Thank you for your interest in volunteering for Tour de Fat. Many volunteers will be needed Friday 7/20 and Saturday 7/21 to make this a fun and successful event. Please contact West Town Bikes' Office Manager, Coralee Montes, at coralee@westtownbikes.org to let her know what position and time you will be available to volunteer. If you dont get a response within 5 days call 773-772-6523 to make sure your message went through. You may volunteer for more than one position, but you must be available for the time that you commit to volunteer. For your generous assistance, not only will you be helping your local cycling community & West Town Bikes, you’ll earn a Tour de Fat t-shirt upon Check-In at the volunteer tent! Ask Coralee about how your group can volunteer as a team, cover a shift for a position and have a presence at the festival.

Set-Up Crew: (Friday 12pm-2pm)
The Set-Up crew will help the TDF crew on Friday building the infrastructure; you will be putting the icing on the Tour de Fat cake. You’ll set-up tables, chairs, water stations, banners, lending a hand in all the last minute details. 13 volunteers are needed for Set-Up

Tear-Down Crew: (Saturday 4pm-6pm):
The Tear-Down crew gets to clean up the party. We pride ourselves in leaving a park cleaner than when we arrived, so everything from breaking-down 10X10 tents, stacking tables & chairs, final trash clean-up, etc. is what you’ll do. 20 volunteers will be needed for Tear-Down

H20 Technicians: 9:30am-1pm & 1pm-4:30pm
The mission: where there is no water, provide it. We either team-up with a local water distributor and/or fill up water jugs to provide the event with free water. You will manage the 10X10 tent where the majority of the water will be and occasionally check-in backstage to make sure the performers are well hydrated (with water, they are always well hydrated with beer).

Weather depending, this staion can be a little slow. I humbly ask that when you feel like you are “just sitting around” to take a lap or two and do trash-sweeps. A clean event is a happy event. 3 volunteers will be needed for each shift with a total of 6 needed for the event.

Ride Registration and Ride Marshals: 8:30am-11am
What would a Bike and Beer festival be without a bike ride? Simple: just another beer festival. One of the most integral elements to the TDF’s atmosphere and message come through crowd participation. Each Tour de Fat greets its attendees first and foremost with a morning bike parade. Our Parade’s focus is to bring bike lovers together to make new friends and enjoy themselves without the fast-paced, overly serious feel of races. Costumes are enthusiastically encouraged!

Check in: All riders must sign a liability waiver at check in, and can make their $5 donation to the hosting organization. New Belgium Brewing will donate cool Tour de Fat bike schwag to anyone donating $10 for the ride. Again, this is a “suggested,” donation. We have permitted this as a FREE ride, so emphasize the “Donation” part. Wristband/ID Volunteers will also be able to check id’s and give riders wristbands so they can have speedy admission when they return.

We will set up a couple of 10’ x 10’ tents for rider registration and volunteers will work the crowd with waivers and clipboards. Volunteers should arrive no later than 8:30am to assist in the setup of the registration stations. We will also need a volunteer to close this booth after all riders have departed. Once riders are registered and the ride is ready to begin registration volunteers may then act as Ride Marshals.

Ride Marshall Duties:
1. Register riders before the ride
2. Act as Guides along the course route
3. Assist in calling first aid if needed by dialing 911 and finding New Belgium Staff.
4. Keep eyes open for Riders w/ alcohol. If spotted, Marshals must instruct them to dispose of booze or leave the ride. Find NBB Staff to handle from there and involve police if rider will not cooperate. This goes for Ride Registration as well.
5. Keep eyes open for dangerous or reckless riders. Marshals have authority to ask anyone to leave the ride if they are endangering others
6. Keep the pack together. There is safety in numbers. Riders with large gaps around them are much more likely to get hurt, and too long of a procession can disable our escort’s effectiveness.
7. After the ride, enjoy the festival!

20+ volunteers are needed for Ride Registration and Ride Marshals

Merchandise Booth & Do-It-Yourself Booth: 9:30am-1pm & 1pm-4:30pm
The Merchandise Booth will be selling a variety of New Belgium and Tour de Fat schwag including t-shirts, hats, jerseys, bike goodies, etc. When your crew arrives, look for the tent with lots of cardboard boxes! The volunteer staff will need to neatly display the goods on a table (provided) so that attendees will have the chance to view all goods for sale. The first team will be responsible for set up at 9:30am and the second team for tearing it down and re-boxing whatever goodies we have left. All goods will be boxed by size, so that any selected style will be easy for volunteers to locate. There will be a New Belgium staff member to assist you throughout the festival to help setup/teardown. 7 volunteers are needed per shift with a total of 14 needed for merchandise

The Do-It-Yourself Booth will be setup next to the Merchandise Booth. This Booth is a creative outlet for anyone who chooses to participate. We’ll have a tee-shirt screening press, a leather bracelet stamper, materials to make buttons, etc. Volunteers will assist participants with their creative endeavors with all proceeds benefitting WTB! The first team will be responsible for set up and the second tear down. 7 volunteers are needed per shift with a total of 14 needed for the Merchandise and DIY Booths.

