and water breaks etc as it was bloody hot a lot of the time and if they wanted to go on break at a certain time and with certain other people I made that happen. It was actually quite rewarding! 😀

Would you like to be my gaffer for the weekend?

[From the Woods]

I'm feeling very fortunate as I've been accepted to join the recycling team this year - it will be my first time attending as a volunteer and it has sent my anticipation to a whole new level!

A few questions arising:

• We were also lucky in securing normal tickets back in Nov.  (Two tickets that will definitely be added to the resale!).  I'm surprised that there is no process for moving the £50 deposit to our 'guarantee' payment to the Recycling team.  Does this apply to all the volunteering organisations?  I'm assuming I've got zero chance to claim back from Seetickets?
• We missed last year's, and the last pre-pandemic, Glastos,  but would I be right to assume that you can now get by 100% cashless?  As I'm hoping to get post festival shifts this is asking for right up to the Thursday after.
• No idea how packed the Recycling campsite gets - will there be plenty of pitch options if arriving early afternoon on Tuesday?