Thank you for your interest in volunteering with us!
The Boston Book Festival will be in-person in Copley Square on Saturday, October 26, 2024 and we need your help to pull off the biggest book party in town! The Festival day itself is run by volunteers so they are essential to our operation. This is your chance get a peak behind the curtain and see what goes into putting on a Book Festival of this magnitude. From assisting attendees in finding their way around, to supporting author sessions, we have a spot for you. We also have upcoming needs for volunteers to help with preparation for Festival Day as well as other BBF events happening soon.
Thank you in advance for all the hard work – we LITERALLY couldn’t do it without you!
BBF is now using a Volunteer Management software called VounteerLocal. Registering to volunteer with us will create an account for you in VolunteerLocal – if you volunteered with us last year, you can simply click the “access your profile” button in the upper right hand corner of the Registration page to update your details. If you’re a first time volunteer (first off, welcome and thanks!) please complete the Registration form.
Some of the volunteer roles we need for the day are:
Morning Set-up Assistant – These volunteers will be paired up and assigned a few rooms to set up for the day’s programming.
Event Producer – This is a more involved, leadership role. The Event Producer is responsible for running the author sessions, i.e. making sure all the necessary authors arrive at your session location, get mic’d up and on stage, and that the sessions start and end on time.
Room Captain – This is a more involved, leadership role. The Room Captain is responsible for overseeing all activities in their designated room. This includes coordinating with Event Producers, interacting with the public, maintaining strong communication with the Building Captain and managing Ushers.
Usher – This is one of the volunteer roles that we need the most of! These volunteers will assist the Room Captain in assuring that incoming and outgoing audience members move around the space in an orderly fashion and that everyone finds seating.
Book Signing Assistant – This role helps the bookstore staff in forming orderly lines for attendees to purchase books and get them signed by their authors.
Survey Team – These volunteers will bop around to various locations throughout the Festival encouraging attendees to take our survey and, if needed, assist them in doing so. This role is best for an outgoing person!
Line Management Assistant – Pretty self-explanatory!
Wayfinder – This role floats around the various Festival locations to be a resource for attendees. We do our best to make sure Wayfinders are informed about the Festival or know who to ask if there are questions they’re unsure of.
Brainstorm Tent Children’s Activities Assistant – This role will assist the organizations running the programming in the Brainstorm tent. These volunteers should feel comfortable working with kids.
Costume Character – These volunteers will wear a large Cartoon Character costume. Yes, we’re talking about the ones you see at amusement parks! We are looking for folks between the height of 5’2” and 5’6” for one costume and between 5’4” and 5’5” for the other one. These volunteers should feel comfortable working with kids.
Costume Character Handler – Those costumes are quite large and somewhat difficult to navigate, so these volunteers will walk around with the volunteer in the costume to guide them and inform them of their general surroundings, etc. These volunteers should feel comfortable working with kids.
Info Booth Attendant – This volunteer will act as a resource for BBF attendees. We do our best to make sure Attendants are informed about the Festival or know who to ask if there are questions they’re unsure of.
Merchandise and Membership Attendant – These volunteers will be stationed as the BBF tent at the Outdoor Fair to sell BBF merch and help BBF donors get their thank you gift.
Volunteer Hub Assistant – This role will help the BBF Volunteer Team get all our volunteers checked in and deployed to the correct location and role for their volunteer shift.
Author Hospitality Attendant – These volunteers will check authors in and help the Event Producers collect their authors to bring them over to their session location.
If any of these roles seem of particular interest to you, or if any of these roles seem like they wouldn’t be a good fit for you, please mention that in the “Anything else we should know?” section of the Volunteer Registration.
©Boston Book Festival
