Idea Collection Assembly Roles

The main challenge in organizing an idea collection assembly is that you only have a few staff, but you need 20-40 people to run the event (facilitators, scribes, timekeepers for each group; people to manage check in; setting up the room and food, and so on). The only way you can do this is to rely on volunteers--volunteers who may not have necessary skills and might not show up.

To make this work you’ll need to:

coordinate volunteers to make sure people show up,
train volunteers so they have the necessary skills to run the assembly; and
assign roles on the fly depending on who shows up.

Teams

You could spend a lot of time on coordination and training– sending emails, checking RSVPs, making volunteers come to training meetings, check-ins etc., but this will quickly take up a ton on time, and still doesn’t fully guarantee you’ll have the right number of volunteers show up, so one of the main challenges at the event is to make sure people are assigned roles that they can carry out as they walk in the door.

There are 4 groups of roles that work together to run assembly:

Setup / Teardown team:
- Event planner - handles food, interpretation, childcare, equipment and supplies
- Volunteer manager - helps setup room
- Data manager - help setup room
- Volunteer coach - help setup room
Sign in team:
- Greeters (optional)
- Data manager - signs in people
- Volunteer manager - assigns roles and tables
Facilitation team:
- Facilitator - presents introduction and keeps agenda moving
- Moderators (3-8) - facilitates small group discussion, distributes budget delegate sign up and surveys
- Scribes (3-8) - records and digitizes ideas
- Time keepers (3-8) - warns moderator when time is running out
- Survey Collectors (3-8) - helps moderator distribute surveys
Data team:
- Data manager - records video, reminds moderators to distribute delegate sign up and surveys, collects sign ups and surveys
- Volunteer manager - collects posters
Media team:
- Volunteer coach (or Media Interviewer) – takes photos during event & interviews participants after
- Data manager (or Media Camera) - holds video camera for interviewer

  
    
    Event manager
    Volunteer coach
    Volunteer manager
    Data manager
    Facilitator
    Moderator
    Scribe
    
  

    Setup
    Setup room

      Food

      Intepretation

      Childcare

      AV
    Setup room
    Setup room
Setup sign in
    Setup room
Setup camera
    
    
    
  

    30 min before
    Monitor
    Coach moderators
Coach facilitator, AV
    Assign role & table
    Sign in
    Check AV
    Setup table
Assign roles
    Setup table    
  

    Intro
    Monitor
    Start on time
    Assign role & table
    Sign in
    Facilitate
    
    
  

    Small group
    Monitor
    Monitor pace
Photos
    
    Camera on
    Facilitate
    Moderate
    Record ideas
  

    Share out
    Monitor
    Monitor pace
Photos
    Poster pics
    Remind delegate signup
    Remind delegate signup
    Sign up delegates
    
  

    Wrap up
    Monitor
    Monitor pace
Photos
    Remind scribes to digitize
    Remind survey
Collect delegate signups
Collect survyes
    Remind survey
    Distribute surveys
    Digitize ideas
  

    Tear down
    Clean up
    Clean up
Interview
    Collect posters
    Camera off
    
    
    
  

	Event manager	Volunteer coach	Volunteer manager	Data manager	Facilitator	Moderator	Scribe
Setup	Setup room Food Intepretation Childcare AV	Setup room	Setup room Setup sign in	Setup room Setup camera
30 min before	Monitor	Coach moderators Coach facilitator, AV	Assign role & table	Sign in	Check AV	Setup table Assign roles	Setup table
Intro	Monitor	Start on time	Assign role & table	Sign in	Facilitate
Small group	Monitor	Monitor pace Photos		Camera on	Facilitate	Moderate	Record ideas
Share out	Monitor	Monitor pace Photos	Poster pics	Remind delegate signup	Remind delegate signup	Sign up delegates
Wrap up	Monitor	Monitor pace Photos	Remind scribes to digitize	Remind survey Collect delegate signups Collect survyes	Remind survey	Distribute surveys	Digitize ideas
Tear down	Clean up	Clean up Interview	Collect posters	Camera off

Each of these roles has a corresponding lanyard/role card – these are not just symbolic but provide 2 important functions, they:

show the volunteer manager at a glance that all the roles are filled and volunteers are in the right place fulfilling their role,
have reminders to the volunteers about their critical tasks.

