TOPIC: Why do you Volunteer?

I was wondering about the volunteering experience!

So, if you guys don't mind:

Why do you volunteer? What position(s) have you done? Did you get to do what you wanted to do? What was awesome about it?

Well, the benefits are great, especially the free room (although I would pay some to have fewer people in said room).

Overall, I would have to say I volunteer to give back to something that has been incredibly fun and awesomesauce. I wanted to see what I could do to help, and that has broadened and improved the entire experience even more.

The people at all levels have been great to work with.

I have been a puzzle DM and a combat DM, and now I am an Adventure Coordinator, which I guess is mostly like a DM supervisor/manager.

Gen Con is my vacation so I have not (officially) volunteered.

However, I did walk into the storyscape one Wednesday to hand Eric some things he had forgotten. Jeff saw me, handed me a bag of balloons and said, "blow these up" and walked away.

The next six hours were a blur of finalizing construction of the first three dungeons in the ICC. It was quite a bit of fun even if it was completely unplanned.

Ive been a blue hand, coach, and training room coach. Have always gotten the rolls I asked for =)

I volunteer because Gencon is basically already TD con for me so adding a few shifts is a great way to be part of the fun while putting names to faces. (It also doesn't hurt that the volunteer recognition tokens are super cool too (What? I'm not addicted, I can quit anytime I want )).

Seriously though TD is something special and volunteering is a way to interact with/give back to the community.

coach for me..i did NPC once..not for me
DM one shift(they were down a DM). had fun, but I like coaching better

coaching is stressful (for some)
if you played, you have seen the coaches. if you were thinking about coaching, ask for coaches assistant first (to see if you can handle it)

as picc said the extra token(s) are great too. it is a great way to get to know the people from on here

I volunteer part-time, so no free room.

The first year we signed up because we were bored by Sunday, so why not "work" a few hours for a free badge and tokens? Now I do it because I love it, and Shelly does it because she's awesome. I was blue hand, bag check (for 5 minutes) before filling in as DM. Now I'm apprentice Grind DM.

I feel guilty taking the rewards for combat DMing; it's too fun. I honestly enjoy it more than any other non-TD event at Gencon.

It's ok to do it for the material rewards the first year or two. After that, if you wouldn't do it for free, you should find another way to spend your precious Con-time.

Free pizza.... that is why I volunteer

I volunteer because the True Dungeon crew are a really great crowd to work with.

Whether you're swapping D&D adventure stories while putting up walls, or body-rolling the crinkly rock walls flat, or racing palette jacks (um, we would never do that, srsly) or cling-wrapping someone onto a palette stack (okay, we might have done that once. maybe twice), I find the TD crew are inventive, imaginative, and great at team work.

Plus you come out of the experience with some *great* stories... like how that innocent-looking girl backstabbed the troll, to the guy who polymorphed into a shark (with tokens to let him breath and fly) in order to put the moves on bulette, to that amazing time when Wil Wheaton one-shotted the dragon.

The volunteer tokens are a really nice touch, too, for folks who are into token-collecting.

Working with great people.
Helping keep a great event alive
Getting a peek "behind the curtain"
Yes, and the TShirt and token.

I worked the XP desk and the treasure box in 13. Love watching people pull their loot. I get as excited about a good pull as they do.

Coached in 14. First day was a blur, second day was better, good to go after that. Helping newbies is fun. Shooting the breeze with veteran groups with preprinted party cards is fun. (Bless you folks with preprinted cards!)

Going full time does put a pretty good dent in your ability to do other GenCon stuff, but GenCon is pretty much down to just TD for me now.

To pass along what now fundamentally is my con experience. Love TD wanted to give back as i've gotten. I waited until i played 2 years before volunteering my 3rd (last year) part time as an assistant coach. That for me was the great because i got to play greeter and answer questions for new players. Not fond of being a full coach or DM (my rapid mental math skills leave something to be desired).

If i could reliably play TD at another con i would go full time as i enjoy working with the TD crowd. Got to put a lot of faces to names from those on the forums. Badge/t-shirt/token a great plus which serve as further mementos and to trigger memories.

Awaiting the call to see if i can be of some use this year.

I'll chime in because mine is slightly different the the rest.
I honestly joined because I heard some people complaining and I thought to my self, I could fix that by helping. I didn't like hearing people have a less than stellar time about a game I love so i did what I could to fix it.

I love coaching for several reasons- mainly to help new players get an understanding of what they may be getting into and to get them ready to have fun. I remember my first run with just a 10 pack of tokens and how good it was that the PUG i was with shared tokens and the coach was helpful. I try to do that for folks.
The shirts, the free badge, the comeraderie, and the tokens are a great perk. I love being a part of it as it is so different from my day to day and just lets me geek out. Being local I don't use the hotel room but it totally recharges my batteries to volunteer at TD- even though it is very tiring. I highly recommend it- and have my daughter volunteering this year for the first time!