5 questions with David Berryman
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David Berryman is one of the volunteers who helped coordinate the Voice of Pride vocal competition and the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade this year. Michael Doughman, executive director of the Dallas Tavern Guild which sponsors Voice of Pride and the parade, described Berryman as the organizing committee’s “technology organizer.”
How did you first get involved as a volunteer with the parade?
I met Michael Doughman about four-and-a-half years ago through my job at the Round-Up Saloon. A couple of years ago, he needed help with doing the line-up and the staging of the parade, so I volunteered to help.
What are your duties as “technology organizer”?
I do all the databases for all the mailings. I print all the paperwork for the applications and I process all the applications. I number the entries and create the line-up. I create most of the paperwork that is used the day of the parade, like the line-up sheets and the maps of the parade route and the staging area, all the stuff that is handed out to parade entries to tell them where they need to be and when.
Do you have other responsibilities with the parade?
I am responsible for keeping track of all the golf carts and the radios we use on parade day. I am also responsible for keeping up with the cars that are donated by Troy Aikman Ford for us to use. And I am in charge of the barricade system this year, which means my crew and I will be out Friday night, getting the barricades where they are supposed to be, and again Saturday night when we will start blocking off some of the parking lots after the bars close.
What other community volunteer work do you do?
I worked for the Round-Up as a bartender and a barback and a doorman and whatever needed doing for three-and-a-half years, and I still do things for them sometimes. I created the applications and posters for a couple of their pageants recently, and I was a host again this year for the Dallas Does Denim customer appreciation party to kick off Pride week. I want to eventually branch out and work with other organizations, like the Resource Center of Dallas.
What job do you do to pay the bills?
I am director of operations for Art By Design. We manufacture art and sell it wholesale.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition, September 15, 2006.