Table 1. Responsibilities of roles in each part of the idea collection assembly.

Setup / teardown team

When room setup is complete, the room should be arranged as follows:

Everything in the assembly is on hold until room setup is complete, so setup must happen quickly and early. There are many tasks that need to be done to setup the room and it takes too long to explain to other volunteers how to set up the room, and most volunteers don’t want to show up an hour early.

To make room setup quick, printed material and supplies are arranged into folders that can be dropped at the appropriate table with instructions on how do arrange the tables left to moderators and scribes if needed.

The setup tasks can then be distributed across a few roles:

Logistics

The Event Manager handles the bulk of the logistics before the assembly such as reserving the venue, ordering food, arranging translation etc. The Event Manager should also prepare the binders of printed materials and supplies or delegate the task to another person.

The hour before the event, the event manager coordinates the food delivery, interpreters, childcare and other providers or delegates this task.

Setup

The Event Manager, Volunteer Manager, Data Manager, Volunteer coach work together to arranges the easels, tables, and materials to setup the room.

Tear down

The Event Manager, Volunteer Manager, Data Manager, Volunteer coach work together to clean up the room at the end.

Sign in team

The sign in process is critical to make sure that volunteers are assigned roles, that volunteers know what they are doing, and that volunteers and participants are matched up.

Before the assembly, when people RSVP for the idea collection assembly, they indicate whether they are willing to volunteer and are sent the facilitator & scribe guide to read. The Event manager creates an ALPHABETIZED list of all the participants that includes WHO IS VOLUNTEERING. You’ll also need sign in sheets, name tags, markers and pens.

This sign-in process then works as follows:

Get to sign in table

If the venue is large or hard to navigate, you can ask a volunteer to be a greeter and direct people to the sign in sheet. They can also put-up signage such as posters or yard signs (which might be enough). Remember to tell the greeter they can leave their post when the event starts.

If you are expecting non-english speakers, you will need to have a bilingual greeter to help with sign in.

Sign in

Once the participant is at the sign in table, the Data Manager (or sign-in volunteer):

Asks the participant to fill out a name tag
If the participant RSVPd, check them off the list, if not ask them to fill out the sign in sheet to collect their email and interests
If the person is volunteering, gives them a t-shirt
Passes them to the volunteer manager

The sign in is critical to make sure keep track of how many people were at the event and that we have a way to get in touch with new people.

Get role and table

During sign in, the volunteer manager does the critical job that there are enough facilitators at each table and that all the participants are matched to a facilitator and the tables are full. The volunteer manager should :

sit at the sign in table with the table assignment sheet
ask participants if they signed up (or can) volunteer

if the participant is a volunteer…

assign them to moderator role at a table until all the tables have moderator, then assign scribes until all the tables have scribes,
gives moderators and scribes a 1 page tip sheet,
send the volunteer to the volunteer coach.

if the participant is NOT a volunteer…

assign them to first table until it is full, then the second table, and so on, and

send them to Greeter 2 or directly to the table.

Get to table

If there are enough volunteers, you can assign someone to escort people to tables. While this is not absolutely necessary because each table will have a sign, it can be nice for participants that need extra help getting seated.

If you are providing interpretation, you’ll want a bilingual greeter who can give participants headsets and direct them to the right table.

Get volunteer coaching

The volunteer manager doesn’t have time to help moderators and scribes, so the volunteer coach reminds volunteers of their role and answers any questions they have about getting started. The volunteer coach should remind:

Moderators

the moderation materials are on the table, they should check out the quick-start guide in the first page of the folder
they should assign people to the different roles at the table
to work with the scribe to setup the flip charts
to remember to collect survey and budget delegate sheets at the end
to work with scribe to digitize ideas after the assembly

Scribes

to work with the facilitator to setup the flip charts at their table

to remember to digitize ideas after the assembly

Critical issues

There are some critical things to look out for during the sign in process:

  
    Important that...
    Otherwise...
  
