The Bridge. I want to thank each and every one of you for your time and dedication to the center. You really do Make A World of Difference.

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1 The Bridge May 2017 INSIDE THIS ISSUE What s New..2 Save The Date....2 Rock Odyssey is in full swing! Our halls are full of a different kind of excitement this month. From the sheer elation that every 5th grade child in Miami-Dade County exudes as they experience live theatre, some for the very first time, to the proud parents and grandparents doting on the accomplishments of their high school graduates. If you haven t had the opportunity to help at a Rock Odyssey, I encourage you to try it out if you can. Seeing the smile on the faces of the children as they are mesmerized by the Rock Odyssey stage is more rewarding that you can imagine. I want to thank each and every one of you for your time and dedication to the center. You really do Make A World of Difference. - Nicole ArtsLaunch....2 Upcoming Trainings...3 Opera Challenge Winners...3 Rock Odyssey...4 Graduations...4 Vol Calendar Clarifications.5 Report Times..6 A Star Among Us!...7 SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST May/June Parking Passes From The Advisory Board Volunteer Pins Volunteer Snacks Uniform Pricing List Running from Eugene!

2 WHAT S NEW WHAT S COMING NEW PARKING PASS PROCEDURES In order to give our volunteers better customer service, we have implemented a system to be able to contact you if necessary (ex. Lights left on in car) should a need arise in the parking lot. With that being said, if your temporary parking pass has expired, please provide the following information. Once you get back to us, we will issue you a new temporary parking pass. If you have received this and you have made over 72 actual hours, please let us know and we will get you a permanent pass. SAVE THE DATE! OCTOBER 2, 2017 As the season winds down, it s time to start thinking about the Annual Dinner! If you volunteer for at least 72 hours this season (not including bonus hours), you will receive an invite to the annual volunteer dinner. Can anyone guess where it will be held this year? Location to be announced in the next newsletter! ARTSLAUNCH 2017 SEPTEMBER 9TH Name: Tag Number: Car Make: Car Model Color: Year: ArtsLaunch is around the corner! Save the date on your calendar. This spectacular kick-off to the arts season is something you don t want to miss. We had hundreds of guests visit our campus for the first time and were dazzled by the experience. It is expected to be much bigger this year and we are going to need all the help we can get! You can help at the volunteer table, give abridged tours, help out with workshops, help subscribers select their seats for the season and much more. Afterwards, you can join in the festivities for food tastings and free giveaways! You don t want to miss it. You will be able to sign up for this event on August 1st so mark your calendars and get ready 2 for a fun-filled day!

3 UPCOMING TRAININGS A NOTE FROM THE ADVISORY BOARD Sensitivity, Diversity and Inclusion Training: In efforts to improve the sign up rate for the opera, we created a contest that didn t seem to really encourage opera sign ups on a large scale. We only hit our goal of a fully staffed show once this season. We as your Advisory Team would like to hear from you on how we can improve attendance. We are open to all suggestions as we have exhausted all other ideas! We would like your feedback! 1. Have you ever worked an opera? 2. If no, why not? In our ongoing efforts to provide our guests with an outstanding experience at the Arsht Center all new volunteers need to participate our Arsht Center sensitivity course. Please see the dates below and sign up online to reserve your spot. Date Time Scheduled Performances May 22 6p 7p none May 24 12:30p 1:30p After Rock Odyssey May 24 6p 7p none May 25 2p 3p After Rock Odyssey May 26 2p 3p After Rock Odyssey Docent / Docent Training: If you are interested in joining our Docent/Docent Assistant team, please us at volunteers@arshtcenter.org. If we have enough interest, we will look to schedule a date. 3. What would entice you to sign up for the opera besides incentive hours? 4. Have you worked one or more operas? 5. What about working for the opera do you like? 6. What don t you like about working the opera? 7. Any other comments? Talk with us! CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR OPERA CHALLENGE WINNERS! The challenge: Anyone who volunteers for a minimum of 10 shows will be entered into a drawing for a Grand Prize of a $150 gift card and several secondary prizes of Select My Position certificates and incentive hours. Congratulations to our winners! Grand Prize! Ramon Suero The Advisory Team members are: Sondra, Angela, Jonathan S, Sara, Ramon and Mary. 2nd Place Winners with 10 incentive hours each Rubdys Santiago Angela Chin-Tai Enid Hernandez See you in the clubhouse! 3rd Place Winners with Choose My Position certificates Dagmar Gomez Hannah Wilson 3

4 VOLUNTEER PINS Please remember that as the approved uniform allows for only one pin on each shirt collar. In order to remain uniform, please do not wear your pins on the vests or elsewhere on the Arsht Uniform (even if you own your vest). Also, as Rock Odyssey rounds the corner, you will see more new ushers wearing this pin. Be sure to welcome them and take Rock Odyssey is now on the calendar for everyone to sign up for. If you love the arts AND love working with children, this is just the event for you! Rock Odyssey is a theatrical rock opera style show to educate students on the Homer classic that chronicles Odysseus epic journey. Each year, we invite every fifth-grader in Miami-Dade County to share this experience at the Arsht Center, and it is heartwarming to see their faces since for many of the students, this is their first exposure to a live theatre experience. The performances will take place from May 15th - May 26th. Each shift is from 8:30am (the call time) until about 1:30p when the kids return to the buses. Two performances are completed in one shift (with the exception of Wednesdays where it is only one shift). You can sign up to be a bus wrangler (directing kids off the buses and into the KCH theatre) or you can sign up to usher the show to guide and direct students to their seats. After you register, if there is a position that you prefer over the other, please send us an so we can notate your account for the House Managers. They will do their best to accommodate. them under your wing! If you need somewhere to display your plethora of pins, we are more than happy to supply with you an Arsht Volunteer hat to display your badges of honor. Please be aware that if more than one pin is displayed on each collar, it will be noted on your GRADUATIONS account as out of uniform & will count as one of your 3 infractions for the month towards bonus hours. Thank you for your cooperation. GRADUATIONS This is your chance to be a part of something special! Volunteering for graduations can give you an amazing sense of fulfillment as you hear the challenges that students had to overcome to earn their degrees and listen to the Valedictorians encourage their fellow students. Graduations are approximately 4-5 hour shifts and a great way for the newest volunteers to gain hours since the season is beginning to wind down. 4

