Retreats are one of the two primary worship gatherings at Ozark Avalon. A tremendous amount of work goes into the preparation of these retreats. You can help, either before or during a retreat. Work weekends are selected weekends during the year when volunteers come to Ozark Avalon to help prepare for upcoming retreats. We offer about half off registration fees (to a minimum of $10) in exchange for 5 hours of labor. For instance, you can work 5 hours on Saturday, and again on Sunday, for reduction in registration fees to $10. You can also work 5 hours each on separate weekends for a $10 registration later in the season. A typical work day starts at 10am Saturday. You can volunteer for any task we have going that day. Examples: Come evening, we sit back and enjoy ourselves: swimming in the lake, community supper, bon fires, drumming, dancing, you name it. Lunch/dinner and crash space are provided for all volunteer workers. There are many activities during a retreat which can earn you half off registration fees. Some can be completed in a few hours, some stretch over the entire weekend. Examples:
Before the Retreat
During the Retreat
Child care is not in the list by design. Our child care person is paid an hourly rate in addition to attending the retreat free of charge. Contact us for more information if you are interested in doing festival child care.
Workshop presenters also get half off registration fees. Unlike other volunteer positions, we prefer to write workshop presenters a check for half the registration fee at the end of the festival. All workshops require prior approval. Here's a workshop application form.
A current list of Work Weekends may be found here. If you are not available on Saturday or Sunday, it is possible to work on other days than those shown. Contact us for more information.
Please note that you must RSVP for work weekends by calling (660) 882-6418 or (573) 289-3657. Our event schedule is dynamic: a small group may have scheduled a weekend activity on the land with very little notice, thus cancelling the work weekend.
The following retreat facilitator positions will receive a registration waiver for the current retreat and either 1) a waiver for a future retreat or 2) a waiver for a family member for the current retreat:
All work exchange must be arranged before the retreat and recorded in the work book.
Year and a Day class members are expected to pay $25 or work 5 hours for each class as payment for the class. Work done for class does not count for retreat attendance.
All festival participants are asked to sign up for at least one 2-hour work shift regardless of payment classification. Anyone getting full work exchange at a retreat will be required to sign up for 5 additional 2-hour work shifts (a total of 2+10 = 12 hours).
If you are considering scheduling an event at Ozark Avalon, please don't let a work weekend stop you. We are open to cancelling the work weekend in favor of your event. Please contact us for details.