IU Indianapolis will host its first Regatta post-IUPUI split on Sept. 28, and as the season of sign-ups nears its end, the student involvement committee encourages students to pitch in.
Many students know of the Regatta, but what the volunteer committee needs more than anything is for students to know there are more ways to get involved than just attending the event.
Reece Davis, the Coordinator of Volunteers, said, “The plan this year was to have the volunteers do, before actually getting there, as little as possible,” so instead, they developed a plan to gather as many students they could.
Although the deadline to sign up is quickly approaching, Davis said the event itself happens because of the eager volunteers who come back year after year to keep the canoes rowing.
“I feel like it [Regatta] runs because of volunteers,” Davis said. “We are super appreciative of all the volunteers who sign up.”
A past volunteer himself, Davis said event turnout compared to initial sign-ups has been an unpredictable challenge to account for.
“I know last year when I volunteered, for the practice day we had like 10 people,” Davis said, “but so far this year–just for sign-ups–we have at least 30 to 40 people for the volunteers.”
In light of the promising number of volunteers already signed up, Ransome Adeyeye, Director of Volunteers, said the committee adjusted its deadline to accommodate for uncertainty amongst volunteers.
“We also extended the deadline to volunteer to the day before the race. So, that way, people are able to volunteer up to the last minute,” said Adeyeye.
Davis agreed, recognizing that life gets in the way sometimes and “there’s always gonna be less people that show up for conflicting reasons.”
From the official Regatta website, this extended deadline allows students to sign up for volunteering until Friday, Sept. 27, the day before the event.
Adeyeye noted the information overload that can be intimidating to students who would like to volunteer, so he and Davis found a solution to hopefully eliminate that stress.
“We definitely are thinking of ways to make the process of volunteering less strenuous on the students,” Adeyeye said, “so we are thinking of making a Canvas page that way we can send announcements and people will see it as if it was a notification from your class.”
Additional contact information for both Adeyeye and Davis can be found within the volunteer sign-up link on the Regatta website.
Along with a less stressful process, the volunteer committee has an extensive list of areas for the students to help. The director and coordinator said these range from working with the sign-in crew, assisting judges and the people recording the times, and even directing people to-and-from. Davis identified a last resort for potential volunteers to consider is the task of judging, which he acknowledged is a relatively unusual volunteer assignment, but is still a very necessary option to fulfill.
However, the greatest request the council has voiced for the volunteers is to simply be flexible.
“Me, Ransome and all the other committee members are all gonna have to stay put for our certain areas, so we can use volunteers as the go-between, like sending people wherever they need help,” said Davis. “I know a lot of them are gonna be directing people in the Military Park area with the student organizations.”
Despite the plans already in motion, Adeyeye said the tasks for each specific volunteer are still up in the air, and will more than likely be assigned after the practice day.
Additional days, such as the practice and set-up days, are expected to be important for the volunteers' attendance. Set-up day will be on Friday, Sept. 27.
“We have the practice day, which is going to be insanely helpful in getting as many volunteers as we can get,” Davis said. “Also, people that are repeat volunteers for the practice and set-up days [are beneficial] because they will understand more of how it all works because a lot of the volunteers are freshmen. We are looking for more people on [set-up day] who will be helping set up tents, set up games, kinda just everything to set up the park.”
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