What's Growing - January 9, 2023

Interpretive Volunteer Updates

Dear Volunteers,

Happy New Year! I'm thrilled to welcome you to the first issue of our Gardens of Golden Gate Park Interpretive Volunteer Newsletter, What's Growing! This newsletter will be sent to our wonderful community of docents, guides, and interpretive volunteers across the Gardens of Golden Gate Park every other week to help you stay connected with the Gardens and one another.

Thank you to those of you who have completed our Interpretive Volunteer Planning and Communications Survey and a special thank you to Betsy Johnsen for your thoughtful e-newsletter title submission. Even if you did not have a chance to complete the survey, I hope you'll share your thoughts on your time at the Gardens in the upcoming year. You may either reach out to me directly or if you prefer an anonymous outlet to share your suggestions or thoughts, please feel free to use this Comment Box.

Please read on to learn about our upcoming in-person trainings this January: Magnificent Magnolia and Garden Guides Refresh; along with opportunities to volunteer at the Conservatory and the Botanical Garden.

Botanical Garden Public Tour Schedule

Beginning on March 1, we plan to publicize our public tours on our Event Calendar. We hope that this shift will help us welcome more visitors to our tours and provide a better experience for both our volunteers leading tours and our visitors!

In our recent Interpretive Volunteer survey, we received wonderful suggestions on how to publicize our public tours and shifting to this calendar will be instrumental in helping us spread the word. If you have been trained to lead Botanical Garden public tours, please take a few moments to help us populate the Event Calendar by registering to lead tours through your Volunteer Portal.

The deadline to register for March tours is Tuesday, January 31. In the meantime, please continue to also register for our January and February tours and roving assignments.

Upcoming Trainings

Magnificent Magnolia Training at the Botanical Garden

Thursday, January 12 from 10 am - 2:30 pm

We're so excited for this opportunity to learn and connect with one another. This event will help prepare our interpretive volunteer community for Magnificent Magnolias this spring! This event will feature a tour led by GIS Manager Steve Gensler and Director of Collections & Conservation Ryan Guillou along with a relaunch of our interpretation station tables led by Engagement Manager Sarah Sawtelle and Director of Education Annette Huddle.

Introduction to Garden Guides - Across All Three Gardens

Tuesdays January 17, 24, and 31 from 10 am - 1 pm

Join Annette and Jenn for this 3-session series that will touch upon each of our gardens at the Gardens of Golden Gate Park. This refresher includes information on Guided Walks and a walk through the Botanical Garden, a visit to the Children’s Garden and Japanese Tea Garden, and a final visit to the Conservatory of Flowers to learn about their Jungle Guide program and to discuss new directions for programs at GGGP.

We highly recommend you attend all three sessions for the full experience. While the registration for this event is currently full, please register here to be added to our waitlist.

Interpretive Volunteer Registration and Resources

Botanical Garden:

Register for volunteer spots at the Botanical Garden through your unique Volunteer Portal.
Magnificent Magnolias Volunteer Guide - Revisit our December 5 training video and access additional training materials.

Conservatory of Flowers:

Sign Up for Jungle Guides Youth Group Visits - February through May bookings have been added to the calendar.
Gallery Updates - What's new at the Conservatory?
Sign Up for a Greeter/Rover Volunteer Assignment - Please note that volunteer assignments will not be available during the COF maintenance closure.
Volunteer Assignment Calendar - View all currently booked assignments.

Gratitude Garden

Thank you for engaging 919 visitors during December! Our interpretive volunteer community engaged 315 visitors at the Botanical Garden and 604 visitors at the Conservatory of Flowers. Please remember to share your engagement numbers. If you run into any issues recording your engagement numbers, please let me know.

Thank you for being a part of our volunteer community! If you have a recommendation for a future issue of What's Growing, please let me know.

Best wishes,

Crystal

Crystal Lee Stone | Volunteer Program Manager
__________________________________________
Gardens of Golden Gate Park
P (415) 661-1316 Ext. 400

9am-5pm, M-F
clstone@sfbg.org

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