<div dir="ltr">Hello all,<div>A reminder that we are now down to one week away from the <font color="#ff0000">MIT Great Glass Pumpkin Patch!</font> Below is more information for both new and returning volunteers and others who want to attend the sale.</div><div><br></div><div>This coming <b>Friday, September 30</b>, we will start getting pumpkins out of closets and bringing them to Kresge Oval to unpack and price. We like to get started by <b>8AM</b>, and it is always a flat-out sprint to get the pumpkins processed by the 5PM opening time. Any help we can get in the morning, especially early, is great. With enough volunteers, we can have people unwrapping pumpkins while others transport them and set up the supply areas. So, <b>Friday 8AM-2PM</b> is a good time to help if you have any of that time free.</div><div>The <b>preview opening will from 5-8PM</b> that day. As you know, there are no sales during the opening - it's a chance to see all the pumpkins on the tables under the lights, before they get put on the ground the following morning.</div><div>After the preview opening, there are two overnight volunteer guard shifts: 8PM-1AM, and 1AM to 6AM. I have some volunteers for the later shift, but still could use a few people who are willing to police the tent between 8PM and whenever the overnight people arrive. Please let me know if you can spend some amount of time doing this. We should have the t-shirts by Friday this year, so volunteers can distinguish themselves from others by wearing one.</div><div><br></div><div>On <b>Saturday morning at 6AM, October 1</b>, we will open up the tent and put all the pumpkins in clusters on the lawn. At the same time we will reconfigure the tables from the display rows to the sale configuration. We need all hands on deck for this stretch between 6-10AM. Around 8:30AM, or whenever the sale is set up, I will call together the volunteers and read off job assignments. Some of you are already assigned (you know who you are), and others will be assigned day-of.<b> If you know that you would like do do a certain job and have not yet contacted me, now is a good time to do that!</b> If you have not volunteered before, you will be assigned a job day-of, not to worry.</div><div><br></div><div>The main jobs at the sale, from 10AM to 3PM, are:</div><div>- pumpkin wrappers (many)</div><div>- receipt writer/price caller teams (2 in each team x 6)</div><div>- matchers (make SURE proper pumpkins go home with customers)</div><div>- runners (monitor sales area and replenish supplies)</div><div>- mailing list contact info collectors </div><div>- pumpkin police (anti-theft, anti-hoarding monitors)</div><div><br></div><div><b>It is critical that if you volunteer to work the sale in the morning, you plan to stay at your post for the first 2-3 hours of the sale. That's when we make most of our sales and we need a full team to be running on all cylinders during that period.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>The sale ends at 3PM. Things usually slow down considerably by 1:00 and we start shutting lines down and releasing some volunteers who are no longer needed. I do want, however, to be sure that we have enough people to clean up, both as the sale winds down, and after the sale is over. There's a lot to do, between packing up supplies, breaking down tables, and transporting many boxes and bales of newspaper to recycling behind the student center. So, if you can, please plan to stay until we are cleaned up - things will go much faster if we have a bunch of people. <b>If the only time you are free all weekend is Saturday afternoon between 3 and 4PM, we can use your help with cleanup!!!</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>As of now, the long-term weather forecast looks OK. There may be some rain on Thursday, but the weekend looks to be clearing up. Of course, we'll know more as the weekend approaches. If things look iffy, I will be in touch, and in the unfortunate event of bad weather, I will make a call about whether the sale gets moved to Sunday. Hopefully, it will not come to that.</div><div><br></div><div><b>PARKING: </b>Once again, West Garage will be available to volunteers.</div><div><br></div><div>OK, I think that's it. Thank you very much for volunteering. If you have not yet volunteered, it's not too late. If you have any questions, please contact me directly.</div><div><br></div><div>See you soon,</div><div>Peter</div><div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Peter Houk<br>Director, Glass Lab<br>Department of Materials Science and Engineering<br>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</div>
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