How does Volunteering at Conventions work?

[Sailor Vulcan]

Hi. I'm an Arcane Wonders Ambassador, and I have a couple questions:
1. If I want to volunteer with the Arcane Wonders booth at Origins, would I still have to pay for my badge, or would it be free? Or is there a discount?
2. How do I apply to volunteer with Arcane Wonders at a specific convention or other event? How does all that work?

Also, is Arcane Wonders still hosting official tournaments? I can't find the tournament schedule on the website anymore.


The reason I'm asking about this is because:

1. Besides sharkbait, I'm probably the only competitive mage wars player in the entire Columbus Ohio area.

2. Since sharkbait isn't available to help build the local mage wars community here, it's on me to do it, and volunteering at origins might be a good way to promote mage wars locally since it's in Columbus where I live.

3. If I'm remembering correctly, last year the origins mage wars tournament was fan-run rather than being hosted by Arcane Wonders. This meant that we could participate in it without needing to buy event tickets to enter the event.

4. In conventions, I usually want to spend most of my time on mage wars, and only a smaller amount of time on other games.

5. If volunteering with Arcane Wonders means that my badge is free or at least cheaper, then it will make it much MUCH easier for me to go to both origins and gen con in the same year.

6. Paying $60-70 to be able to enter the gaming hall where I will likely do nothing but play a game that I already own with people who I could easily play with outside of that hall...it seems like it's hard to justify doing that every year, especially if I also want to go to gen con too sometimes. The reason I still do it is because I rarely if ever get to play mage wars arena with anyone in person outside of conventions, and I very rarely get to play mage wars academy in person outside of conventions either.

If there were any way that I could go to origins and participate in a non-official mage wars tournament without having to pay $60-70 just to enter the room it takes place in, then that would be really great.

Thanks!

[wtcannonjr]

I believe that Tony was revising the Ambassador program for AW but, I have not seen the details of how the new program will work.

I can speak for the tournament that I run at the World Boardgaming Championships each year. I pay may own entry fee and room as well as some of the sponsor fee to run the tournament. Any volunteers that support my event are paying there own way as well. However, I handle all the paperwork and reporting requirements so volunteers get to support the demo sessions and play in the tournament itself. AW provides additional prize support above the first place wooden plaque provided by the convention.

If anyone wants to volunteer to help me with the WBC Mage Wars Arena tournament, just drop me a personal mail on this forum or geekmail on BGG. The convention runs July 21 - 29 in Seven Springs Resort, PA with tournament days planned for Thursday, July 26 and Saturday, July 28, 2018.

See you in the Arena! - Tom