5 VOLUNTEER SNACKS VOLUNTEER CALENDAR CLARIFICATION CANCELLED ADVANCED VS CANCELLED ASSIGNMENT Every Tuesday two angels (who prefer to remain nameless) come in to create the snack trays, organize the uniforms and arrange the clubhouses. They spend no less than 4 hours per week doing just that. They put a lot of time and effort into making sure that each tray has just a little bit of everything for each shift, and that we have enough to last the entire week. Each tray is prepared in such a way that each volunteer working can get two snacks per shift. Please keep this in mind as lately people have been taking extra snacks! Remember, the more snacks you take, you are taking away from someone else. Also, please keep in mind that when the refrigerators are stocked on Tuesday, the drinks, hummus, carrots etc. are meant to last the entire week (through Sunday). We are asking each person to please remember your fellow volunteer and be sure to only take what you need and leave the rest for the volunteers working the shifts after you. This way we all benefit. Thank you for your cooperation! 5 When viewing your Schedule History tab in the online volunteer room, you may see Cancelled Advanced or Cancelled Assignment Cancelled Advanced: This means that you signed up for a show and cancelled. It counts towards the three cancellations that you are allowed to have per month. Cancelled Assignment: This means that either the event was cancelled by the Arsht Center OR you were able to find someone to replace you for your cancellation. These DO NOT count towards your cancellations for the month. Ex:If you have 5 cancellations in a month: 3 cancelled assignments and 2 cancelled advance, you are still eligible for bonus hours. If you still have questions, please us at volunteers@arshtcenter.org or ask a Advisory Team Member for further explanation. WHICH UNIFORM DO I WEAR? Sometimes when you receive your confirmation, it will state Standard Usher Uniform unless otherwise noted. It is important to pay attention to the unless otherwise noted. If your confirmation has this verbiage, the noted will display on the calendar in the description. Lately more and more people are disregarding this and showing up in the incorrect uniform. We are working with our IT department to try to make the messaging more clear, but until then, if you have any question about the uniform, please double check the description section of the website and it will indicate what the correct dress code should be.* Thank you in advance for your cooperation. *The only exception to this is if you are bus wrangling for an education event which will always be the Red Arsht Volunteer Shirt and jeans.

6 UNIFORM PRICING LIST! As the season continues, should you decide to purchase any part of your uniform please see the pricing below. Send us an with what you would like and I will have them waiting for you or you can schedule a time to come in to the office to pick up your uniform pieces. White Shirts: $15.00 Women s Vests: (XS XL) $22.50 Women s Vests: (sxl 3XL) $24.75 Men s Vests: (S XL) $22.50 Men s Vests: (2XL 4XL) $24.75 Ascot: $6.25 Tie: $7.25 VOLUNTEER REPORT TIME One of the most important parts of volunteering as an Usher is the Volunteer Report time. It can be anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours prior depending upon the assignment/ performance. For any general performance, (CST/ KCH/ZBOH) your report time is 1.5 hours prior to show time, but you may wonder WHY?. Hopefully, this gives you a little insight. There is so much that happens in preparation of a show to ensure the best guest service possible. Volunteers receive the general briefing and their assignments from the House Manager. Next, the Volunteer is briefed by their Tier Leader on the specifics of their assigned tier. This may include pre-show checks of restrooms, water fountains, monitors, seat removals, as well as emergency evacuation drills. All of this needs to happen and everyone in position when the upper lobby opens 60 minutes prior to curtain. Those in the lobby and the lower tiers normally feel the immediate affects as they tend to be the first people that guests interact with. However, being show ready means being ready to welcome guests on all levels without regard to when a guest may first reach your tier. Below are the briefing times for general performances, Resident Company shows and extra events. Occasionally a briefing time will change and we will do our best to communicate that to you in advance. If you have any questions, please feel free us or a House Manager. We will be glad to answer any questions you may have. General Performances 1.5 hours Florida Grand Opera 2 hrs due to pre-concert lectures Miami City Ballet* 2 hrs due to pre-concert lectures Flashlight: First one $5 After 1st one: $10 Batteries: $.50 each Flashlight Batteries TCO (The Cleveland Orchestra) 2 hrs due to pre-concert lectures Classical Music Series 2 hrs due to pre-concert lectures Extra Events varies due to the needs of the event *This excludes The Nutcracker and the opening night of each program series. Those remain 1.5 hours 6

7 RUNNING FROM EUGENE TAKE A CLOSER LOOK! We have a celebrity among us! I am sure that lately you If you have an opportunity to volunteer for Rock Odyssey, make sure you look closely. The lovely daughter of one of our volunteer couples, Paul and Ela Gorwky, has landed a starring role! Jessica will be a member of this year s two week run playing the role of Circe. Be sure to check out her vivacious vocals and congratulate Paul and Ela on a job well done! have noticed Eugene taking pictures out the wazoo! This was at my special request. Since I cannot be at every briefing, I asked him to try to capture at least one picture of everyone. I would like everyone to be included in the end of the year picture slide show. So, Proud Parents Paul and Ela Gorwky when you see Eugene coming with the camera Don t Run! Give him a huge smile and best model pose especially if he hasn t taken your picture yet this season! Thank you Eugene for all of your help!! 7