Neotropolis 2026 — Volunteer Feedback

Not at all! We had some occasional moments of power outage in the war rig, but those were resolved quickly.

Not from what I saw. Though not having info services set up by then made the morning a little more difficult.

Systems for NeoBands went down several times, resulting in long lines (nobody's fault, but an issue all the same). The new layout also made a two person table less sustainable, as it now needed 3 people. One to man the window, two to handle scanning people in when both systems were functioning. As a result of heat & lines, as already mentioned and subsequentially addressed, several attendees were becoming verbally abusive towards the first person they see in the window. This also was the case when we shifted to splitting up the registration windows.

Nope! Everything went fairly smoothly.

Not poorly, but we got a lot of probably not Command side projects

Nope

The only thing that went poorly was the laptops overheating when we were registering neobands.

The stress and chaos cause by the registration of Neo bands was very stressful. I don’t feel any of us were energy as prepared for that process as we could have been. I’m chalking this up to severe growing pains as I’m hoping next year’s round of these bands will be easier. With us down to or laptop majority of the days we were working with one chip dying on us entirely, the process was pretty stressful. I’m proud of the amount of people we got through, and I’m thankful we got as many passes out as possible, but the sheer amount of customer abuse I went through left me extremely tired and weary. I think attendees were also got, exhausted, and annoyed with waiting for so long so they took it out on the first person they saw in the window ( me).

Not really! My shifts went very smoothly

Not from what I noticed

Not that I recall, only a little disappointed that there wasn’t a sort shade structure for cash4trash

Supervisors are very effective at communicating clearly what needs to be done

The neo band system was wonderful while it got set up. Two people for info desk per shift is a good amount of people. Everyone was real patient when it came to technical difficulties and waiting. Staff was always available for questions.

Radios were smoothly distributed and cataloged. We even relogged a bunch on sunday since previous shifts made some mistakes.

We had so much more space for everyone to be compared to previous years, it was a blessing.

IT help was swift. When systems were working, registering folks went smoothly.

The organization of patches this year was much better. Having supervisors besides spork was AMAZING and an absolute must for future years. Seriously changed the game

Great people! willing to learn other roles so folks can take breaks. Great job, folks I love we all gave it the command mix up to keep things running smoothly.

Switching the knights signup and payments from info to admin was an excellent idea and seemed to run smoothly

I felt like the leads and other volunteers I worked with really cared, were attentive, and were great problem-solvers.

I’m personally very happy to see info have a better spot this year! I think having 3 volunteers to fill the space would be a great improvement! 1 person in the window and the two people in the laptops for the bands would help smooth things along well! I also liked the war rig headquarters out back! That distance was great!

I also learned how to drive those buggy car things. I don’t member what it’s called but that was fun and I’m proud of myself for being a fast learner! Thank you to spork and Taylor for trusting me and teaching me fast!

When things went smoothly the bands registration was really cool! Admin folx also seemed to be having a good time! I was really happy to see more happy faces and everyone relatively chill! I love my command family and that made dealing with angry attendees worth it! Everyone reminding me we are people and to not deal with nasty behavior.

Ada camping went smoothly and special thanks to Sprok and Jared. That went very smooth. The walk is still a little far compared to last year but it’s doable and honestly the closest I think we’ll be! Thank you so much!

Also that’s Gatorade and water was always COLD! That was a godsend out there during the heat.

Also the close and open schedule was helpful and allowed us to enjoy the event with all our other scheduled events and workshops! Thank you so much for that.

Everyone worked well together. Everyone had an understanding of everyone’s physical limitations and gave jobs accordingly.

Team work! Everyone came together to do some really awesome stuff. I learned how to set up a military tent which is kinda dope.

Pretty much everything on my shift went well! Our gopher team was especially competent this year.

more breaks for spork!!

Is there a way to get some sort of dedicated container for lost and found with dividers Most of my Saturday night was spent rummaging around cardboard boxes trying not to lose track of stuff. We ended up doing a valuables, trinkets and big stuff boxes but they started to fall apart after a while.

