It’s hard to believe it’s time for volunteer signups for the 49th OC Fair Commercial Wine Competition. We have signups online this month, same as in previous years.
We try to flexible and ask the same of our volunteers. We can work together to make this another fun event. There are many areas where volunteer help is needed, stewarding, glass washing, drying and bagging a few days before the event.
Continuing the efficiency, the computer room, scoring verification and medals mailing will be assigned. A sign-up form is included on the website that identifies stewarding days, bagging nights and other work parties with times and dates. To qualify for stewarding, you are required to sign up for two additional work parties. We offer bagging, moving of wine to and from the competition site and sorting post competition.
We need your support for our work parties to run a successful competition. The good news is that we have hired help for heavy lifting. No training is necessary as newer members will be teamed with competition veterans.
Carrying trays of glasses is required if you volunteer to steward. It’s physical and can get tiring. Along with stewarding, you need to be prepared to assist your steward captain by opening wine bottles at the required time, preparing glasses for tags and cleaning up the judges’ tables as needed, while listening to your captain for direction. We are expecting to have carts this year, more than we had last year, as we found this increased our effectiveness greatly.
It is imperative that the wines are NOT opened first thing in the morning as has happened in the past. We have been asked to have as much consistency in timing for the opening of the wines per flight, so all are open as close to the same time as possible.
If you have any questions, please feel free to phone me at (562) 822-3382 or email at strompharms@earthlink.net.
We look forward to your participation in this very important event. Thank you.
—Robyn Strom, Volunteer Coordinator