Spring seeks to create a safe and comfortable environment for attendees to have fun, see old friends and make new ones.  Spring is dedicated to helping people make genuine and lasting interpersonal connections, and to helping tap our innate creativity and talents for exciting projects either collaborative or personal.  Spring wants to create a week-long community that can last all year.

Spring 2008 Staff Application | Spring 2007 Feedback Questionnaire

From time to time we field questions about how the staffing and organization for Spring works.  How can a conferee initiate a personalized workshop or project at Spring?  Who is on Staff?  How can a conferee become a Staff member? 

We are more than happy to explain this simple process.

Spring is mainly a do-it-yourself conference, where any conferee is welcome to suggest an activity or workshop, and if it seems right for Spring and it fits into the schedule, then the answer is “yes.”

Of course, Spring is more than just workshops and activities.  There is a long list of nuts-and-bolts aspects to organize, such as making sure the site is rented and prepared, and obtaining insurance, and figuring out how to keep everyone happy and fed on time.  Also, Spring must think farther than this conference or the next, and ensure its finances are in order and its community relationships are sound.

Because all that needs to occur on a timely basis, and is aided by a certain amount of institutional knowledge and experience, you may notice a consistency to the faces you see on Staff from year to year.  However, a position on Staff is available to anyone enthusiastic about Spring.  In addition to the responsibilities mentioned above, Spring always needs a few Staff members to help with the organization and run workshops and fulfill other positions, and also to provide Spring with new perspectives on how Spring is run, and to add their voices to the choir about where Spring is going.

Any conferee who has spent at least two years attending the full week-long Spring is welcome to submit an application to be on Staff.  Applications are distributed on the last day of Spring, along with the survey which solicits your thoughts on your Spring experience.  There are nine total Staff positions available, and Staff for one year chooses Staff for next.  Applicants are encouraged to devote as much time and care to the application as possible, and to answer all the questions fully and honestly.  Applications must be submitted by June 30th, and applicants are notified either way by mid-summer.

The first Staff meeting occurs early in September.  After that, Spring has five or six Staff meetings over the course of the year, in order to prepare for the conference.  These meetings tend to occur over weekends in southern New Hampshire where there is sleeping space and plenty of food and good company.  A Staff member should be prepared to attend at least three or four of those meetings, but is invited to any and all.

A Staff position begins at the first Staff meeting, and ends once Staff for the following year is chosen, sometime in late June.  Over the course of that period, everyone on Staff has an equal voice in how the administration of Spring will proceed for that year.

However, please understand that a Staff position is a one-year position, and does not guarantee a position on Staff for the following year.  This in no way reflects personal feelings, or a judgment on a Staff member’s performance.  It is simply to ensure that Spring can acquire new voices on Staff from year to year, and that Spring Staff not continue to grow lest it swallow the whole conference.  But, if you’ve been on Staff one year, and you wish to be on Staff the next, you are more than welcome to submit a new application.

All Staff members have a different experience at Spring than conferees.  While it provides great pleasure to see ideas seeded at Staff meetings come to fruition at Spring, Spring is also not as relaxing a place.  Staff members often miss workshops, or have to travel off-site, or lift heavy loads.  It’s much less of a vacation, so bear that in mind if you’re thinking of applying.  Further, once you’ve been on Staff one year, you are often relied upon for Staff-like responsibilities in the years following – not only on site, but potentially as a counseling voice of experience regarding the direction of Spring in the future.

Please feel free to buttonhole former Staff members, who will be, we are certain, more than happy to give you an earful about the pros and cons of being on Staff.