Organizers
The Organizing Team makes the campout event happen. They collaboratively plan and organize an exciting and safe campout event. We ask that Organizers commit to a minimum of one service cycle. Some Organizer roles require specific skills, such as web design or grant writing.
Team Leaders
The Team Leaders motivate, guide, and instruct a small group of volunteers to perform their assigned functions and responsibilities. We aim for all teams to have two Team Leaders. The Team Leaders are responsible for getting a job done by enabling others to do the work. Team Leaders need to be engaged before campout takes place and ideally have attended at least one past Queer Campout.
The goal of the Team Leaders are—to the extent possible—to not perform labor or tasks, but rather delegate them to the Crew Coordinator and Helpers so the Team Leaders can focus on decision-making, coaching, mentoring, and developing the team’s skills. Team Leaders work out the division of effort for each project or task with their Crew Coordinator(s).
- Coordinate and guide their team of volunteers with help from the Volunteer Coordinator
- Assess volunteer needs, coordinate in advance, and communicate expectations and shift times to their crew/helpers
- Ensure that everything related to their area is taken care of prior to and during the campout
- Are willing and able to oversee volunteers
- Attend the post-campout debrief session
- Allocate and manage resources
- Inspire their team to perform their best
- Ideally, Team Leaders have experience leading a group of people
Crew Coordinators
Folks who assist the Team Leaders during part of or the entire service cycle. Crew Coordinators work out the division of effort for each project or task with their Team Leaders. Crew Coordinators need to be engaged before campout takes place. Depending on its size and functions, a team may have more than one Crew Coordinator, and may be assigned to lead a small team; for example, the Campfire Crew under the On-Site Resources Team.
- May perform tasks themselves or train volunteers to complete them
- Helps the Team Leader update the team’s Volunteer Handbooks
- Ideally, a Crew Coordinator is familiar enough with the team’s functions and responsibilities to take on the role of Team Leaders in their absence.
- Ideally, a Crew Coordinator has previous experience volunteering at QCO.
Helpers
Helpers are folks who perform the team’s functions and tasks as assigned. Some helper roles necessitate that campers be engaged before camp takes place and others are such that campers can grab shifts when they arrive at campout or throughout the weekend.
The following teams need helpers who are engaged before Campout takes place: Activities, Camp Greeters, Disability and Access Resource Team (DART), Family Coordination, Camp Setup & Teardown Crew, & the Medic Team.
- The role of Helper is ideal for folks who are new to Queer Campout or who don’t have the interest or capacity to take on a more demanding role like Team Leader or Crew Coordinator.
- Helpers generally work in shifts:
- Some shifts require the Helper to be in their role during the entire shift (e.g., Camp Greeter).
- Some shifts require the Helper to be on-call during their shift, meaning they can be doing other things but must be available when called to perform a task (e.g., DART Helper)
- Some shifts are task-based, meaning once the task is completed, the Helper has fulfilled their duties for that shift (e.g., Trash Panda).
- You can be a Helper for multiple teams and shifts. For example, you could do a shift as Camp Greeter one day and a shift as Trash Panda the next day.
Having Helpers is critical because it allows the Organizers and Team Leaders to focus on planning and coordination, knowing they are being supported by folks who will carry out the entrusted tasks that make Queer Campout run smoothly.
