Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Last year I was a volunteer driver for the authors at the Festival of Books, appears my services are no longer needed or wanted as only non-hourly Los Angeles Times Employees are welcome to volunteer this year. A friend at Times Mirror Square forwarded the memo below to me, as I do not have access to inner office mail at the newspaper. I am saddened by this decision, but will still enjoy the festival nonetheless.

Greetings~

It’s that time of year again to start accepting volunteers to drive author escort golf carts at the Festival of Books. Many of you have already expressed an interest, so if you’re free for either Saturday, April 25 or Sunday, April 26 please email Nathan Osadchey (nathan.osadchey@latimes.com) your preferred day to drive and we will slot you in.

For those that haven’t driven before, this is one of the coolest jobs at the Festival of Books. If you love books and authors, this is an opportunity to meet some of the best authors in the country and even internationally. It’s also an opportunity to work on the inside of the largest book festival in the country and be a direct part of its success. It’s important that we only use LA Times employees for these spots, for both liability reasons and to make sure that we are representing ourselves in the best way possible to our outstanding line up of authors.

Here’s a short list of who we have so far,
Eric Carle, Chef Jeff Henderson (Food Network), Curtis Stone (TLC's Take Home Chef) Arianna Huffington, Kate DiCamillo, David Baldacci, Tori Spelling, Tom Bergeron, Cloris Leachman Danica McKellar, Marlee Matlin, Mary Higgins Clark, Michael J. Fox, Larry Wilmore (The Daily Show), T.C. Boyle, Sandra Tsing Loh, Peter Guber; Clive Barker, Bob Barker, Maureen McCormick

The details:

• The job is entirely voluntary and not related to your normal work duties


• Volunteers must be exempt (non-hourly) employees of The Times


• We ask for a one-day commitment, either 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday, April 25, or 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, April 26


• If you have not driven before we ask that you attend one of two training sessions at UCLA on either Sunday, April 19 from 2-4pm or Wednesday, April 22 from 6-8pm. The training consists of 1-hour of general training followed by a 1-hour tour of the Festival grounds.


• We provide a 6-passenger covered golf cart, a walkie-talkie radio, a staff shirt, lunch, parking, maps and instructions. We provide parking for the training session as well.


• The job entails driving authors around the festival, e.g. from the author greenroom to their panels and stages, from the panels and stages to the signing areas, from the signing areas back to the greenroom, and sometimes to and from the parking lots for the more elderly authors.


• We require that you be a good driver and are friendly and personable. This is all about catering to the authors to make sure they have the time of their lives.
  

How to sign up:

Email or call Nathan Osadchey at x76542 by Friday, March 27th. Nathan will need your extension, cell number, the day you want to drive and your shirt size. Then we will send you a logistics packet in mid April.

I hope to see you at the Festival of Books.