The Armchair BEA 2014 Recruitment Post

One of my proudest achievements as a book blogger is being part of the founding team of Armchair BEA, the virtual companion event to Book Expo America and the BEA Bloggers Conference, and seeing how it's grown and developed from its grassroots beginnings in a Twitter conversation in the weeks before BEA 2010.

But the bittersweet flip side to success is the amount of work required to sustain it. In order to sustain Armchair BEA into its fifth year and beyond, the team needs more hands and new ideas--we hope you'll consider giving us yours. 

The following is cross-posted with permission from Armchair BEA Central. There's a link to click at the end if you're interested in filling a role on the 2014 team. This year's event may have to be scaled back if we don't get as much help as we need.

Book Expo America 2014 is quickly approaching (May 29-31 to be exact), which means that Armchair BEA planning is currently underway. As our team has converged once again this year, we have come to discover that life is chaotic and sometimes takes precedence over our online lives. Many of our team members are stepping down this year or taking a step back from the event by serving in mentor roles*. If Armchair BEA 2014 is going to take place, we need new team members!

Five years ago, Armchair BEA started out as a small event thrown together by a team of bloggers that were not able to attend Book Expo America. Over the next four years, the event has grown to include hundreds of bloggers participating and hundreds of giveaways thanks to our amazing sponsors. It has been a very exciting four years, and we want to see the excitement continue.

This year will be the fifth annual Armchair BEA and we need your help to pull this event off. Here is a breakdown of what a full team would require, with job descriptions and the ideal number of people to fill each role:

• Sponsor Chair & Team (2-3): Solicit sponsors and coordinate list of prizes; works closely with Prize Team. 
• Participant Coordinator (1): Create and maintain registration document; post list of participants on the site. 
• Prize Team (2-3): Work with the Sponsor Team to assign and award daily prizes and special giveaways; draw winners and announce on site. 
• Agenda Coordinator (1): Daily Topics, Guest Articles, Special Announcements 
• Instagram Challenge Coordinator (1): Set daily themes, draw daily winners and send to Prize Team for announcement. 
• Social Media Coordinator (1-2): Maintain Twitter and Facebook accounts, answering questions and interacting with participants; organize Twitter parties; work with Prize Team for Twitter party giveaways. 
• Commenting Committee (2-3): Solicit commenting volunteers/cheerleaders; oversee commenting throughout the week of the event; draw commenting volunteers for daily giveaways (pass on to Prize Team). 
• International Committee (2-3): Must be outside of the US to bring in an international perspective - can include the assistance of finding international sponsors, writing guest articles to appear the week of the event, etc. 
• On-site Correspondents (2-3)--team members attending Book Expo America: Interact with sponsors and post special sponsors as needed; take pictures/video throughout the event and post on a daily basis; blogger interaction.

If you are interested in joining the team, please complete this form by February 15, 2014. We will be in contact with you shortly afterwards to discuss opportunities with you.

*Armchair BEA's founders, myself included, are all serving as "mentors" this year as we bring new members onto the event team.