On-Island Coordinator

First step in the week:

If possible, go out to the island on the early boat so you can meet with the Island Manager before the conference attendees arrive. Check on the status of the pianos (Elliott and lobby) if there are any artists who will need the use of piano/keyboard. Our conference is early in the season and the piano tuner often arrives mid-week during our conference.

When workshop leaders arrive on island:

Introduce yourself to the workshop leaders. Explain to them that they can leave you notes on the bulletin board or locate you if they have any questions. You are their point of contact to arrange things like slide projectors, chairs, water and cup delivery, etc. The best way to let the workshop leaders know who you are and what you do is to have a short meeting with all of them sometime on Saturday. This also gives the workshop leaders a chance to meet each other. This is also a good time to explain what the "workshop leaders do their thing" event is, and guesstimate as to how much time they would have at that event if they want to be involved in it. How much time each workshop leader gets at this event depends on how many workshop leaders want to be involved.

Introducing the workshop leaders to old shoalers, and having dinner at their table the first night, can help workshop leaders who are new shoalers get acclimated to the island.

Checking with workshop leaders after "tasters' choice" to make sure they had everything they needed for their workshop that first day is useful. Often workshop leaders suddenly realize something else they will need for their workshop for the rest of the week.

Sometimes workshop leaders will need something off island for their workshop. Remember: they are supposed to have brought everything they needed for their workshop--but weird things do happen. The Star iIland messenger service can pick up things in Portsmouth, but it is expensive to do this, and often takes a few days. If the workshop leader can do without the item, or if something can be figured out that will substitute on island, that is preferable. Remember, Star Island has a carpentry shop and a paint shop and sometimes all it takes is a little creativity and a talk with someone at the carpentry shop to find that lump of steel wool or other weird item a workshop leader needs.

What else to do during the week:

If there will be guest artists during the week, arrange to meet them when they arrive. If that's not possible, arrange for another committee member to meet them. If they have never been to Star, explain to them how to check in, when and where meals are, etc. Find out exactly what they will need for their performance (for example, microphone, slide projector, piano, etc.) You will introduce the guest artist to the audience before their performance, so you will need a brief bio from them.

What else?

Many workshop type events come up during the week that were not planned before the conference started. Since Arts shares the island with other conferences, it is important to coordinate these events to make sure they occur in spaces not occupied by other conference. This may necessitate working with another conference for a location swap.

When in doubt about whether or not conference services knows about an event, send in a note.

Workshop leaders do their thing:

This is an opportunity for the workshop leaders to showcase their talents. Here is an example of the hodgepodge combination of things that can occur: You can either MC the event or ask someone else to MC it. You will need to arrange anything the workshop leaders might need at this performance.
 * music by the dance workshop leaders with jokes, stories, and poems
 * music by the music workshop
 * drama workshop putting on a short skit with their leader
 * intermission to watch wairtrae jump off the dock
 * watercolor instructor and/or photographer showing slides of their work

How to set up slide projectors/chairs/etc for workshop leaders

Much of the setup is included in the schedule the conference chairs put together prior to the conferrence, and review with conference services on the first Saturday of the conference. Additional requests can be made by going to the main desk and filling out a "conference services" form for each item needed, indicating the time and location where the material will be needed.

Remember that conference services do not work in the evenings unless they know ahead of time of an upcoming event.

Recommendations made by past on-island coordinators:
 * Have one "on island workshop coordinator" for during the day. This way, as soon as dinner begins, they are done for the evening unless there is a request for the next day from a morning workshop leader.
 * Have one "on island workshop coordinator" for the evenings. They will coordinate the "workshop leaders do their thing," the bonfire, the guest artist performances, and any other evening workshop related event.
 * On island workshop coordinators should be encouraged to find volunteers to help them with things like introducing guest artists. This would lessen the work load.