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Improving Volunteer Scheduling for the Edmonton Folk Festival

Author

Listed:
  • Lynn Gordon

    (Faculty of Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2G5)

  • Erhan Erkut

    (School of Business, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2R6)

Abstract

The annual Edmonton Folk Music Festival is run almost entirely by its 1,800 volunteers. While people are usually enticed into volunteering for the folk fest by perks, such as free access to the entertainment, gourmet meals, and T-shirts, their willingness to return year after year depends on an intangible degree of satisfaction. In spring 2003, a crew coordinator sought to automate the scheduling process for his crew of about 35 volunteers to save time and to accommodate volunteers' preferences when possible. We developed a spreadsheet-based decision-support tool that generated shift times, scheduled volunteers according to various constraints and preferences, and produced master and individual schedules.

Suggested Citation

  • Lynn Gordon & Erhan Erkut, 2004. "Improving Volunteer Scheduling for the Edmonton Folk Festival," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 34(5), pages 367-376, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:34:y:2004:i:5:p:367-376
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.1040.0097
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ernst, A. T. & Jiang, H. & Krishnamoorthy, M. & Sier, D., 2004. "Staff scheduling and rostering: A review of applications, methods and models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(1), pages 3-27, February.
    2. Robert R. Love & James M. Hoey, 1990. "Management Science Improves Fast-Food Operations," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 20(2), pages 21-29, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Scott P. Stevens & Susan W. Palocsay, 2017. "Teaching Use of Binary Variables in Integer Linear Programs: Formulating Logical Conditions," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 18(1), pages 28-36, September.
    2. Abualkhair, Hussain & Lodree, Emmett J. & Davis, Lauren B., 2020. "Managing volunteer convergence at disaster relief centers," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    3. Braathen, Christian, 2022. "Interview Scheduling: An Integer Programming Approach," Discussion Papers 2022/10, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    4. Lee, Deishin & Sönmez, Erkut & Gómez, Miguel I. & Fan, Xiaoli, 2017. "Combining two wrongs to make two rights: Mitigating food insecurity and food waste through gleaning operations," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 40-52.
    5. Sohier, Alice & Sohier, Romain & Chaney, Damien, 2023. "When volunteers are also consumers: Exploring volunteers’ co-consumption experience in leisure contexts," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    6. Sperling, Martina & Schryen, Guido, 2022. "Decision support for disaster relief: Coordinating spontaneous volunteers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 299(2), pages 690-705.
    7. Van den Bergh, Jorne & Beliën, Jeroen & De Bruecker, Philippe & Demeulemeester, Erik & De Boeck, Liesje, 2013. "Personnel scheduling: A literature review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 226(3), pages 367-385.
    8. Kaur, Milan Preet & Smith, Safron & Pazour, Jennifer A. & Duque Schumacher, Ana, 2022. "Optimization of volunteer task assignments to improve volunteer retention and nonprofit organizational performance," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    9. Gabriel Zayas‐Cabán & Emmett J. Lodree & David L. Kaufman, 2020. "Optimal Control of Parallel Queues for Managing Volunteer Convergence," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(10), pages 2268-2288, October.
    10. De Bruecker, Philippe & Van den Bergh, Jorne & Beliën, Jeroen & Demeulemeester, Erik, 2015. "Workforce planning incorporating skills: State of the art," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 243(1), pages 1-16.
    11. Wang, Qingyi & Reed, Ashley & Nie, Xiaofeng, 2022. "Joint initial dispatching of official responders and registered volunteers during catastrophic mass-casualty incidents," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    12. Barιş Ata & Deishin Lee & Erkut Sönmez, 2019. "Dynamic Volunteer Staffing in Multicrop Gleaning Operations," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 67(2), pages 295-314, March.
    13. Larry J. LeBlanc & Michael R. Galbreth, 2007. "Implementing Large-Scale Optimization Models in Excel Using VBA," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 37(4), pages 370-382, August.
    14. Vahideh Manshadi & Scott Rodilitz, 2022. "Online Policies for Efficient Volunteer Crowdsourcing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 6572-6590, September.
    15. Mauro Falasca & Christopher Zobel & Cliff Ragsdale, 2011. "Helping a Small Development Organization Manage Volunteers More Efficiently," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 41(3), pages 254-262, June.
    16. Lassiter, Kyle & Khademi, Amin & Taaffe, Kevin M., 2015. "A robust optimization approach to volunteer management in humanitarian crises," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 97-111.
    17. Hojati, Mehran & Patil, Ashok S., 2011. "An integer linear programming-based heuristic for scheduling heterogeneous, part-time service employees," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 209(1), pages 37-50, February.
    18. Falasca, Mauro & Zobel, Christopher, 2012. "An optimization model for volunteer assignments in humanitarian organizations," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 250-260.
    19. Şeyda Gür & Tamer Eren, 2018. "Scheduling and Planning in Service Systems with Goal Programming: Literature Review," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 6(11), pages 1-16, November.
    20. Paret, Kyle E. & Mayorga, Maria E. & Lodree, Emmett J., 2021. "Assigning spontaneous volunteers to relief efforts under uncertainty in task demand and volunteer availability," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    21. Escallon-Barrios, Mariana & Noham, Reut & Smilowitz, Karen, 2024. "Dual mode scheduling in volunteer management," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

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