For WEG Volunteers- Your Thoughts?

[MHM]

A post on the WEG poll thread made me wonder:

If you volunteered at WEG, what did you think of the experience?

Did you have any trouble signing up? Did it seem like an organized operation? Was there enough training? Would you do it again? What did you actually do at WEG?

ETA: If you don’t live nearby, where did you stay?

I know they asked for more volunteers nearly at the last minute- did anyone jump in then?

Thanks very much for being a volunteer!!! :):)

[khp_vol]

I volunteered for both WEG and the Horse Park.

WEG was a pain to apply for- the only reason I went through with it was that the Lexington Convention & Visitors Bureau streamlined it for me. The WEG people were NOT very helpful.

Before WEG I was assigned to the warehouse handing out unis and credentials. Since I ran a warehouse before I retired, little training was necessary.Once WEG started, I switched to Certified Tourism Ambassador at a local hotel. I was already certified, so, once again, little training was necessary.

I also volunteered for the Horse Park. I’ve been a volunteer for several years, so I already knew my job.I worked in the Visitors Infomation Center and the International Museum of the Horse.

Would I do it again? In a second! I met some really nice people and got to watch some great competition.

I do think, however, more training would have been nice- other volunteers were not familiar with the Horse Park.

[ddashaq]

Volunteered for XC. I did not sign up, I was asked based on my volunteering at Rolex. I probably would not do it again because I would have rather walked around watching since so many of the riders I had never seen go before. That has nothing to do with how WEG organized it, though, I thought they did fine. Of course, they had the same people in charge that are in charge at Rolex so that made it run smoother, I think.

[oldernewbie]

As I said, glad I stuck with it

Well, here’s a thread I started earlier this year about my experience up until that point:

http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=257304&highlight=weg+nerve

This was the bad side of the experience. I really do think (as I said on the WEG poll thread) that names were taken and a**es kicked earlier this year - all of a sudden things on the volunteer side were organized. They put us on Shiftboard, had a volunteer center that was actually responsive, and starting communicating more effectively. I went to one in-person training session just to see how things were going and was pleasantly surprised to find it well organized, informative, and upbeat. From that point on, I was glad to be part of it and wished I had signed up for more.

I worked security.

I stayed at Midway Station in the temporary RV camp - I was interested because they had a shuttle and was a reasonable price - but as it turned out we never used the shuttle since parking was easy to get to and free when I was volunteering.

I was able to be even more effective since I have been to the KHP many times and knew where almost everything was. Those were the questions I got the most often.

I am VERY glad I didn’t bail!

[Holly_Jeanne]

my experience

Oldernewbie: I didn’t see the organization you were talking about at the end. Maybe it depended on which area you were assigned to work. I started trying to sign-up the minute it was available and then had to go into the new system and do it again. Then, my friends were all hearing and I hadn’t heard anything and didn’t get some of the e-mails they did.

So, I introduced myself at a talk and was asked to do something that was taking place in advance. Talked to my boss and got permission to take off one afternoon a week for 6 weeks. But, when I went to the first day, I found out that it didn’t count toward the 6 shifts one was supposed to do. In fact, not meaning to be selfish but it counted for nothing, not even a t-shirt. I told them I still would do it if they needed me but would rather not as I couldn’t take that much time off work and then do it again in the fall. They said they had expected retirees to volunteer for it. Ummm, they asked for volunteers at a professional meeting, how many retirees did they think would be there?

Finally I was asked to do a job and happily accepted and then turned down other volunteer positions. Well, I waited and waited for the schedules to be decided but by the time they were, I already had things scheduled at work and Saturday plans (ie registered for a dressage show and paid for a clinic) and they weren’t having people work on Sunday so I couldn’t do that job either. I was frustrated as I could have accepted another position had I known.

So, I had wanted to be more involved but ended up just doing my usual Rolex job. When I scheduled to pick up my uniform, it had the other position listed (which would have been a different uniform) so I sent an e-mail clarifying what I would be doing. I got a confirmation back that the records had been corrected. When I actually picked up my uniform, they had thrown away my credentials as I had “declined” my volunteer position. They had to issue new ones for my other job even though I had been assured it had been corrected.

I would definitely do my Rolex job again but I won’t bother with the rest of the process.

The event itself was great though!

[paintrider]

I volunteered for a week and had a fabulous experience! I am not local to Lexington and so did all of my correspondence via e-mail / Shiftboard. I found the process to be amazingly easy and organized, particularly considering the number of volunteers they were dealing with. Whenever I had a question, my e-mails were responded to quickly. I stayed at a hotel in Lexington (not on the shuttle route) and drove to the park every day. I never had a problem parking in Spycoast, with a short walk to the “volunteer” entrance. I did not attend any of the on site training and so received “training” power points via e-mail. I did not find any of them particularly useful, but received any “training” that I needed when I got to my post. There was not alot of information available from WEG about parking / transportation, so I did some research on my own before I arrived, but I received all of the info that I needed once I arrived in Lexington. I feel very lucky to have been able to participate as a volunteer - I met alot of great people (volunteers and spectators) and I saw every bit of an amazing week of Showjumping from my volunteer post!!