How To Coordinate a CAMN Volunteer Day:

This last Sunday, 8 CAMNers and 2 non-CAMNers did a ton of work on the South Field Tree Irrigation Project at Barton Creek Habitat Preserve.  As volunteer coordinator, I held major responsibility for pulling off a productive day.  Here's how I did it:

Step 1:  Direction.  Give Eric Koehler, Keelin Schaffrath, and Margaret Hill a semi-accurate GPS chart and ball of string and tell them to lay out where the water lines will go.

EricKeelinMargaret1.jpg (153535 bytes)

Step 2:  Facilitation..  Point out to Roger Ebert and Jennie Haywood (non-CAMN) that next to the leaky water tank is a bucket of roofing tar.  But stand back, they're likely to make a mess.

JennieRobertTank1.jpg (139166 bytes) jennieRobertTank3.jpg (192250 bytes)

Step 3:  Motivation.  Tell a bunch of naturalists they have a chance to grub around in a field, and your job is pretty much done.  Tell them the native hardwood seedlings need mulch to conserve water, and then just make sure you don't get trampled.

FlorenceMarianna1.jpg (180835 bytes) Marianna Hobbs and Florence Wong.  Roger1.jpg (199437 bytes) Roger Myers

Step 4:  Expect the unexpected.  Mark Keithley, volunteer preserve peace officer, showed up out of nowhere and started frisking people.  I would have stopped him, but they seemed to like it.

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Step 5:  Make it nice for the kids. 

Tammy Jarocki's son Zach was not particularly excited about reforestation.

TammyZackRoger.jpg (172789 bytes)

But when I told him we were going for a swim afterward in Barton Creek, up came the stick.

TammyZackRoger2.jpg (180450 bytes)

Step 6:  Responsibility. Show up at the end and take all the credit.

TimTank1.jpg (118491 bytes)

I hope this helps any of you thinking about planning a volunteer day.

Tim Scoggins

updated 23 February 2004