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April 2006 Newsletter
ContentsCalling all Volunteers
Put your good skills, experience and enthusiasm to work by helping us plan and organize our 7th annual festival. If you would like to be a 2006 PTFF volunteer please complete the form.
We currently would like to fill the following core/leadership positions by May 31:
- Farmer's Market coordinator - Oversee booth staffing schedule, training and organization on a weekly basis Beginning in July and right up to the festival. Staff at table is responsible for answering general questions, signing up volunteers, and selling passes, memberships and raffle tickets.
- Hospitality Center manager - Oversee the set up, maintenance and clean up of the Hospitality Center site. This requires using your decorating as well as organizing skills. As manager you are also in charge of the all-important volunteers' crash room of well-stocked refreshments,
- Marketing assistant - Lend a hand to Toby Jordan, our able bodied Marketing Coordinator, and learn the promotion and publicity ropes like poster and brochure distribution, merchandise sales, festival survey creation and a creative marketing campaign for passes and advance ticket sales.
- Membership/Pass sales assistant - Work with membership chair extraordinaire Judy Ruggles on conducting our membership drives, pass and ticket sales mailings and operating our handy laminator for the distribution of passes. Requires some data entry work.
- Volunteer coordinators (2+) - The volunteer coordinators are responsible for the assigning of volunteers necessary to stage the annual Port Townsend Film Festival and other year-round Institute. This position requires close communication (email/phone) with the Operations Director, other core personnel including Theatre Managers and several hundred volunteers. Requires communication skills, an eye for details, comfort with computer databases, grace under pressure and time.
- Advance Ticket Sale Manager (new position) -- Work closely with the program director and pass and membership chair to develop and implement a system for selling individual tickets in advance of the festival.
Many other positions are available if one of these doesn't fit you.
Sponsorships
While we can't run the festival without volunteers, nor can we have a festival with out proper financing. Cash on hand enables the film festival to afford film screenings like last year's Ballets Russes and Hank Williams First Nation. When businesses and other organizations become sponsors they allow us to bring in special VIP guests like Debra Winger and Arliss Howard. In exchange we can offer our sponsors advertising opportunities like having their logo in the festival program or naming rights to a venue.
Merchants may be interested in learning that in 2005, 68.5% of festival survey respondents said they are more likely to support festival sponsors. And, of the respondents who reside outside of Jefferson County, 40% stay more than three nights. Film festival sponsorship creates long-term customer relationships and these relationships are not isolated to sales over a single weekend. (Hence the misnomer that the PTFF does not bring in sales!) Additionally, attendance continues to grow. After all we are only in our seventh year and are just now gaining a national reputation in the filmmaking community. Our 2005 visiting audience was up 12% from 2004 with increased marketing efforts. In fact, the Port Townsend Visitor's Bureau reported that all local accommodations were sold out the 2005 film festival weekend for the very first time. And we are making some additional changes this year that will make coming to Port Townsend for the festival even more attractive for out-of-towners. (91% of visitors explored local events and attractions or shopped while they were here.)
While this information is all-important, we cannot forget the simple pleasure of supporting an organization we believe in, one reflects our values and vision, benefits the community, and provides a downright enjoyable experience. It would be impossible to offer the film festival, Scribe to Screen showings, the Oscar® Night party, and special screenings like On the Waterfront without the financial support of the business community. Please consider becoming a sponsor or encourage your employer to be a sponsor. To learn more visit the PTFF Sponsorship page or call Nancy 360-379-1333.