Tales of a Film Festival Volunteer – Episode One: The Recruitment Session

I decided to document my experiences this year as a volunteer for the Toronto International Film Festival.

So, today I went to the volunteer recruitment meeting at Roy Thompson Hall (which, BTW, is where they show the Gala films at the festival).

First was the spoken section.  Basically, they went through the guidelines and code of conduct (no asking for autographs or handing out screenplays!).  We were also told the perks about being a volunteer, most notably the fact that after each shift you get a voucher for a ticket.  That is both a good and bad thing.  It’s good because I can see films for free and it’s bad because I will only be able to see whatever’s not sold out (hopefully there will be some gems).

After a slightly lengthy description of all the volunteer positions available, we were ready to sign up for shifts.  We all got coloured cards on the way in and we signed up in waves.  Luckily, since I arrive fairly early, I was the in the second wave.

Basically, there were many tables with the available shifts on sign-up shifts.  I decided to go with the majority and sign up for a theatre shift (where all the action is).  Because new volunteers are recommended to stick with one theatre, I decided to go with the Varsity theatre (where I saw a Festival film back in 2003).  We have to sign up for a minimum of four shifts, so, keeping my school schedule in mind, I signed up for afternoon shifts on September 9, 10, & 12 and a morning shift on September 15.

And that’s all from the recruitment session.  I will post the next episode late next month when I attend the theatre training session.