Vintage Days to interview students

By Adrian Rodriguez

The student director for Vintage Days says he wants to bring a big concert back to the annual spring event, and he will interview about 15 students this week who might help him do that.

Roberto Gomez, a fourth-year student majoring in business administration and management, and other Vintage Days staff plan to hire nine students from 15 who signed up this semester as coordinators for the 2004 event. Vintage Days coordinators will lead about 10 committees that plan parts of the event such as the Crafts Faire, the Boomtown Carnival and Casino Night.

The students chosen to lead the committees will participate in an orientation retreat in October, when the final plans for Vintage Days 2004 will be settled. The theme for next semester’s event is tentatively called “Bring It.”

“ Right now we have no returning coordinators from past years,” Gomez said. “If people don’t have the time to coordinate the event, we do accept students as sub-committee members. They’ll assist the coordinators.”

Although the deadline has passed for coordinators, Gomez said students can still apply as volunteers of the sub-committees for the event.

He said it’s still a good idea to sign up as a committee member.

“ I started with the special events committee, and that orientated me. It encouraged me to be a coordinator. And now I’m the director,” he said. “I’ve been doing so much work for them. It does take a lot.”

None of the positions are paid, although there are a few small scholarships awarded each year, he said. There is no limit on the number of committee members and volunteers for Vintage Days, he said.

But the lack of payment doesn’t usually stop students from participating, because they also get real-life experience planning a campus-wide event, said Frankie Moore, Vintage Days adviser.

“ We’re looking for people who are interested in planning events, or have a skill in organizing things,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to meet other people and to prepare budgets.”

Moore said the event is a not-for-profit event, which means that coordinators would prepare a projected budget and the university would fund it for that amount.

Gomez said one goal he has for next year’s vintage Days is to bring a “big-name” concert to the event. Although it has always featured a Battle of the Bands, he says it doesn’t compare to bringing a headliner to the event.