Who

Anyone age 16 and above with reliable transportation and capable of operating a shovel, salt spreader, leaf (snow) blower, and large two-stage snow thrower are welcome to apply.

Where and What

The Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts is located in the middle of Mitchell Park at 3270 Mitchell Park Dr,. Brookfield, WI 53045. There are a lot of sidewalks around the Wilson Center, and many doors. We need to keep all of the walkways to-and-from our parking lots safe for patrons and employees to use, and every exit must be useable whenever the building is occupied (about 360 days a year).

Here’s a diagram of what that looks like. It’s a lot! For a light snow it takes one person about one hour to clear everything one time. A moderate snow and salt spreading takes about 2 hours.

When and How

The walkways must be safe whenever the building is open (typically 8:00am to 9:00pm - it varies a little and we’ll let you know precisely when we’re open for each sign-up).

If you sign up for a time slot and it snows, and we are open, you need to come to the center and clear the walkways and emergency exits per the diagram above.

It’s even more important to keep the walkways clear before and after an event, when we could have up to 800 people of all ages visiting. Because it can take up to an hour to clear the walkways one time, and patrons typically start arriving up to 45 minutes before a show, we ask that extra attention be paid starting one hour before any event.

We have all the equipment needed. If you want to bring your own, we won’t stop you (unless the equipment is unsafe to operate). We have two large 2-stage snow throwers, a single stage snow thrower, a power broom, leaf (snow) blower, shovels, and salt spreaders.

More detail

The Overall Process

After you’ve signed up to be on the snow removal team we will send updates twice a week. Each Tuesday and Friday morning we will send a notification for any new sign-ups on our Sign-Up Genius page.
There are 3 shifts per day, each shift is 5 hours long: morning (7am to noon), afternoon (noon to 5pm), and evening (5pm to 10pm). Depending on expected snow activity we’ll post 2-3 slots in each shift, so up to three people can be signed up for any given shift.
Signing up for a shift in Sign-Up Genius means you are making yourself available for snow removal IF it snows. For the inconvenience of being “on call” we’ll pay you $4 / hour and you agree to stay within about 30 minutes of The Center in case we need call you in. You agree to be available as needed during your entire “on call” time for snow removal (IE: if a giant drift forms across a path, we can call you in even if it’s not actively snowing at the time).
Special attention will be paid to events at the Center, but it’s your responsibility to keep things generally clear during the hours signed up for.
When you arrive at the Wilson Center for snow removal duty, we’ll track your time and pay you $25 / hour while you’re at the Center. Snowfall can be hard to predict and some days you might need to hang out for the entire shift because the snow is coming down fast enough to require regular touch-ups. We’ll provide regular warm-up breaks as needed and if it makes more sense to “hang out” for a bit rather than drive back-and-forth, we reserve the right to find some simple “odd jobs” to do inside the Wilson Center to help fill the time.

Getting Paid

Pay will be provided every two weeks via paper check or direct deposit depending on how many shifts you sign up for.
If you are called to the Wilson Center we’ll pay a minimum of 2 hours for your time, even if it only takes 45 minutes to clear the snow.
If you need to come back more than an hour later to clear snow again, a new “instance” starts – another 2-hour minimum period.
On-call time will be tracked using Sign-Up Genius and paid at $4 / hour for the shifts signed up for. FORFEITURE NOTE: If you sign up for on-call time but then are unable to make it to the Center for snow removal if we call, you forfeit all your on-call pay for that entire week (Sun-Sat). If you notify us a minimum of 24 hours in advance that you can’t honor your on-call shift we will simply remove your sign-up from that shift and not remove the entire week of stand-by pay. We also follow a “3 strike rule” on any no-call / no-show behavior. If you repeatedly sign up for shifts but do not show up when called we will stop asking you to sign up.

Interested? —> How to get on the snow removal team:

Fill out this Snow Removal Request form and click Submit
A staff member will contact you to confirm your eligibility, and then send some paperwork to be filled out so we can pay you.
After all the paperwork is done we’ll add you to the snow notifications list and provide the Sign-Up Genius link.

Still have questions?
Text or call Stuart Jacobs @ 262-373-5025, or email spjacobs@wilson-center.com