The recording of the volunteer briefing meeting is online at https://beachspectres.com/volunteers/briefing.mp4.
Here are the key points:
- The weather forecast is for 15-18C, mostly dry but possibly with some light rain. Make sure you dress appropriately.
- We will try to start setting up before the Parkrun starts at 09:00. Our aim is to set up just north of the lifeguards' hut - if you arrive around 10, head for the big white-domed Spanish City building, walk down the ramp and past the Di Meo's kiosk, and you should see my cargo bike and the big Beach Spectres banner.
- There are free public toilets at the end of the prom and a Co-op just across the road.
- A gazebo will be delivered and set up at 10. We'll have several trestle tables, one of which will be on the prom with things to interest members of the public.
- Make sure you read the explanations of the tiling on the website so you can talk about it with members of the public. We'll have some posters showing different tilings that you can refer to.
- The process of making the tiling works by building ever large groups of tiles. That'll be coordinated by the people in the gazebo. There will be 4 or 5 teams of stampers working simultaneously. You'll be told where to go and where one of the tiles from a level-1 metatile goes, and then you'll work off the reference diagram to do the rest. You'll either support a member of the public to do it, or if it's quiet you'll do it yourself.
- We'll have a big collection of little stampers of different shapes in a tuff tray near the prom and in a cleared area of the beach. I expect kids will enjoy spending some time playing with those. We'll make sure a couple of volunteers are supervising that, to raise and answer mathematical questions about tiling.
- There are a range of freebies to hand out:
- A t-shirt for each volunteer. We've ordered sizes matching what you put in the registration form, plus a few spares in each size. When you arrive, they'll be in piles organised by size so you can just pick one.
- Rolls of stickers. Offer one to any kids who engage, and adults if they look like they'd like a sticker.
- Spectre cookie cutters. Offer one to any person/family who has either done some Spectre stamping or played with the smaller stampers.
- Ice cream tokens. Each token can be exchanged for one "standard" ice cream at Di Meo's. Offer a token to each person/family member who has done some Spectre stamping.
- We've ordered lunch for everyone who is scheduled to be volunteering each day. So there will be a lunch satisfying your dietary requirements on the day that you were given in Clare's last email. If you come on the other day, you'll have to get your own lunch.
- We'll finish at 16:00 and pack everything away, and then do a quick litter pick.
- If you're still in Whitley Bay in the evening, you're welcome to join us for tea, which will definitely be fish and chips on at least one of the days.
My mobile number is 07984404545. If anything comes up, either send a message in the Signal group or text/WhatsApp me directly.
See you at the weekend!