    Prepare alphabetized list of RSVPs with volunteer information
    If the list isn’t alphabetized, the sign in process slows down, and you start to miss people who can volunteer and aren't able to count how many people attended (critical to both success and demonstrating success) 
  
    Volunteer manager (& table assignment sheet) stay by sign in table 
    If the volunteer manager or table assignment sheet wanders away from the table, the sign-in process halts, and you again miss volunteers and undercount participation. 
  
    Volunteer manager assign moderators to tables 
    If moderators aren’t assigned, the whole assembly breaks down 
  
    Volunteer manager sends volunteers to volunteer coach  
    If volunteers aren’t sent to the coach, they forget critical parts of their job and discussion, survey, budget delegate sign up, scribing can all break down
  
    Volunteer coach briefs volunteers 
    (see above) 
  
    Volunteer manager fills tables from front to back 
    You’ll end up with multiple tables with only a few participants, or worse, run out of moderators 
  
    People doing multiple roles
    Sign in process breaks, and then assembly breaks down.  Getting moderation set up smooth requires at least the sign in, volunteer manager & volunteer coach roles – having someone do more than one of these roles isn’t a good idea if you want the process to go smoothly.

Important that...	Otherwise...
Prepare alphabetized list of RSVPs with volunteer information	If the list isn’t alphabetized, the sign in process slows down, and you start to miss people who can volunteer and aren't able to count how many people attended (critical to both success and demonstrating success)
Volunteer manager (& table assignment sheet) stay by sign in table	If the volunteer manager or table assignment sheet wanders away from the table, the sign-in process halts, and you again miss volunteers and undercount participation.
Volunteer manager assign moderators to tables	If moderators aren’t assigned, the whole assembly breaks down
Volunteer manager sends volunteers to volunteer coach	If volunteers aren’t sent to the coach, they forget critical parts of their job and discussion, survey, budget delegate sign up, scribing can all break down
Volunteer coach briefs volunteers	(see above)
Volunteer manager fills tables from front to back	You’ll end up with multiple tables with only a few participants, or worse, run out of moderators
People doing multiple roles	Sign in process breaks, and then assembly breaks down. Getting moderation set up smooth requires at least the sign in, volunteer manager & volunteer coach roles – having someone do more than one of these roles isn’t a good idea if you want the process to go smoothly.

Facilitation team

The facilitators, moderators, scribes, timekeepers and survey collectors are the roles held by volunteers facilitating the idea collection event.

Facilitator

The facilitator is the MC for the event, giving the lecture about PB at the beginning and telling moderators when to move on to the next part of the discussion. Moderators from the leadership committee prepare before the assembly by meeting with the PB manager and familiarizing themselves with the slides which they have also seen at previous assemblies.

Moderators & scribes

Moderators guide the participants discussion and assign participants at their table to the timekeeper and survey collection roles. Moderator training for the leadership committee and volunteers should provide enough volunteers for your event, and all participants who RSVP to volunteer receive a reminder to review the moderator guide before the assembly. On the day of the assembly, the volunteer manager assigns volunteers to be moderators and additional volunteers to be scribes.

Timekeeper

The timekeeper keeps an eye on the clock and reminds gives the moderator a heads up when the discussion is getting behind. The moderator can assign the timekeeper role to a participant at the table once they are seated. The moderator should step in if the timekeeper forgets their role.

Survey collector

The survey collector makes sure the surveys, budget delegate signup sheets, & idea collection worksheets are collected and returned to the data manager. The moderator can assign the survey collector role to a participant at the table once they are seated. The moderator should step in if the survey collector forgets their role.

Data team

The Data Manager ensures that all the data needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the assemblies is recorded and collected. The data manager should bring all the cameras and setup at the tables, then collect posters, idea worksheets, budget delegate signups and surveys at the end of the assembly.

The Volunteer Manager also helps collect data by taking pictures of the posters.

It’s important that the moderator, facilitators & survey collectors are able to perform their roles of encouraging participants to fill out surveys and budget delegate sign up sheets and the volunteer coach to remind volunteers of these responsibilities.

Media team

If possible, the team can interview participants after the event to publicize PB and demonstrate the effectiveness of the assembly.

The Volunteer coach takes pictures during the event. The Volunteer coach (or Media-interviewer) also can interview participants about their experience at the end.

The Data Manager (or Media -Camera) holds the camera during the interviews. The camera person should return the camera to the data manager or upload the files after the event.