Angel Guide

Introduction

Hello angel,

Thank you for being part of the Chaos Community and taking the time to read up on how to participate!

This guide tries to convey all necessary information and quirks you might encounter while helping at a chaos event.

As with any other guide, being complete is almost impossible, so bear with our own ignorance and feel free to enlighten the authors with any new knowledge you might come upon.

Quick start

Create yourself an Engelsystem account
Arrive at the venue
Find the Heaven and go there.
1. Talk to a welcome angel or a shift coordinator to get your angel badge and get marked as arrived.
2. If you have any questions, you can always ask the shift coordinators behind the counter.
Attend an angel meeting
1. Announced in the Engelsystem news
Click yourself an interesting shift
1. Read shift descriptions first
Participate in your shift
1. Use the navigation to find the right place.
2. Arrive a little bit early at the meeting point
Rest for at least one hour
Repeat from step 5

And always, have a lot of fun.

Other information sources

The origin of this guide is a PDF document designed to print at home and bring to the event. Due to this, it mainly contains generic information that is not expected to change a lot. Therefore, to be always up to date, please consider the following sources of information as well:

the Engelsystem news where we post information at a daily basis, such as major changes of shifts, the meal plan or announcements of Engelsystem downtimes
the Engelsystem meetings where teams announce their introductory meetings for restricted angel types
the Engelsystem FAQ which get updated continuously with the most common questions (and answers) during the event
the info pages containing lots of information about the event targeted at all participants and not just angels
our Mastodon account @c3himmel@chaos.social where we post important public service announcements not only during but also between events

What is Congress?

The Chaos Communication Congress (short: Congress) is the annual gathering event of the Chaos Computer Club, bringing together diverse communities related to security, cryptography, privacy and online freedom of speech.

For many people the Congress is a social event to meet (old and new) friends but besides that it features also a great variety of lectures and workshops on political and technical issues.

The event takes place regularly at the end of the year since 1984 and is considered one of the largest events of this kind which is only possible with your help as an angel!

What is an angel?

Note	TL;DR Everyone who invests their free time in our events is an angel.

Angels are participants who volunteer to make the event happen. They are neither getting paid for their work nor do they get free admission. However, as a "thank you" gesture, they may enjoy some benefits — see below for the details.

While the most obvious angels to most participants are the helpers operating the ticket scanners, checking wristbands at the doors, or selling drinks at the bars, there are many of tasks to be done "behind the scenes" that are barely noticeable (or only become visible when something goes wrong).

All of these people, from a new person helping out at a chaos event for the first time, to the experienced people on the organizing team who do the sophisticated planning in the months and weeks leading up to the event — they are all angels.

Without our hundreds or even thousands of helping folks it would not be possible to make these events happen. Thanks for joining our ranks!

Perks

Being an angel also comes with some perks. While we hope that participation is reward enough, here is a list of things that are exclusive to angels:

Community acknowledgement
Hanging out in Heaven and the angel hack center with its chill out area
Free coffee and (sparkling) water
Warm drinks or similar to make the cold night shifts more bearable

Rewards

If you have contributed a certain amount of time, you may receive access to:

Fantastic hot vegan and vegetarian meals
The famous limited™ angel T-shirt in Congress design
Maybe some other perks

T-shirts

There are three different kinds of T-shirts made by Stanley/Stella:

The classic, ordinary, straight-cut "unisex" shirt. (sizes XXS—8XL, datasheet XXS—5XL, datasheet 6XL, catalog 7XL—8XL)
The "short" shirt which is more tightly cut and much much shorter than a straight shirt. The neckline is wider than in the "unisex" shirt. (sizes XS—XXL, datasheet)
The "dress" shirt extends the cut of the "short" shirt. Depending on your body’s physics, the shirt’s bottom seem will end somewhere between the hips and the knees, like a dress. (sizes XXS—L, datasheet)

During signup in the Engelsystem you can select which is the best shirt size for you. However, depending on when you pick up your shirt, we can’t guarantee that a shirt in your selected size will be available as the shirts have to be produced based on experience from previous years before the Engelsystem goes live.

Important

Resource Limitations

Please keep in mind that our resources are limited. All goodies are provided on a "best effort" basis. In particular, the meals are intended for angels who also worked on the day in question and were therefore unable to eat elsewhere. A 2-hour shift on day 1 is therefore no reason to eat in the angel kitchen on day 3.

Expectations

Helping at our events also comes with some simple, but important expectations of you:

Be on time for your shift or give Heaven early notice.
Be well rested, sober and not hungry.
Be open-minded and friendly in attitude.
Live our moral values:
1. Be excellent to each other.
2. All creatures are welcome.

What is the Heaven?

The Heaven is the home of all the great angels.

It is the place where you will always receive help and have your questions answered as you begin your angel career for the current event.

Within Heaven, you will find some of the benefits of being an Angel, such as the Angel Hack Center.

