Convention Volunteers

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!!

Interested in helping us make this convention happen? (Oh, we sure hope so!)

Grieg Lodge will be all hands on deck in just a few months as over a hundred District 2 Sons of Norway members from around the Northwest descend on our fair city. We have many tasks that will need doing and we hope you’ll dive in and help us get them done!!

We are still fine-tuning the schedule, so some times described below may be tweaked as we go forward. The person you’re working with will clarify when they need you as we get closer to the event. Here are some of the tasks where you can pitch in:

Coffee Break Cookie Management, contact person: Marilyn Lewis

Between sessions, devouring cookies and coffee in the lobby is a much-cherished tradition of the biennial conventions, with many lodges contributing their favorite home-baked cookies! Arranging cookies and coffee and monitoring both will happen throughout the day, with both a morning and afternoon coffee break and cookies just after lunch. This will be put together by Ladies Social, so contact Marilyn to offer help with this. We could need as many as nine people if no one comes in twice, or fewer if people come in for more days. Days/times needed: Wednesday 2-3 people from about noon to 5 pm; Thursday and Friday, 2 people from about 9:45 am to about 3 pm, and Saturday, 2 people from about 9:45 to about 11 am.

Cultural Room, contact person: Alice Scherer

The Cultural Room is first and foremost an exhibition space where a competition of district lodge members will be held. In addition to the objects displayed for judging, there will be other assemblages of materials purely for attendees’ viewing pleasure. All of these items will need to be logged in, displayed, kept safe, and managed throughout the convention, then returned to their owners at the end of the week. Tasks include:

  • Handling the dropping off of people’s entries for the Cultural Competition, logging in the items, and arranging same on tables. This will require about four people to manage the flood (we hope) of material that will be coming in. Time needed, 11 am to 6 pm, Wednesday, June 1.
  • During the convention itself, the room will be open all day to allow the delegates and visitors to view both the objects submitted and whatever cultural displays we can design. One person per day to help the Convention Cultural Director would be good, or possibly two, one in the first half of the day (from 9 am to 1 pm), the other in the second half, (from 1 pm to 6 pm). That way the room can stay open if one person needs to go to the bathroom or get a bite. Or possibly one (two? three?) of those cookies?
  • At the end of the convention, people will pick up their objects, so one or two people then would be good to have on hand to help with the process. This will happen from noon to 2 pm on Saturday, June 4.

Viking Encampment Dinner, June 2nd, general contact persons: Colby Westhead and Irene McNeely.

This is a big important one. Each convention, the Host Lodge presents a Signature Dinner for the delegates and their partners, and we’ll be needing all hands on deck to pull this off! We’ll be working with Ingrid’s Scandinavian Food to supply the meal, but there’ll still be plenty of tasks for lodge members, beginning with preparing and decorating the lodge May 31-June 2.

The evening of June 2nd, there’ll be a need for people to help with checking in our guests, giving tours of our lodge, showing off our glorious library and Landhandel, and serving food and drink to the ravenous hordes. The latter task would be an especially good one for our younger lodge members and it would be really neat if someone would help arrange for the servers to be garbed in Viking-era clothing (ie., simple linen strap dresses and shifts). Anyone interested in helping make THAT a reality? For some suggestions about what Viking-era clothing might have looked like, follow the links below:

What did Vikings Wear? • Scandinavia Facts • Viking Clothing Patterns on Pinterest • Viking Age Clothing

Dinner Servers and Lodge Tour Guides, contact person: David Champion

Teen servers will be needed to help Ingrid’s Scandinavian Food serve our Viking feast and knowledgeable adults are needed to lead lodge tours. Throughout the evening, Thursday, June 2, at the Hall.

Fundraisers/Raffle Sales to defray convention expenses, contact person: Kirk Beiningen

At the April and May general meetings, Kirk could use some help selling raffle tickets to win a Hardanger piece created especially by Kristine Crompton to help offset convention expenses. The winner will be picked the last day of the Convention, you will not need to be present to win. Also in May during our Syttende Mai celebration, Kirk will also need help selling our special custom-made Lutefisk Aprons. (You KNOW you want one.)