Being an organizer

First of all, being an organizer is volunteer work. You have to have the motivation for being an organizer as otherwise you will not enjoy it. The work will be hard at times, you will be tired and you'd rather be somewhere else relaxing and having a Coca-Cola =). If you want to be an organizer, you will have to be able to get past those difficult moments. To quote an ages old proverb: "When going gets though, the though get going".

If you got the motivation, then the whole world of ASSEMBLY Organizing is open to you. We believe that hard working people with the right attitude can learn and master almost anything.

So, what is it like?

The work you do depends of course a lot on the job. Tasks in LiveCrew are different to those in the Infodesk. Still, the basic outline is the same:

1. Participating in the preparations (9 ... 3 months before the event)

Preparations for the next ASSEMBLY event begin almost immediately after the previous event has ended (some times even before =)). The preparations typically start for real after the previous year has ended and there is 7 full months left before the next ASSEMBLY. During the preparation phase roughly half of the organizing team gets involved with different kind of preparation tasks such as producing programs for AssemblyTV, planning the Party Lan, defining compo rules, planning the party schedule, recruiting speakers to the seminars and updating the web site (just to name a few activities).

Typically in the preparation phase an organizer needs to put in a 2-4 of hours per week. Function heads and other key organizers put in at least a double/triple amount of work. There is at least one full AsmOrg team meeting during this phase. (Note: the amounts of work differ greatly from job to job even within the same team)

2. Participating in the preparations #2 (3 ... 0,5 months before the event)

As the event gets closer the preparations get more intense. Everything needed for the event needs to be planned, material and resources must be acquired and the deadline keeps on getting closer and closer.

Almost every organizer has to work during the second preparation phase. Typically work amount can be 2-6 hours per week, but can be as high as 10-14 hours per week. The organizers in the Core team put in around 20-30 hours per week. (Note: the amounts of work differ greatly from job to job in even within the same team)

3. Building the event (2 weeks before the event ... party starting date)

This is when everything gets real. Final preparations and planning will be made. Actual building of the event begins 2-4 days before the event. The last two days before the event the majority of the organizing team works at the party place setting everything up. This means that most of the personnel have come to Helsinki and are possibly staying overnight at the party place.

During the last two days before the event almost every organizer needs to put in at least 6-8 hours per day.

4. Event (four days, Thursday to Sunday)

The event begins on Thursday and ends on Sunday. Most of the different functions (e.g. LiveCrew, Infodesk, NetCrew, Security) work a three shifts, so an organizer is on duty for 8 hours and then possibly has 16 hours of free time. However, if things get intense, free time might decrease significantly. For example, if there is a major network problem, the whole NetCrew (on-duty and off-duty) personnel will pitch in until the problem is solved.

During the event you should expect to be on-duty between 8-12 hours per day.

5. Deconstruction (Sunday and Monday)

The deconstruction of the event begins already on early Sunday morning (or late Saturday). Internal functions that have already done all their work (e.g. CompoCrew) starts to tidy up the facilities and to pack up loaned equipment. Actual deconstruction starts on Sunday immediately after the party is over. The majority of the deconstruction (e.g. returning equipment, deconstructing the Party Net) typically is accomplished during the Sunday evening. After this majority of the organizing team is off duty. Typically organizers can leave for home around 21-22 o'clock on Sunday evening.

A few organizers will continue the deconstruction during Monday.

Then its over! The last thing after the party is to write down improvement suggestions, process visitor feedback and prepare for the GREAT fiesta called the After Party =).