CN 100th Celebrations Update

New Shift Schedules

This is addressed to all of the pensioners that volunteered for a shift (s) for the CN 100 celebration, being held at The Forks Thursday Sept 19 – Sunday Sept 22. First, thank you again for volunteering to assist in the celebration. In May, I advised everyone that the organizers, just prior to the first celebration held in Quebec City, made a change to the shift schedules and the numbers of volunteers required for each shift. The changes they made to the schedule were significant enough that we couldn’t assume that people would just accept the change in their shift times and length, so we decided to discard everything we had done up until then and start again, with the new shift schedule. We provided advice of this on our website, and Facebook page to make sure it got to the widest audience and we contacted all of the initial applicants (email or phone) to give them specifics.
 
The new shift schedule was created as a fillable form on our website (www.cnpensioners.ca) and to date we have 47 applicants, some of which are members of this group that reapplied.....thank you.
 
Under the new schedule, we now have 112 shifts to fill and some of the additional shifts are to provide “spare” pensioners in each time slot to ensure our volunteers will get sufficient breaks throughout their shifts. This is still not an absolutely fixed schedule as the organizers are contemplating an additional day, to be a 2nd CN Family Day, because of the large employee and pensioner population we have locally. This will provide more opportunity for those to attend, but it will also create an additional 46 shifts to be filled.
 
Because there is still a possibility of the schedule changing, and in order to minimize any changes that would be required to the shift assignments once we make them, we won’t be assigning any shifts until after our General Meeting September 4, and we will be taking applications to volunteer at that meeting as well. We will try and accommodate everyone’s individual shift preferences.
 
Once again, if you have already reapplied for your shifts, thank you. If you have not, any applications will be appreciated and if they can be received prior to September 5th, it would certainly help in the establishment of a working schedule, without making numerous changes later.
 
Please feel free to pass this information along to any other pensioners that may want to volunteer some time in September.
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​Bruce Anderson & Linda Schram

CN 100 New Volunteer Application

Thank you for your application to volunteer for the CN 100 celebration, being held at The CN Stage and Field at The Forks in Winnipeg Thursday Sept 19 through Sunday Sept 22.  We have your information and we will be starting to assign shifts based on your preferences after the CNPA General Meeting Wednesday Sept 4.
 
The reason we are holding off is that we want to be sure that we have the final schedule settled and that we have as many applications submitted prior to starting the process, in order to minimize the number of changes we have to make once we make the initial assignments. We understand that’s not a very long advance period prior to the event, but it should make the process simpler and reduce any confusion.
 
More details will continue to be provided on our website, www.cnpensioners.ca and on our Facebook Page and at the General Meeting, Wednesday, September 4th, and eventually directly to you. Some important points for now:
 

• Our volunteer responsibilities will be, for the most part, non-physical tasks, greeting visitors to each site and monitoring their flow through each exhibit.
• There will be Brand Ambassadors, part of the national working crew, assigned to each exhibit as well, and they will provide the bulk of the assistance and information for each one.
• We had initially announced that lockers would be provided for the volunteers, but apparently that is not so, so please do not bring personal belongings with you to the grounds
• Each volunteer will be provided with a polo shirt, a fleece and a cap
• The cap and one of the shirts are expected to be worn at all times while on your volunteer shift as identification.
• There is a suggested dress code which I will circulate when we start assigning shifts
• If we get all shifts filled, there will be a sufficient number of pensioner volunteers on each shift to allow for breaks for everyone
• There will be light refreshments provided for the volunteers and if you have a refillable water bottle, there is a filling station on the grounds
• There will be on-site security provided and CN Police will be present
• The issue of parking is still be discussed/negotiated between the organizers and the local folks and parking will either be provided free of charge, or you will be reimbursed for your parking charges on presentation of a receipt. We will try and make this process as uncomplicated and as quick as possible.

 
Thank you again for signing up as a volunteer and we will get as much additional information as soon as we can, including your shifts, sometime after September 4th.

Bruce Anderson & Linda Schram
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