ID Check & Wristbands: 9:00am-12:30pm & 12:30pm-4:30pm
Before our guests can have a beer, they must first come to this booth to receive their wristband. Upon showing a valid Identification card (Drivers license, State ID, Passport, Military ID, or Green Card), and assuming that ID is valid, current, and the holder is in fact 21 years of age, they will be given a wristband to mark their ability to drink, and you can send them to the beer token booth. 10 volunteers are needed per shift with a total of 20 volunteers needed for ID Check and Wristbands.

Tokens: 9:00am-12:30pm & 12:30-4:00pm
Once an attendee has been carded and banded, they are allowed to buy wooden nickels, or “beer tokens of our affection,” as we like to refer to them. Each token is valid for 1 full 16oz beer at the beer tent. Guests can buy as many beer tokens as they like, but you must inform them that only one beer can be served at a time. Volunteers should arrive at 9:00am at their booth for set up and orientation. This booth will run until 3:30/45pm at which time we will stop selling tokens to the crowd so that we do not sell more tokens then we have beer, or sell tokens to people who will not have a chance to purchase beer after LAST CALL @ 3:30/45pm. We don’t offer refunds for leftover tokens. Instruct your volunteers to thank folks for the donation they’ve made, and inform attendees that the tokens will be good next year.

The Beer Token Booth is open 2hrs before beer service begins so that Parade Goers can be wrist-banded, have tokens in their pockets, and head right to the Beer Booth after the Parade.

Volunteers can then break down and repack the supplies at this station and return them to Michael Craft & Brian Bogan. Tokens will be sold for $5 each. No price/bulk discount, it’s a fundraiser after all, and $5 is a great price for a festival beer. Easy math also helps. $20 from the ATM gets you 4 beers. Anyone thought to be underage or intoxicated can not be sold tokens, and need to leave. Report issues to Team NBB and Security. 10 volunteers per shift are needed per shift with a total of 20 volunteers for Tokens.

Beer Pouring: 10:30-1pm & 1:00pm-4:00pm x 2 Stations This is where it gets fast and furious: bring your bells and whistles and make some noise! We need a strong volunteer base here in the form of pourers and servers. Volunteers will be responsible for learning to pour beer well to minimize waste and money. Volunteers will also be servers who will be trained to check for wristbands, and scan the crowd for intoxicated attendees.

No matter what the form of boundary control may be, i.e. beer garden, perimeter fencing, or no fencing…all attendees must have a wristband to buy tokens, and a wristband to use tokens. Any guest who approaches the beer tent must show their wristband to the server. Upon handing the server a token and requesting a flavor, the server will reach for a beer set out by the pourer behind them.

Only one token can be turned in at a time. This is so we can minimize the opportunity for people to hand extra beers to underage or intoxicated patrons. Our Distributors will be present to handle all beer mechanics and keg changes. Volunteers for this booth should report to the beer tent @ 10:30am for orientation. Volunteers will conduct “Last Call” at 3:30/45pm, and will finish service by 3:45pm. Tear down and clean up the booth after that. Anyone suspected of being underage or intoxicated must be cut off. Please report any and all instances to Team NBB and security. 10 volunteers per shift are needed at each of the two locations with a total of 40 Beer Pourers needed.

All volunteers involved with ID Checking/Wrist Banding, Tokens and Beer Pouring will need a Booth Manager/Lead Volunteer who must attend a T.I.P.S. Training. The role of this individual is to be the point person in case any incident should arise. This individual should not Check I.D.s, not Sell Tokens, and not Serve Beer: they are there to manage the other Volunteers, help make final decisions regarding someone being “Cut Off”, and to record any incidents that may occur. These individuals will be reporting directly to the NPO Volunteer Coordinator and Tour de Fat’s very own, Michael Craft.

We also emphasize that drinking while on shift is not allowed, and volunteers caught drinking in their respective booths will be dismissed. Our goal is to help reduce the chances of over-serving attendees, and in doing so, reducing the risk of serious trouble with the city, police, or worse…legal action, not to mention representing West Town Bikes.

Please help us in stopping outside alcohol consumption. In order to support this goal, and maintain our ability to keep the crowd in check, we need our volunteers to commit to roaming the crowd, and looking for over intoxicated attendees, underage drinkers (no wristbands), and outside alcohol that made it through the checkpoints.

Unfortunately, not everyone who attends the Tour de Fat knows how to drink responsibly. The good thing about these folks is that they are never shy about identifying themselves. There is no shame in telling someone they are “Cut Off,” in fact you are doing them a favor. This is a Bicycle Festival with Beer, not a Beer Festival with Bicycles.