Everyone who works on Glasgow 2024, the 2024 World Science Fiction Convention, is a volunteer, no matter what their role. Worldcons are events run by fans for fans. By August 2024, when we begin the convention, hundreds of volunteers will be working to create an event that will be enjoyed by thousands of people.
At this point, as we are confirmed as the 2024 Worldcon, the team is much smaller, but we still need help. We need your help.
Why volunteer?
Volunteering for a convention is a rewarding experience. It’s a chance to work on a large project, make new friends, and learn new skills. Conventions like Worldcon are community events, and if you’re new to the community, volunteering is a great way to meet other fans from around the world.
Volunteering is also a way to keep in closer touch with the convention: we will be sending out regular volunteer newsletters with the latest updates and ways to help. There will be rewards, too, tokens of appreciation for the work that volunteers are doing.
What kind of help is needed?
Much of our early work is about promoting the convention, and encouraging people to sign up to attend Worldcon in Glasgow. If you’re attending another convention – whether it’s in person or online, anywhere in the world – you could help at parties, by staffing a Glasgow table and by chatting to people about the convention and answering any questions. But there are other ways to help, too: distributing promotional materials, assisting with social media, as well as behind-the-scenes planning and administration.
Some of the work requires specialist skills such as IT, or financial or legal expertise. Most of it simply requires a willingness to lend a hand. Whether you’ve volunteered for conventions before, or this is your first time, there will be some way for you to contribute. Our list of available roles shows the areas we’re looking to fill at the moment, but if none of those looks right, please do get in touch with us anyway, and we’ll keep you in mind as other roles become available.
How much time does it take?
The time commitment for most of the current volunteer roles is low: a couple of hours here and there. Over the next two years, there will be more roles with a higher commitment, but you will always be able to choose what kind of task you want to do, what kind of task would best fit around your existing commitments, and how much time you can devote to it.
Joining the team now doesn’t mean that you have to continue through to 2024: you can always change your role or stop at any time. But if you do stay, you will be able to help the project grow, and perhaps develop your role in it, too.
Our approach to volunteering
We hope to build a team of volunteers with diverse backgrounds and skills, each making their own contribution to the convention. Our goal is that every volunteer should feel welcome and happy in their role, know the work they do is valued, and that they are supported by their team leaders. The Glasgow 2024 Code of Conduct reflects the positive ethos of all that we are doing, and is there for everyone throughout their time on the team.
Our Head of Member and Staff Services, Shana, together with her Volunteers Team, will be working hard to support all volunteers, and you can contact them at any time at volunteers@glasgow2024.org.
We are very conscious that our volunteers’ unpaid work is an extraordinarily generous gift, without which there would be no Worldcon. The more fans who can give some time to this project, the more the convention can achieve without too much being required of anyone.
How do I sign up?
Please email info@glasgow2024.org for details on signing up to be a volunteer with Glasgow 2024, the 2024 World Science Fiction Convention. You can also look at our list of currently available roles and see whether any of them looks right for you.