Leadership: How the Gilroy Garlic Festival Became Synonymous with Garlic

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Leadership  How the Gilroy Garlic Festival
Became Synonymous with Garlic

• Presented to
• The Hawaii Tourism Authority
• May, 2008

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What is the Garlic Festival

• The annual 3 day celebration of garlic
• Heading into its 30th year
• Roughly 100,000 attendees for the 3 days
• Volunteer concept has not changed in 29 years!

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Mission of the Gilroy Garlic Festival

• The Gilroy Garlic Festival is established to
  provide benefits to local worthy charities and
  non-profit groups by promoting the community of
  Gilroy through a quality celebration of Garlic.

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How do we accomplish this?

• Foster a spirit of community service and pride by
  encouraging volunteerism
  
• Pursuing the highest standards of quality for all
  aspects of the Festival- especially food,
  entertainment and activities
  
• Work with the City of Gilroy and other agencies
  to improve the Festival grounds, service and
  facilities to the benefit of the visitor and
  create a permanent recreation asset for the city
  of Gilroy

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Successful Volunteerism

• Four critical success factors for our volunteer
  program
  
• Organization Structure
• Volunteer Culture
• Volunteer Recognition
• Policies Procedures

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Organization Structure

• Organized environment security
• Organization empowers volunteers to think and
  make suggestions
  
• Ownership motivation
• We train and equip our volunteers
• 4 Year Program
• Clear expectations
• Become ambassadors

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Gilroy Garlic Festival Organization

• Elected from Chairs
• 1 Strategic Planning
• 1 appointee
• 1 in charge of Advisors

• 4 Year commitment
• 10 member Advisory Committee
• Total Operation of Festival
• Manage Volunteers/Organizations

• 2 Person Staff
• Office staffed F/T

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Volunteer Culture

• In order to be successful, volunteers must
• Know their opinion counts
• Know their job matters
• Be committed to quality
• Know what is expected of them
• Have the equipment they need
• Opportunity to do what they know how to do
• Know their supervisor cares about them
  personally

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Volunteer Recognition

• They are the key to success and the reason for
  the festival.
  
• The Festival spends 100,000/ year on
  volunteers
  
• Hospitality
• Admission
• Volunteer Recognition Day
• Volunteer of the Year
• Our success is built on exceeding expectations

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Volunteer Policies Procedures

• Train Volunteers
• Area, tasks, procedures
• Lead by Example
• Avoid Empire Building
• 2 yr Chairman, 2 year Assistants, ½ roll over
• But weve always done it that way
• Change is GOOD!

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Volunteer Magic Quadrant
LESS MOTIVATED
ENERGETIC
SMART
We WANT to motivate you!
We WILL Teach you!
UNTRAINED
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Volunteer Equity in Action
40,000 hrs
-

/

700,000
300,000
1,000,000
Pay Bills
Net Proceeds
Total Vol Hrs
Gross Proceeds
10 Hrs

X
7.50/hr
75.00
Hourly Rate
Total Charity Pay Out
Charity Hrs Worked
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Branding -15 years in the making

• Festival chef availability- SakaBozzo, Pyros
• The Great Garlic Cook Off
• NY Times, CNN, CBS, Food Network- 2 X 60 min
  features of the Finals
  
• Other Promotions
• 1997 Garlic Kiss Off- Darla Haun
• 2000 Ted Williams- Garlic enhanced Vision
• Montel Williams- Hometown Festivals
• Garlic Showdown- 2nd year

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Festival Results

• Donated almost 8,000,000 to date
• 160 Charities benefit annually
• 4000 volunteers per year
• Generational Volunteers
• Micki P.
• Rebekah Childrens Home (IOOF)
• 29 Years _at_ Festival
• Added.programs etc.

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Find out more

• Go to www.gilroygarlicfestival.com
• Call the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association
• 408-842-1625
• Contact the Executive Director
• Brian Bowe, brian_at_gilroygarlicfestival.com
• Ed Struzik, ed.struzik_at_garlicserver.com