But there is also work to be done in Heaven. So-called standby angels are waiting for tasks that spontaneously arise. At the Heaven counter, all the thousands of man-hours needed to keep the event running are managed, and all questions asked by angels are answered.

Heaven is also the best place to call if you have any problems with your shift, such as another angel not showing up.

The Engelsystem

The Engelsystem is the central place to distribute the work to all the helping angels. It can be a bit overwhelming at the beginning but you will get used to it and find your way around.

As you might have seen there are many different shifts and roles for angels — some sounding more appealing than others. There are shifts where you need to have some knowledge before you can take them. This knowledge is given in introduction meetings or by taking an unrestricted shift in the team and getting trained on the job. These introduction meetings are announced in the Engelsystem under the tab "Meetings". Heaven and the teams try to make sure that there are only restrictions for shifts in place where they are absolutely needed.

Most restrictions really only need a meeting or some unrestricted shifts at the team to get lifted. Harder restrictions are in place where volunteers need to have special certification, get access to certain systems with a huge amount of data (e.g. mail-queues with emails from participants) or handling big piles of money. Usually the requirements for joining an angeltype are included in the description of the angeltype.

Especially the restricted shifts are tempting because after all we want to get the event running, aren’t we? From our personal experience what gets the event running are the most common things: Guarding a door, collecting bottle/trash, washing dishes in the angel kitchen, being on standby to hop in when spontaneous help is needed or check the wrist band at the entrance.

If there are any further questions about angeltypes, the description of the angeltype usually includes contact data such as a DECT number or an e-mail address that can be used. Alternatively, you can also ask one of the persons of the respective angeltype mentioned under "Supporter".

Equipment

Participating as an angel in the Chaos community works best if you have some equipment with you. While most of the tools needed to complete a task will be provided to you, some items are personal and are best brought by yourself. This is a packing list of what you might bring — specifically for being an The list is organized by priority:

Refillable water bottle
DECT phone
Laptop or tablet depending on shift (not just a smartphone)
Badge holder (upright, 85x55mm)
Lanyard
Simple multi-tool
Power cable / euro adapter
Solid shoes

Note	Sustainability Think especially of badge holders from old events, as we do not like giving out new holders for sustainability reasons.

When to arrive?

As a generic rule of thumb, if you are mainly there for the event itself, day 0 (i.e. the day before the official start) is considered a good day to arrive.

On day 0, buildup is nearly completed, much infrastructure is done and the registration desk will already be open, so you can exchange your QR code for a wristband without having to queue for too long.

In addition, the areas are not yet as crowded as during the event, so day 0 is a good opportunity to familiarize yourself with the area and have a look around without the fear of missing any interesting talks.

Tip

Being a Hero

If you want to be a real hero, consider helping with teardown instead of buildup.

Usually, a lot of highly motivated people are keen to help with buildup, but after the event, most people are tired and want to get home to rest. The more people stay a day or two longer and help, the faster we all will be able to watch all the talks we missed during the event while relaxing at home.

If you want to have a more detailed look behind the scenes and are not afraid of all sorts of manual labor like carrying heavy stuff and setting up chairs and tables, you are welcome to arrive earlier and help with buildup.

However, there is only finite amount of work to be done, many tasks cannot be paralleled and there is NO infrastructure yet. So if you would like to help, please check out the related posts on the event blog or contact Heaven for more details. Please be sure to check the event blog for the call for angels, to find out when build-up starts and people can come.

Caution

Buildup

If you are helping at buildup, please be aware that the building is still a construction site at this time and trucks and heavy equipment are moving around!

Congress during buildup is not a suitable place for children!

Communication

DECT phones

One of the communication options of the event is the DECT or SIP phone network provided by the POC.

Note	DECT DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Communications) is an international standard for telecommunication, mostly used for cordless telephones. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is used to connect to a DECT or phone network from a client device.

DECT is used not only by participants to chat and make appointments, but also by the teams to network and coordinate with each other.

Heaven itself uses SIP clients or DECT phones to reach angels who have a phone number registered in the Engelsystem. Registering a phone number for the event and bringing a DECT phone helps Heaven enormously to reach you during your shift and also makes it easier for you to ask question to Heaven.

For example, you might be asked to check on something and can report back your findings while you are still on site, allowing for direct communication. Or you can quickly relay information during a door shift if someone tries to enter the venue without a valid ticket/wristband.

The POC provides a list of compatible DECT phones. If you don’t have a DECT phone at home, you can check the list and buy one in the store for about 25€.

Important

Important numbers

110 Security
112 CERT
113 Awareness Team
1023 Heaven
1111 Info Desk

Radios

In addition to the DECT telephones, handheld radios are used for communication purposes. They serve as backup at important points in case the DECT network fails and are also used for 1:n communication.

