We are building in September and from the sound of things we are going to have a lot of volunteers, possibly too many. What do you do in a case like this? Is it even appropriate to discourage people from helping?
Plan side projects. Does the building of the site need a paint job? If so, give people wire brushes and paint scrapers and sandpaper and have them begin prepping those surfaces. Is there a wall that could be painted with a SIMPLE mural, such as stripes or swirls? Are there other play areas at this site that need some TLC, like maybe the foursquare lines need repainting? Are there areas that could use some landscaping? Plan out some side projects that would be "nice" to get done, but aren't "necessary" and that way if you have too many people, then put them to work.
If you know for sure you have a surplus of people, ask a portion of them to come mid-day to relieve some of the other people who are getting tired.
Rather than discourage people from coming, when they are all there and the morning pep talk is being given, let people know that if they feel like there are too many people, and they just want to hang out, or go home and come back later, to know that they are welcome to do that...that you're grateful to have had so many hands to help out!
Make this your minimum number to get. If your installer is experienced, he/she knows what they are doing and they have a good idea of how many people are needed. If you go with too many then you will have too many bodies walking around and it makes it difficult for the teams to move freely throughout the site. So make 35 your minimum number of volunteers to commit, then plan side projects to put extra hands to work, and that way, if you have 50 people show up, 35 can be on the build itself, and the others can be helping with side projects.
Thanks for the great suggestions. My build day is this Saturday and I think we may have too many volunteers. Finding side projects is my job for the remainder of the week.
How exciting, the days are ticking down! Just a couple of last minute points here. Remember, like Wendy pointed out, sometimes not everyone who volunteers in advance shows up - it is wise to "overbook" a little - the amount depending on how close a tie you feel your advance volunteers have to the project. Also, way back to the comments by Nate - will you have engenieered wood fiber surfacing that volunteers will be hauling? That's pretty time consuming. Has your installer done a lot of community builds? If so, they should have a pretty good estimate. Depending on what other facilities you have available, at one recent project I'm aware of where there wer a lot of representatives, there was a revolving kickbball game on an adjacent field that volunteers circulated through. Better to keep volunteers busy on the playground and side projects, but good to have a contingency!