Volunteer FAQ

Welcome to Arisia staff!

Whether you've been on staff for many years, or you're new this year, this is a handy reminder page for vital Arisia information

New to staff? Do these things first: Sign up for Staff Announce List. This is the most important list we have for communicating the critical information staff needs to know. Everyone is expected to subscribe to the Staff-Announce list. Optionally also sign up for Staff Discussion List. This is occasionally high volume and argumentative, but you may find some interesting content there. Click here to request an account on the staff wiki (Account activation is done by a human, so there may be a slight delay. If you don't hear anything in a day or two, send mail to If you want to participate in programming brainstorming, make an account on the Arisia forums. Email forums@arisia.org for posting privileges to brainstorm list. Find out the staff email lists for your area, and ask your area head or division head to request a list update so that you are subscribed to them. Put the concomm meetings on your calendar. You can find them on Arisia's Calendar page: http://corp.arisia.org/calendar Take a look at the Divs & Areas section of the Wiki and see what information is available. If there is not information there, ask your division head or staffservices@arisia.org to help you with a job description (and please consider it updating it as you get familiar with your position). Read the debrief reports from the past couple of years for your area.

Arisia Email and Mailing Lists

• When sending and receiving Arisia email, please use the area's email address, not a personal address.
  • For more information about dealing with email within Arisia, please see: How-To_Email
• Staff-Discuss vs Staff-Announce (what’s the difference)
  • staff-discuss is a discussion list. staff-announce is low traffic and announce-only.
  • Mail sent to staff-announce will be held for moderation.
  • To subscribe go to:

http://mailman.arisia.org/mailman/listinfo/staff-announce Staff Announce (required)
http://mailman.arisia.org/mailman/listinfo/staff-discuss Staff Discuss (optional)

Some other internal mailing lists:

• area-heads@arisia.org
• div-heads@arisia.org
• con-chair@arisia.org (if you have a question you want to escalate)
• keys@arisia.org (email list of people with keys to Arisia Storage, useful if you need access to storage and don’t have a key).

• If you are sending official email as a representative of an Area, you should setup your email so you can send using your Area’s email address (and CC it when sending). Please see How-To_Email for details.

• postmaster@arisia.org if you have a question about email addresses, want to be added to an alias, or have problems with a mailman list.

• For a full list of email addresses see: Email_Lists

Arisia Online Resources

• Staff Wiki
  • The URL is http://staff.arisia.org (you're looking at it)
  • What can you do with the Wiki?
    • Find info (Look to the menu on the left for:)
      • Debrief Reports from previous years
      • Org Chart
      • Hotel info
      • Deadlines
      • Info about your area
      • ...
    • Add stuff to the Wiki - How-To_Wiki

• Request an account on the staff wiki
  • Account activation is done by a human, so there may be a slight delay. If you don't hear anything in a day or two, send mail to wiki@arisia.org
  • For basic wiki rules and how to's see Rules of the Road

• Staff Forums
  • http://forums.arisia.org
  • What can you do with the site?
  • How to use Arisia's Forums - How-To_Forums
  • After you create an account on the Forums, please send mail to forums@arisia.org with your full name, account name, and where you're working and we'll give you access to Staff forums.
• Please use similar usernames for the Wiki and Forums.

• Arisia Calendar
  • URL is http://corp.arisia.org/calendar
  • If you use Google Calendar, the page above has info on adding it to your own calendar.
  • Directions to the usual meeting locations can be found at: http://corp.arisia.org/directions

* Congo is Arisia’s Registration system.

• • Public interface (to buy a membership): http://arisia.stonekeep.com
  • If you need to access the data, contact your Div Head.

• Zambia is Arisia’s Scheduling application.
  • http://zambia.arisia.org/ (the 2016 site is still up, at http://zambia.2016.arisia.org/ The 2017 site is not quite up)
  • For an introduction on how to use Zambia - How-To_Zambia

• Slack is a chat program used by Arisia staff.
  • To request an account on the Arisia Staff team Slack, either for yourself or someone in your department, e-mail slack@arisia.org and include the e-mail address you want associated with that account
  • https://slack.com/ for more information about Slack

• IRC is a chat program used by Arisia staff.
  • Server: irc.arisia.org - #arisia
  • If you need a IRC program, see: IRC_Information

Other online resources

• Facebook
  • Official Facebook page:
    • https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arisia-Inc/54433916579
  • Unofficial Facebook group:
    • https://www.facebook.com/groups/33776684597/
• LiveJournal: arisia.livejournal.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/arisia
• Conrunner.net has lots of information about running cons (but some of their advice may not apply to Arisia).

Arisia Corporate:

• The convention is governed by Arisia's Bylaws and Policies.
  • Bylaws: http://corp.arisia.org/bylaws
  • Policies: http://corp.arisia.org/policies
• Joining - Come to a meeting and see what it's about.

Other Stuff:

• Giving Comps to Minions - Reg and Corporate Policies
• Time sheets
  • Even 1 hour of volunteering at Arisia 2013 can get you cool stuff like an Arisia water bottle or a free book!
  • 8 hours of volunteering gets you a free T-shirt.
  • 12 hours of volunteering gets you a free membership to next year’s Arisia.
  • Please fill out a timesheet, even if you're a Div Head
    • Time Sheets:( PDF)
• Timeline?
• Deadlines?

Relaxacon: http://relaxacon.org/

• Arisia's annual weekend get-away on Cape Cod (usually the weekend after Memorial Day)