Angel Guide
Dear reader,
Thank you for being part of the Chaos Community and taking the time to read up on how to participate.
This guide is trying to convey all neccessary information and quirks you might encounter, while helping at a chaos event.
As with any other guide being complete is almost impossible, so bear with our own ignorance and feel free to enlighten the authors with any new knowledge you might come upon.
How to read this?
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This is a note. |
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This is a tip. |
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This is a important. |
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Quick-Start
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Create yourself angel system account
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Arrive at congress venue
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Locate and move to heaven
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Get marked as arrived and collect your badge
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Ask a welcome angel or shift coordinator
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Attend an angel meeting
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Announced in the angel system news
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Click yourself an interesting shift
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Read shift descriptions first
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Participate in your shift
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Use navigation to find location
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Arrive a little bit early
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Rest for at least one hour
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Repeat from step 6.
And always, have a lot of fun.
What is congress?
The Chaos Communication Congress (short Congress) is the annual gathering event of the Chaos Computer Club, bringing together diverse parts of…
What is an angel?
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Everyone who invests their free time into our events is an angel. |
While the most obvious angels to most participants are the helpers staffing the cash desk, checking wrist bands at the doors or selling drinks at the bars, there are tons of jobs to be done "behind the scenes" that are barely noticable (or only become apparent if something goes wrong).
All these people, from a new person, who sits at a smoker door for one shift at their first congress up to the experienced people in the organization team who do the high level planning in the months and weeks before the event - they all are angels.
Perks
Being an angel also comes with some perks. Though we hope participating is enough of a reward, here is a list of things exclusive to angels.
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Hanging out at heaven. Angel Hackcenter, using its wardrobe and chill out area.
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Free coffee and (sparkeling) water.
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Free Food for night shifts.
Rewards
Having contributed a certain amount of time will also grant you access to:
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Awesome warm vegan and vegitarian meals.
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Sleeping arangements at nearby gyms.
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The famous limited™ Angel T-Shirt in congress design.
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Resources Limitations
Please keep in mind that our resources are limited, not everyone might get a T-Shirt and meals and sleeping arrangements are also finite in number. |
Expectations
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Helping at our events also comes with some simple but important expectations towards you. |
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Be on time to your shift or give heaven notice early.
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Be well rested, sober and fed.
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Be open-minded and friendly spirited.
Child Angels
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Most angel jobs on our events are designed with adults in mind. |
While we do not ask for your passport to check your legal age, we will probably not hand you an angel badge if you are clearly underage. In general, children should never be left unattended and therefore are not allowed to sign up for any angel shifts themselves when not accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.
However, every day is "bring your kid to work day", so if your kids are old enough to attend our events, you can bring them to most of the angel shifts as well.
Please come by Heaven and talk to our shift coordinators and we will arrange everything as needed. Of course, if your kids want to get an angel badge as well, they can get one and they will also be eligible for a t-shirt if they attend enough shifts.
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Sadly, we are currently not able to provide children’s size t-shirts. |
Nonetheless, please come to Heaven and let us add your kid to any shifts as "n+1" instead of simply singing them up since the required number of angels needed for a shift is calculated on the basis of adults.
Please note that there are a few exceptions to this rule:
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Children are not allowed behind bars due to the handling of alcoholic beverages.
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Children will be denied access to the LOC due to the heavy machinery and other work-related dangers in that area, so even if the shift itself may be appropriate, you will probably not be able to get there.
In addition, if you want to bring your kids to a shift that needs a special angel type introduction, please ask the appropriate angel type supporter(s) beforehand if this is okay.
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Pack list
Participating as an Angel in the Chaos Community works best, if some equipment is present. While most tools necessary to perform a task will be provided to you, some items are personal and are best supplied by yourself. This is a pack list on what you might bring. The list is ordered by priority:
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Refillable water bottle
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Browser-capable device (Mobile Phone, or laptop)
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DECT phone
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Collapsable cup
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Simple Multitool
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Lanyard
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Power cord / euro-adapter
When to arrive?
As a generic rule of thumb, if you are mainly there for the event itself, day 0 (i.e. the day before the official start) is considered a good day to arrive.
On day 0, buildup is nearly completed, most infrastructure is done and in the evening the cash desk will already be open, so you can exchange your QR code into a wristband without having to queue too long.
In addition, the halls are not yet as crowded as during the event, so day 0 is a good opportunity to familiarize yourself with the venue and have a look around without the fear of missing any interesting talks.
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Being a Hero
If you want to be a real hero, consider helping with teardown instead of buildup. Usually, a lot of highly motivated people are keen to help with buildup, but after the event, most people are tired and want to get home to rest. The more people stay a day or two longer and help, the faster we all will be able to watch all the talks we missed during the event while relaxing at home. |
If you want to have a more detailed look behind the scenes and are not afraid of all sorts of manual labor like carrying heavy stuff and building all the infrastructure, you are welcome to arrive earlier and help without buildup.
However, there is only so much work to do and a lot of tasks cannot be parallelized, so if you would like to help, please have a look at the relevant posts in the event event blog or contact the LOC for the specific details.
DECT phones
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The congress relies heavily on the DECT phone network provided by the POC. |
Not only is it used by participant to chat and meet-up, it is also used by the teams of congress to interconnect.
Heaven itself uses DECT phones to reach angels which provide a DECT phone number in the angel system. Bringing you DECT handheld phone to congress and registering it with the POC helps heaven greatly with many tasks.
For example, you could be dispatched to check out an area and report back with your finding while you are still on-site, allowing direct communication. Or, you can participate in an access control shift and quickly relay information if someone is trying to access the venue without a valid ticket/wristband.
The POC curates a list of compatible DECT phones. If you don’t have one at home, you can check the list and pick one up at the store for around 25€.
Teams
The congress is organized in different teams, each with its own area of expertise.
All teams are self-organized and provide their own set of services to the congress. To give you an overview, we describe the teams you are most likely to interact with here and have an externsive diagram of their interactions.
| Teams spawn into existance by a need not fullfilled. They are seldom created by an authority. |