Maybe radios be kept in a more contained area? Just to prevent dust and sand and potential rain effecting them?

Somehow there were still people & volunteers that had questions that got to the back to me instead of being stopped by admins or info. This is an annoying problem at both events every year, it is what it is.

Better implementation of Neoband systems. better line control plans. better shade at front of house as 9 am to 2pm it became an untenable oven. Altering the layout so we can stop having attendees clog the entryway to Command at peak hours by walking behind the desk when ideally the only people coming behind the curtain should be folks talking to Admin.

Taking cash for the Porto pumping could be good! Lots of people had trouble with getting signal for Venmo

Volunteer check sign in. that will take a lot of work to improve and not make worse for everyone though.

The space was a little cramped since the desk that info folks were meant to use was in the full sun for most of the morning

Perhaps having a digital way to take in the lost/found items - like on an excel spreadsheet. This way it's easier to locate the found items via "control F" and highlight them. You also won't have to try and decipher people's handwriting.

I think a vip sheet for the event runners to let us or supervisions know who is VIP would be helpful. I had two people approach me saying they knew Jared and that they effectively get special treatment. That treatment being cutting and bypassing the Neo band down time window after I was told to not issue any more bands. I didn’t personally know how to handle that situation and I felt uncomfortable being out on the spot like that by having to take their word for it. I did send them to admin. I think a sheet with names would make this easier in the future.

The amount of attendance wristbands we had to send people to medical to remove was wild this year. They cinched down too tight. We sent those folx to medical. Occasionally we had people lose their bands because they were too loose. One situation in particular I had to act as a gofer to get an ada person to the front gate. I was told gofers can’t do this task, which is fair, but this attendee had mobility issues and walking that far from town to front gate would have caused her severe harm. I walked her back to my camp, drove her up to the front myself ( I wasn’t allowed to take one of the vehicles out back understandably), and I drove her up there to resolve it myself.

I understand why this happened. I’m not sure how we can make this process easier but I was a little horrified ( as someone who is also ada) at the thought of her killing her body to make it up to front gate and back. She didn’t have a vehicle to get herself there if I remember correctly, or she at least didn’t have access to it due to being blocked in from camping. She said she almost broke down crying. That station broke my heart, but I get it on all sides.

I understand this isn’t my duty, but it didn’t sit right with me if I had left her to handle the situation herself when she was clearly distressed and disabled.

Could an awning be placed over info desks metal oven/ table? I think that needs a shade. That metal desk was burning attendees and making it miserable for anyone working that side of the desk. I think attendees would appreciate some sort of shade cloth awning if they’re made to stand in line. With info desk in mb01 last year I think that was the perk to having it covered over there even if the space wasn’t ideal for crowding.

Constantly unsure who was supposed to be in the volunteer area. The lack of tools was frustrating. Ie: a poster job needing scissors but there was only one pair and we all watched helplessly as one guy did it all by himself

Communication chain. Just overall, sometimes people came to command and were like hi help story this or something missing that and we were not sure who to get for them.

Probably need updated and printed standard operating procedure lists for command center roles, we’ve had them before but they were specifically for wasteland, the sops for Neo are nearly the same, and would GREATLY benefit any new members of the command leads.

Not being able to pitch camp during early access because my tribes setup location was ‘out of bounds’ for EA camping setups was pretty annoying, I had to sleep in a loaded car only 30 yards from my site. Not a terrible thing, but maybe we could lift that restriction? Also, this site was not near the themed areas, rather next to the silent death zone.

Last year we were close enough with our ada spot to walk to and from command for our lunch break. I noticed with Ada pushed further back and command pushed forward that walk to and from wasn’t dooable for lunch and dinner. This may be due to my mobility issues slowing me down. In that 30 minutes 20 of them was spent walking there and back, 5 minutes for the restroom, and 5 minutes to cram food in my mouth was tough. What worked for me was stacking one of my breaks against my lunch. It gave me a little time to take care of my diabetic needs and actually prep something substantial to keep me going.

I understand admin/ supervisors might not be able to control this but i thought it was worth giving that feedback.

