Volunteer Impact

by Katie Grills, Community Relations AmeriCorps VISTA

Numbers became my adversary in middle school when algebra mounted new challenges that I couldn’t grasp as easily as words or historical analysis. I marched through college without using math much at all. It comes as a surprise to me that I’ve had so much fun calculating the straight numbers about the impact that our volunteers have had this year.

Later this summer, Theatre Action Project (TAP) will release volunteer statistics that demonstrate the impact our volunteers’ hard work has had on the organization. We’ve had a lot of fun figuring out who our average volunteer is, how many hours they work for us, how engaged they are in TAP’s larger community, and how the work they have done this year stacks up against the national average.

We’re big advocates of combining the arts with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) to create STEAM. I’m happy that we’re developing systems across the board to create a beautiful statistical painting of those who serve and are being served. Once we have all of our data collected, and if I’m feeling ambitious, I might attempt to create a TAPtastic info graphic to creatively unite art, service, and statistics.

If you’d like to join our volunteer ranks, email me at katie@theatreactionproject.org today. While we might calculate your impact on our programs, you will never feel like just another number in the system.

You’re an important fraction of our whole team. Join the TAP equation today.

Summer Pageant: Exploring How our Food Grows

by Cassie Swayze, After School Programs Associate AmeriCorps VISTA

This Saturday is our annual Summer Pageant in the Park and my second year participating in the spectacle. Exploring the idea of How Our Food Grows, we added a few new books to the Theatre Action Project (TAP) library to teach students about harvesting, planting, and exploring a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons is a straightforward approach to growing vegetables from seed to table. Gail Gibbons’ books are always educational, beautifully illustrated, and well suited for any classroom of students. Eight groups of vegetables are identified using cheerful pictures and descriptions. This book was useful to our Summer Pageant in the Park classes as they chose vegetables to create for each season that will be presented at the event. The Vegetables We Eat is a valuable educational tool for students learning about growing, harvesting, and eating healthy food.

The Reason for Seasons by Gail Gibbons provides a simple explanation of why the seasons change, how seasons are different on other sides of the globe, different types of clouds, and much more! The Reason for Seasons is more appropriate for an older group of students than The Vegetables We Eat, but its illustrations are equally colorful and engaging.

Our Summer Pageant in the Park features work from nine schools and building large-scale puppets, costumes, and masks for 180 students is no small feat! A big TAP-tastic thank you to our After-School volunteers who generously donated over 80 hours this month in the classroom preparing for this event:

• Lucie Cunningham
• Katie Davis
• Margarita Hutchinson
• Chris Ledesma
• Kat Townsend
• Susan Reifsteck
• Sweta Vakani

Join this Saturday, June 23rd for Summer Pageant in the Park at 10 a.m. Students will gather at the Sustainable Food Center Farmers’ Market Downtown to march in a grand procession of the year’s seasons, bringing all their puppets together culminating in a visual and aural spectacle. The public is invited to join the parade. The FREE family event will be followed by fun watermelon-eating and seed-spitting contests hosted by the Farmer’s Market as part of the Watermelon Festival.

P.S. I never went to summer camp growing up, but my favorite summertime memory was playing on the beach in San Diego with my sisters. We went every day all summer for twelve years!

Canvassing for Pageant Volunteers to Help with After-School

by Cassie Swayze, After School Programs Associate AmeriCorps VISTA

Theatre Action Project is currently seeking volunteers to assist Teaching Artists as they prepare for the 5th Annual Pageant in the Park on Saturday, June 23rd. This fun event focuses on the effects of the changing seasons on food harvest, native Texas farming, and the benefits of healthy eating. TAP Teaching Artists, volunteers, and students will create large-scale puppets, banners, costumes, and much more for this colorful afternoon in the park.

Here is a map of participating schools; most classes take place 12- 4 p.m., June 4-28th. Volunteers must commit to helping once a week or more at a campus. We are flexible and happy to find a schedule that works for YOU!

Contact Cassie Swayze at cassie@theatreactionproject.org or call 512-442-8773 x109 to schedule an orientation.

Forming Volunteer Systems

by Katie Grills, Community Relations VISTA

It starts with a simple phone call or email.

TAP Volunteer Annie Hsu (left) and Katie Grills, TAP' AmeriCorps VISTA (right)

I might be calling a reliable volunteer to help out with a data entry project, or I might ask a local business owner if they would like to donate a gift card to acknowledge a volunteer’s dedicated service. Sometimes that contact leads to hearing “yes, I would love to help you.” Other times I am not as lucky. I track these contacts in spreadsheets, email, and in SalesForce, our data tracking system. I log the volunteer hours, keep records of in-kind donations, and send thank you letters.

Whether I am planning a large community event like Theatre Action Project at the Zilker Park Kite Festival  or simply seeking out a volunteer to help us organize our classroom supplies, I strive to keep best practices in mind like the ones listed above.

Best practices are guidelines that employees in various fields strive to apply to their everyday business lives. As an AmeriCorps VISTA, I am attempting to form volunteer systems for that work for creative minds while keeping abreast of the standards that other successful organizations practice. Serving an arts-centered organization presents its own unique set of tracking and acknowledgement challenges. Arts administration industry standards are a great starting point, though, and it is my goal to embed these practices into the systems I am developing.

As I start into the second half of my year of service with TAP, I’m proud to say that we’re well on our way to having these systems in place.

P.S.: I am in love with fashion blogger Gabi Fresh big curls. I hope to see you at TAP’s Big Hair Country Fair on March 24th. It will be a fun night benefiting Theatre Action Project. For tickets, visit: TAP Big Hair.

Recruiting Volunteers – The Creative Process

by Katie Grills, Community Relations VISTA

Don’t you just love Google Doodles? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out this one from Valentine’s Day. While charming and a great way to celebrate Love on Valentine’s Day, I couldn’t help but look at this cute, creative device as a metaphor for recruiting volunteers.

In the world of non-profit organizations, recruiting volunteers is much like finding and wooing your perfect sweetheart. Plan one might seem absolutely brilliant. Surely it will bring in droves of committed, talented volunteers who are in love with the work you do. That witty posting that you put on every volunteer posting site imaginable will break servers because the whole city will flock to it at once! The emails you have sent out to prospective volunteers will be responded, and your inbox will overwhelm you! And don’t even think about being able to answer all of those phone calls.