2012 Scotties: #Curling Volunteering Goes On The Road

Now that the curling season is in full swing, I can't help but look forward to my next curling volunteering gig. This season I'll be volunteer at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts (aka Canadian Women's Curling Championship) which runs from February 18-26, 2012. This will be my third Canadian Curling Association (CCA) event, and my first time volunteering at a Scotties.

This will also be the first time I've travelled to volunteer at a curling event. The 2012 Scotties are in Red Deer, Alberta.

Ok, ok, so that's not really travelling - Red Deer is only a couple hours south of where I live in Edmonton. It's far enough away though that I wont be able to come home every night. I spent some time in the summer looking for hostels etc, but my Wednesday Night Ladies skip and "curling mom" has family near Red Deer so I think I'll be staying with them. An awesome bit of luck - thanks Cathy!!

Obviously the volunteering process is a bit different when you don't live in the city where the event is held. Like at the Continental Cup last January, the CCA web team is going to let me hang out with them again (which I'm really looking forward to - is it February yet?). Because I'm volunteering for the CCA directly and not necessarily the local organizing committee, the communication has been a bit different. For the other events I've done I applied online, and got an email or phone call a few months later saying I was accepted and telling me what crew I was put on. This time I applied online and was told via twitter by the CCA web guy that I'd be working with them. The online volunteer system classifies me as an 'office volunteer'.

As a local volunteer, I then attended two volunteer rallies. One rally (held in the Fall) was to get the uniform sizes sorted out and accreditation photos taken. The other (held closer to the event) included a meal, a meeting with our volunteer crew and leader (who was in email contact with us leading up to the rally and event), and pick up of our uniform/miscellaneous other bits. I also received a volunteer shift schedule at this rally. The next step was to show up for my first shift in uniform and get to work (or watch some curling!)

Obviously I wont get to go to the volunteer rallies this time. That means I have no idea what the uniform looks like! After receiving notice of the first rally (via an emailed volunteer newsletter) I contacted the office admin person to let her know I would miss the rally because I wasn't local. As per her directions, I sent her a cheque to cover my volunteer fee (yes, we pay to volunteer, mostly it goes towards the uniform), a cheque for my parking pass and my guess of what uniform size I would be. We decided that I would just show up for the first draw the first day of the event, upon which I'm supposed to go to the 'office' to pick up my mystery uniform (which may or may not fit) and get my accreditation photo taken. And that's that. Nothing more for me to do until February I guess.

Hopefully I'll hear from the web team closer to the event for more specific directions like when/where to show up the first day. Until then, I'll just keep counting down the days until February!