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TAMbassadors Call

AdMan said:
While I see your point, to be honest I think the vast majority of those who ended up with a distorted view of us (and the other TAM volunteers) as some kind of "plainclothes security" weren't actually there. I think many who were there did see the TAMbassadors as a positive thing, based on my experience.

I would be happy to volunteer again, assuming the JREF still likes the idea.
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I didn't know you guys were squealers until after TAM was over.
 
Please don't let poorly researched Internet posts by people who (by and large) were not present at TAM dissuade you from the contribution you want to make.
 
krelnik said:
Please don't let poorly researched Internet posts by people who (by and large) were not present at TAM dissuade you from the contribution you want to make.
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And by "poorly researched", you mean "not researched at all".

I had fun last year following the twitter feed about all the problems at the conference, posted by people who I know for a fact weren't even there.
 
AdMan said:
While I see your point, to be honest I think the vast majority of those who ended up with a distorted view of us (and the other TAM volunteers) as some kind of "plainclothes security" weren't actually there. I think many who were there did see the TAMbassadors as a positive thing, based on my experience.
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So . . . if I were to be a TAMbassador, does this mean I wouldn't be required to use a fake German accent and question everyone's motives?

<sigh> nevermind, then
 
Not required, dasmiller, but totally fine by me.

I don't want to derail the thread, but they took a picture of the group and the end of TAM. Does anyone know what happened to it?
 
I'll give it another shot.

[table=head]Name|Days Attending|Experience|Comments
Bumlet5|Tues-Mon|6,8,9,10
[/table]

Do we want to stick with the big, bright orange buttons or get different ones?
 
bumlet5 said:
I'll give it another shot.
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Yaay!! Rumor mongers aren't gonna win!

[table=head]Name|Days Attending|Experience|Comments
Bumlet5|Tues-Mon|6,8,9,10
Wowbagger|Thurs-Sun?|3,4,5,5.5,6,7,8,9,10,L10
[/table]

bumlet5 said:
Do we want to stick with the big, bright orange buttons or get different ones?
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If we stick with the same buttons, I can reuse mine from last year, and I am pretty sure others could do the same.
 
Just to step back a bit, the reason we had TAMbassadors was because it seemed, at one point, that there weren't going to be any volunteers helping run TAM, and people wanted to help.

Now, I'm certainly not saying it was a bad idea, nor that we shouldn't have both TAMbassadors and volunteers, but I'm just wondering if we should take this opportunity to establish what we want the TAMbassador role to be, and if it should be separate from the volunteers or not. The main difference in practice last year was that volunteers had some scheduled duties (mainly helping with registration or manning the doors for events), and TAMbassadors didn't; both (overlapping) groups were also available to help with questions from attendees, and were asked to look out for any harassment problems.

Personally, I don't have any problem with it; I was a volunteer as well, and the TAMbassador button was a way of indicating my willingness to help without having to wear the same T-shirt for 4 days. However, some people may have been concerned at the 'secret police' side of things; not necessarily what they were asked to do (which I thought totally reasonable), but at what some people thought they were doing (if that's not too convoluted).

Of course, I don't think we know yet if volunteers will be needed this year. I'll be signing up for both, if possible.

Thoughts?
 
I was a TAMbassador and I didn't even realize that we were looked at askance. Now, I'm not deeply in the blogoloop, but I think this demonstrates that the job had value without being too weird.

~~ Paul
 
[table=head]Name|Days Attending|Experience|Can Reuse Button|Comments
Bumlet5|Tues-Mon|6,8,9,10
Paul C. Anagnostopoulos|Wed--Mon|all except 5.5|yes
Wowbagger|Thurs-Sun?|3,4,5,5.5,6,7,8,9,10,L10|Yes
[/table]
 
zooterkin said:
I'm just wondering if we should take this opportunity to establish what we want the TAMbassador role to be, and if it should be separate from the volunteers or not. The main difference in practice last year was that volunteers had some scheduled duties (mainly helping with registration or manning the doors for events), and TAMbassadors didn't; both (overlapping) groups were also available to help with questions from attendees, and were asked to look out for any harassment problems.
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I think you have the gist of it: A TAMbassador is willing to be asked questions from newbies. A volunteer is willing to accept certain scheduled tasks. One can be both, but one can choose one or the other. Or neither.

Some volunteers might not like being "hounded on" for questions, and so won't wear a TAMbassador badge.

TAMbassadors might enjoy answering questions, and will wear the badge, but won't want to volunteer for specific scheduled tasks, and thus won't do so.

We were not asked to "look out" for any harassment problems. But, rather to report any problems to the proper authorities if we happen to witness any. This, I imagine, is what a normal, non-TAMbassador would do, anyway. The only real difference is that we had some extra phone numbers handy.
We were not authorized to do jacksquat besides that.
 
Wowbagger said:
We were not asked to "look out" for any harassment problems. But, rather to report any problems to the proper authorities if we happen to witness any. This, I imagine, is what a normal, non-TAMbassador would do, anyway. The only real difference is that we had some extra phone numbers handy.
We were not authorized to do jacksquat besides that.
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Which is a perfectly reasonable thing to be doing. So of course it got blown out of proportion by the usual windbags.
 
[table=head]Name|Days Attending|Experience|Can Reuse Button|Comments
BrianEngler|Tues-Mon|6,7,8,9,10|yes|
Bumlet5|Tues-Mon|6,8,9,10
Paul C. Anagnostopoulos|Wed--Mon|all except 5.5|yes
Wowbagger|Thurs-Sun?|3,4,5,5.5,6,7,8,9,10,L10|Yes
[/table]
 
Wowbagger said:
I asked that very same question to a bunch of folks who would supposedly know about that. Never got much of an answer. Weird.
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Wondered this myself. Just asked Ingrid Laas (the official TAM photographer who, as I recall, took this pic) if she can share. I'll let you know if I find out anything.
 
[table=head]Name|Days Attending|Experience|Can Reuse Button|Comments
BrianEngler|Tues-Mon|6,7,8,9,10|yes|
Bumlet5|Tues-Mon|6,8,9,10
Paul C. Anagnostopoulos|Wed--Mon|all U.S. except 5.5|yes|Scrut'inized
Wowbagger|Thurs-Sun?|3,4,5,5.5,6,7,8,9,10,L10|Yes
[/table]
 
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