The great thing about a free community sing-along is that it is exactly what the community make it. As your group grows you will find people naturally bring their talents and your volunteer base will increase.

However, we do have some very basic recommendations on what you need in terms of volunteer support to get started. We have listed them and explained why we they are important:

Core team – You need people who are going to be the fearless leader, starting and guiding the event. The ‘ideal’ number we find for the Mulberry Bush Sing-Along core team in Rochester, NY is 4 but you can certainly start with 2. They do not all need to be able to play musical instruments but they should at least be comfortable with leading the group in song.

Why is the Core Team important?

These are the key people who you will be relying on more than anyone else. At least one of these people will need to be there for each sing-along. The core team don’t all need to be willing to lead every week but you do want them to be able to cover for sickness and travel. In the early days you are going to build a community by meeting regularly and being reliable, however, life happens and the more people that you can turn to to share the load the more successful you will be.

Volunteer Helpers – You may not necessarily need to designate these people from day one but over the first few weeks you will start to populate with families and you will want some of those to be willing to help with set up and tidy up. As the Mulberry Bush Sing-Along is well established we don’t have a set number of these helpers designated throughout the year, the long time families know the drill and basically whoever shows up on a given week pitches in. However, when we transition to our winter location we do like to ask for 2 or 3 people to help in advance to make that adjustment to a new space and new routine easier.

Why are Volunteer Helpers important?

If you have ever tried to attend an event with young children you know that even with the best will in the world you can’t always predict how many free hands you will have at any given moment. So the more you have the expectation that everyone pitches in to help clear up the easier it will be handle those sticky moments when your child is having a hard time and the chairs all need reset in the space. Even if you are outdoors you might need help to unload instruments and return them to your vehicle.