We started with volunteers, went to a paid staff, and then returned to volunteers! We have had a better and more dedicated crew as volunteers than we ever did as a paid staff! Volunteers are not there "just for the dollar" but for the love of it.
We take a lot of steps to provide incentive for our volunteers. We do several cast parties; one closing night, one right after the attraction returns to storage, then at regular intervals. They are cool places like a GameWorks, a go-kart place, etc. We do T-shirts and other give-aways. During the run we do pizza or other food and drink. We never do it on a set day. If you always do pizza on Friday night you get kids that only show up on Fridays! We do spontaneous things like take the tear down crew out to a buffet and the premier of a new horror movie.
If you do things in a non-scheduled non-expected format it is appreciated more. It is also more useful as an incentive. “Gee you should have been here Wednesday; they brought in Arby’s for everyone!!!”
Look for unusual incentives. Rocky Point closes this year. We are taking crew members up for the Scream Break. Everyone with perfect attendance gets all expenses paid!! Free transportation, room and entry to the haunt!!
We make it FUN to be at the haunt! They can be home watching TV so we make sure they are appreciated. Just making sure to go around and thank people goes along way. Our Haunt is very “Actor Oriented”, it is designed that way. We try and give actors multiple scares. If an actor is stuck in one stagnant position and only get one repetitious scare, maybe it would be better to put an animation there!
No one system works for everyone. Some use paid staff and are extremely happy. We tried both and a volunteer staff works for us.
We take a lot of steps to provide incentive for our volunteers. We do several cast parties; one closing night, one right after the attraction returns to storage, then at regular intervals. They are cool places like a GameWorks, a go-kart place, etc. We do T-shirts and other give-aways. During the run we do pizza or other food and drink. We never do it on a set day. If you always do pizza on Friday night you get kids that only show up on Fridays! We do spontaneous things like take the tear down crew out to a buffet and the premier of a new horror movie.
If you do things in a non-scheduled non-expected format it is appreciated more. It is also more useful as an incentive. “Gee you should have been here Wednesday; they brought in Arby’s for everyone!!!”
Look for unusual incentives. Rocky Point closes this year. We are taking crew members up for the Scream Break. Everyone with perfect attendance gets all expenses paid!! Free transportation, room and entry to the haunt!!
We make it FUN to be at the haunt! They can be home watching TV so we make sure they are appreciated. Just making sure to go around and thank people goes along way. Our Haunt is very “Actor Oriented”, it is designed that way. We try and give actors multiple scares. If an actor is stuck in one stagnant position and only get one repetitious scare, maybe it would be better to put an animation there!
No one system works for everyone. Some use paid staff and are extremely happy. We tried both and a volunteer staff works for us.
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