You may find a radio at your shift. In this case please make sure that the battery is not empty, the correct channel is set and the device is loud enough for you to understand. Communication always starts with an initialisation phase with call signs. Because most likely no one knows that you are the security angel at the door, you should use "Entrance door $number" as your call sign, not your real name or your nickname. For example: "Secu from Entrance door 4" — "Here is Secu, go ahead".

Teams

Congress is organized from different teams, each with its own area of expertise.

All teams are self-organized and provide their own set of services to the event. To give you an overview, we describe the teams you are most likely to interact with here and have an extensive diagram of their interactions.

Note	Creation Teams spawn into existence by a need not fulfilled. They are seldom created by an authority.

Awareness Team

You can contact the awareness team if you have experienced discrimination or harassment, want to deal with conflicts or emotions, or simply need someone to talk to.

The team members will listen to you and, if necessary, consider together what courses of action are available.

BOC (Bar Operation Center)

The BOC is getting all the drinks from the store into your stomach.

They operate several bars, sell beverages and deliver these from the storage to the bars.

Bottles Team

The Bottles Team is managing the routing of empty bottles from your hand back into the store where they came from.

Maybe you have noticed the bottle drop points. They decide where to place these and get all its content back to the storage.

CERT (Chaos Emergency Response Team)

The CERT as our medical aid unit takes care of all kinds of medical emergencies and fire hazard / prevention at the event.

If you encounter or witness such an emergency call 112 or 911 on your local (!) DECT phone and CERT will assist you.

You can visit CERT at any time, no matter if you have immediate or even long-term medical issues.

If you have medical or technical training (firefighter etc.) yourself and would like to support CERT, please bring your training credentials and certificates.

c3gelb Hygiene Team

c3Gelb ensures that there is no Congress epidemic and that the drinking water quality is ensured.

They ensure hygiene and prevent infectious diseases that could ruin the event for thousands of people.

Heaven

The Heaven team are the angels who work as shift coordinators in the Heaven and organise all the work that has to be done and the helping angels in the Engelsystem. They are excellent problem solvers who are attending chaos events for several years, so whenever you have a problem during your shift or have questions regarding your angel work don’t hesitate to call Heaven via DECT 1023 or come by and ask for help.

Infodesk

The Infodesk helps you to get answers about all the questions you have. These might be things like "Where is …" or "How can I …".

Kasse / Registration desk

The registration desk turns QR codes into wristbands – as if by magic, and often in record time.

Especially on day 0 and day 1, this includes a ton of excitement and fun (and work) – all the while never losing an infectious enthusiasm. After all, we are all here to have a good time, right?

LOC (Logistics Operation Center)

The LOC brings all the stuff to the venue before the event starts and manages to cart it off after the closing ceremony.

They operate the storage and watch over all the heavy machinery needed.

Only go there if you’re sober and aware of your surroundings as you don’t want to be run over by a forklift.

NOC (Network Operation Center)

The NOC is running the Cyber within all the fiber (and wireless) at the fastest speeds possible.

They manage the internet connection to the outer world, the network switches in the hackcenters, all the wireless access points and the colocation.

PL (Project Lead / Projektleitung)

The PL is the Chaos—Real World adapter. They are responsible for Congress and allow us to do all the fun stuff we are happy to enjoy.

Handling real world german bureaucracy and communication between the teams is their expertise.

POC (Phone Operation Center)

If you hear a telephone ringing thank the POC for it.

They keep the phones running and the telephone time service responding the current time.

Secu(rity)

If someone becomes aggressive towards you or you observe someone becoming aggressive towards others, please call 110 with your DECT (!).

The CrewCrew (our external security team) will help you with all problems, even if you suspect theft or other things that are not okay. Please don’t be afraid that the problem might be "not big enough" — if in doubt, the security will direct you to another team (e.g. Awareness).

If you are doing a door shift, you should call DECT 110 if someone enters the site without a ticket or is trying to do so. Also, please don’t be afraid to call if people linger at entrances who don’t seem to have a ticket or seem strange in any other way.

In general: listen to your gut feeling and rather call one time too many than not at all.

Speakers' Desk

The Speakers' Desk is contact point for all people which are part of the official program. Angels not only look after speakers, they answer all possible and impossible questions. Sometimes weeks before Congress the Speakers' Desk works together with the different teams to make all lectures happen.

Here is a quiet room for speakers to polish the slides and calm down before the talk. This is served with cookies and tea.

VOC (Video Operation Center)

The VOC keeps all the waving lucky cats waving on the screens.

Streaming from home and handling your post Congress depression with viewing talks is made possible by the VOC. Video and Audio recording and mixing as well as rendering and uploading the videos are handled by them.

Testimonials

Note	We are collecting here what we consider to be some outstanding testimonials on the topic of angeling, which we think may also help other angels. If you think that a link to a text is missing here, please send it to angel-guide@c3heaven.de.

https://jascha.wtf/angels-at-chaos-about-volunteering-and-fitting-in/