[Glass-mit] MIT Great Glass Pumpkin Patch reminder

[Peter Houk]

Hello all,
A reminder that we are now down to one week away from the MIT Great Glass
Pumpkin Patch! Below is more information for both new and returning
volunteers and others who want to attend the sale.

This coming *Friday, September 30*, we will start getting pumpkins out of
closets and bringing them to Kresge Oval to unpack and price. We like to
get started by *8AM*, 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, *Friday 8AM-2PM* is a good time to help if you have any
of that time free.
The *preview opening will from 5-8PM* 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.
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.

On *Saturday morning at 6AM, October 1*, 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.* 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!* If you have not volunteered before, you will be assigned a job
day-of, not to worry.

The main jobs at the sale, from 10AM to 3PM, are:
- pumpkin wrappers (many)
- receipt writer/price caller teams (2 in each team x 6)
- matchers (make SURE proper pumpkins go home with customers)
- runners (monitor sales area and replenish supplies)
- mailing list contact info collectors
- pumpkin police (anti-theft, anti-hoarding monitors)

*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.*

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. *If the only time you are free
all weekend is Saturday afternoon between 3 and 4PM, we can use your help
with cleanup!!!*

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.

*PARKING: *Once again, West Garage will be available to volunteers.

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.

See you soon,
Peter


-- 
Peter Houk
Director, Glass Lab
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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