VolunteerSpotlight | Park Square Theatre, Saint Paul, MN
Please tell us about your organization and your volunteer needs.
Park Square Theatre in downtown Saint Paul, MN is one of Minnesota’s largest non-profit producing theatres. We inspire one of the nation’s largest teenage theatre audiences (nearly 40,000 strong from all over Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and North Dakota). Now with two stages and more than 400 performances, our volunteer ushering needs grew from about 600 slots per season to over 1,500!
Explain how you use VolunteerSpot to coordinate these volunteers.
VolunteerSpot has been a lifesaver! Our old system required staff to manually enter all the shifts in the system and manually confirm and make changes. It was more than we could keep up with!! We just load the entire performance schedule in VolunteerSpot and the automatic reminders send out – it’s great!
Why did you decide to use VolunteerSpot?
I used VolunteerSpot as a volunteer at my church, which gave me the idea to use it to organize my Rotary Club meeting volunteers. When I learned about Park Square’s clunky system, I switched us immediately!
What’s one piece of advice you have for volunteers or their leaders out there?
Volunteers want the best for you, but you need to stay on top of communication. Getting the basics taken care of with VolunteerSpot allows you more energy for things like volunteer awards, spontaneous prize drawings and other perks that will keep them coming back. You should also keep an eye out for the stars in your volunteer pool who might have leadership skills to take more initiative.
What else would you like our readers to know about your organization or volunteering?
Park Square Theatre built its new two-stage facility in order to increase diversity on all levels – a wider range of stories and artists to give different experiences. We are one of the top theatre employers in Minnesota and we put more women and artists of color on stage more than any other Minnesota theatre.
We salute C. Michael-jon and all the other volunteers making a difference in their communities. Check out how VolunteerSpot’s Volunteer Software can save you time and stress and boost parent involvement in your school. Take a tour today!
