Volunteer

PAWCon is 100% volunteer run and is made up of passionate individuals who are dedicated to creating a welcoming and positive experience for both volunteers and attendees. From first time recruits, to long-term Board Members, everyone plays an important role in supporting the success of this prestigious event.

Volunteers are the backbone of PAWCon, and without your interest and involvement, we simply would not exist.

Thank you for your interest in becoming a part of our crew!

Who Can Volunteer

The simple answer is Anyone over 18 years old and willing to help out. If you have a desire to help your fellow furs have a fantastic weekend, we need you on our team!
Unfortunately, we are unable accept volunteers under 18. But, please come and enjoy the convention, we will be happy to have you join our team once you’ve crested the magic number!

Volunteer Roles & Responsibilities

Volunteers will be assigned roles based on their interests, prior experience, and event needs.
Each volunteer will receive a description of their duties prior to the convention.
Common roles may include: but are not limited to:

Accessibility
Artist’s Alley
Logistics (Event setup & teardown)
Marketing
Programming
Public Outreach
Registration / Check-In
Signage
Social Media
Shopping District (Dealer’s Den)
Technical Productions
Theming
Web Design

What are the benefits of volunteering?

Volunteers receive a number of benefits for donating their precious time to make this event possible.
Including, but not limited to:

Guaranteed Access to events
Registration Comp’d ($85) (Refunded after the event)
Staff Badge, Lanyard
Volunteer Breakfast (Must work a minimum of 4 hours)

Note

If you have hours from last year we are bumping your badge from Privateer to First Mate for this year as compensation.

What are the restrictions of volunteering?

Lead appointed volunteers may only hold one position.

Note:

General Staff may choose to volunteer in multiple departments in order to obtain more hours towards their total.

I want to volunteer, how do I get started?

Simply fill out an application within PAWCon Apply, PAWCon's unified application system.

Volunteer Application

Open Lead Positions

Currently we have the following Lead Positions open, if you are interested in applying for one please email volunteer@pacanthro.org

Social media is how the convention reaches out to our attendees, both during the event and the rest of the year. The lead should, in conjunction with their second and any other members of their team, maintain the convention’s social media accounts, post periodic updates on the convention’s status and announcements, respond to reasonable concerns expressed on social media in coordination with the Board of Directors, update our attendees on news of interest during the convention itself, provide reasonable moderation to any convention-managed channels in which attendees are allowed to post (e.g. Telegram), and make recommendations to convention staff on how the convention can present its best public face.

Artists Alley Lead

Artists Alley is new to us this year. It’s a venue where artists can offer their work for sale without the structure and commitment of the Shopping District. The lead should manage the space, provide a table and a schedule for each artist who expresses an interest, allocate the available space in a fair and equitable manner if the demand for space exceeds the supply, maintain reasonable policies for the space in terms of what may or may not be displayed or offered for sale, or any other area where clear guidelines are needed; obtain the consent of each artist to those policies and enforce them, confirm with each artist that they conform to all legal requirements to offer products for sale in San Jose, and otherwise insure that the space runs smoothly.

Shopping District Lead

The Shopping District is our structured area for merchants or dealers who want to commit to the entire convention to offer their wares to our attendees. The lead is the primary point of contact for our merchants before, during, and after the convention. The lead, in conjunction with their team, communicate with merchants before the event, lay out the space available for the Shopping District, coordinate with merchants on their needs for table space, power, WiFi for payment terminals, and any other facilities the convention could reasonably be expected to provide, assign merchants to tables, insure that merchants are properly registered and paid for the event, allocate merchant space in a reasonable manner if the demand for space exceeds the supply, acquire a copy of each merchant’s California sales tax permit (or help them acquire one), assist merchants with any needs that arise during the convention, coordinate with the hotel lead to insure that anything merchants require that is within the purview of the hotel (e.g. tables and chairs) is satisfied, and otherwise insure that merchants and attendees have a smooth sales and shopping experience.

Registration Second

Registration is both where the convention says hello and where we manage the revenue that allows the convention to happen. As every attendee’s first experience of the convention, our goal is for registration to be welcoming, quick, and smooth. The lead, in conjunction with their team, will handle routine registration issues before and after the event, insure that the registration equipment is maintained and properly supplied, manage the registration space, including setup and teardown of equipment and “swag”, handle any convention funds in the registration space in coordination with the Treasurer, coordinate with the hotel lead to insure the registration space is adequately laid out and furnished, actively manage the registration process during the event, coordinate with Operations to insure that registration has sufficient volunteers to manage the expected flow of attendees, and otherwise act as necessary so that attendees have a positive registration experience that maximises their enjoyment of the event.