Absolutely would do it again, info desk was my best time volunteering between trash panda, security and command in general.

I love being useful and I'm willing to work any position I'm assigned, however, I'm a professional actor and specialize in immersive theater. I believe I'd be far more useful in the story team as a performer.

I very much enjoy and appreciate that Spork had created an orientation slide show and that it gets emailed to us. I think sending that out first and then having a discord call for other questions and to check in is a smart idea, because some people only have discord on the phone and can't see the slide show very well.

Supervisors in general were great this year, my only suggestion is first time Supervisors may need a bit more reminding on making sure folks get breaks. I know this is something that should be our own responsibility but sometimes that just isn't an option without outside intervention. We were taken care of in regards to being reminded to get water/electrolytes, but when we had peak rush and couldn't stop for 60+ uninterrupted minutes, there wasn't much follow up on break times. Inversely, Medio Litro was ON TOP of making sure we took our 30s and 15s. 10/10, thank you Medio Litro.

It was a blast. Already hyped for next year

nope

Love it! And things improve year after year.

I had an amazing time volunteering and would love to do it again! Its truly an honor to serve my fellow attendees and work with some exceptional individuals!

Despite my irritation mentioned before, I’m always really happy to volunteer with this team. I recognize my frustration usually comes from Antares being rude or mean. I wished there was some way to remind folx to be courteous to their volunteers. I know we already tell attendees this but maybe a reminder at the front gate during check in would help.

Staff and other volunteers were a delight this year! Everyone was really sweet. I hope decomposing has been nice!

Supervisors were super nice and extremely calm. I never felt stressed out even when sudden things would happen.

It was an awesome experience, met some super cool people. Would do again.

Neo won’t need this, because it’s usually much quieter than wasteland, but maybe a command center meeting bell? Something like a small ship deck bell, that’s loud enough to be heard over car engines, etc. this could help us from needing to yell to call meetings, and help save our voices. Already mentioned this, but wanted it on a form.

Did info services feel a bit small? There was plenty of room for command itself but there was some shuffling required getting in and out of the front desk area

Love ya'll. Can't wait for Wasteland!

I'd love to know/ get the feedback from dispatchers that worked on Sunday so I can try to improve things a little more.

I highly suggest an overhaul of the lost and found storage. The forms were a great update for this year but storing everything is still a bit of a hassle. While we eventually were splitting boxes between valuable and non-valuable, I think having a lock box of some kind for phones, wallets, and IDs really needs to be the case while on shift. A cardboard box isn't exactly the best and I was low key stressed about keeping an eye on it most our shifts. Even if the keys stay in the war rig and the box stays unlocked while on shift, I'd feel so much better knowing a cash box or something is easier to identify as VERY IMPORTANT and to be locked up vs a random cardboard box.

Yall took great care of us this year. Thank you for making sure ppl took breaks, providing snacks and water, and delegating tasks well. Appreciate the fuck outta you

Command isn't build crew lol.

I appreciate all that you do!

Spork, Scrap, Aardvark, Ender, and Shimmer - You are all amazing!

Thank you again for allowing us a space to voice our concerns.

Spork needs an assistant of some kind. At least until cloning has been perfected.

Getting Spork approved felt like getting a Neo accomplishment I didn’t know existed. Thank you everyone for all your hard work. I send love to you all.

It felt a little odd not having a ‘Neo Team Lead’ lanyard thing, while serving as a Neo team lead, lol. Could be nice to extend the badge system to all team leads in command, and possibly even making a generic ‘gopher’ and ‘dispatch’ volunteer badge for people on shift, just to make identifying who is who easier.

Also, at least twice, myself included, one particular gopher was misgendered by team leads, so perhaps we should include pronouns with the Neo names on our schedules/lists.

I need to still be added to the Neo command email list, I receive tickets with no issue but didn’t seem to get any schedules or email notifications for meetings, so anything I need to do to make that happen, I’m ready to do it.

Finally, I thought we totally kicked ass this year! Great teams, great leads, nothing could stop us this year!