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| What's Growing - May 15, 2023Interpretive Volunteer Updates
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Dear Volunteers,
What an exciting week as we prepare for Gala for the Gardens this upcoming Saturday, May 20. We are excited to host this celebration and fundraiser for the Gardens of Golden Gate Park and welcome special guest speaker Gary Kamiya. This is a particularly memorable event for our volunteer program as we honor Delle Maxwell, our outgoing board chair and Gardens volunteer, and our Director of Education Annette Huddle. Whether you would like to attend the event or volunteer with us, we would love to see you!
I'm also happy to share a reflection from Annette regarding the recent Interpretive Volunteer Refresher series that Annette and Engagement Manager Sarah Sawtelle organized:
Thanks to all who participated in our three-session series with interpretive volunteers from the San Francisco Botanical Garden and the Conservatory of Flowers, as well as our City Guide partners who offer guided walks at the Japanese Tea Garden.
Our first session involved a presentation by staff including Sarah Sawtelle, Annette Huddle, Crystal Lee Stone, and Jamie Chan, providing essential background on the Gardens of Golden Gate Park merger (presentation available here), followed by some time in the Conservatory. Next we undertook an exploration of volunteer motivations and needs, seeking to better understand how we can support our interpretive community, followed by a short walk at the Botanical Garden. At our last session, we conducted structured conversations to gain insights about effective training approaches as we continue our planning to bring on new volunteers this fall. Several hardy souls continued on for a walk in the rain at the Japanese Tea Garden with City Guides, discussing approaches to working with the public in our different spaces.
Staff and volunteer participants alike appreciated this opportunity to share experiences, goals, wishes and plans, and we look forward to building on all we have learned from these sessions. Keep an eye on this newsletter as we move forward with new opportunities for engagement in the coming months!
Thank you again, Annette and Sarah, for leading these sessions and convening our interpretive volunteer community - and thank you to the volunteers who were able to carve out time to attend and share their perspectives!
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Interpretive Volunteer Registration and Resources
Botanical Garden:
May Botanical Garden public tours are now posted on our publicly available Event Calendar. Please register for June public tours here. In addition, we are still seeking volunteers to lead upcoming tours:
- Thursday, May 18 from 11 am - 12:00 pm: Private Tour for 30 staff from Sunset Mental Health. Register here >>
- Tuesday, May 23 from 11:30 - 12:30 pm: Private Tour for 14 staff from Virta Health. Register here >>
Conservatory of Flowers Volunteers: If you volunteered at the Conservatory in the past, but have not yet completed a Gardens of Golden Gate Park volunteer sign-up form, you must fill out a form by today to register for future opportunities through the new system. Please fill out the form (a computer is recommended) - it should just take a few minutes. If you run into any issues with the form, please email volunteer@gggp.org or sign up for one of the upcoming sessions listed below that will take place on May 16 and May 24.
Japanese Tea Garden:
Learn more about the Japanese Tea Garden with these resources:
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Enrichment, Events, and Training
Virtual Training and Q&A for the Volunteer Portal
Tuesday, May 16, 3:30 - 4:30 pm
Online, hosted on Zoom
Whether you're new to the Volunteer Portal or you have had access since it initially launched, you may find this Virtual Training and Q&A Session helpful as we dive into the Volunteer Portal. By joining this session, you'll have a chance to preview the functionality and bring your questions to Volunteer Program Manager Crystal Lee Stone. This is a particularly helpful learning opportunity for Conservatory of Flowers volunteers who are preparing for our migration.
Leadership Talk: Garden Director, Joe Rothleutner
Wednesday, May 17, 3:00 - 4:00 pm
County Fair Building, Recreation Room
Join us for a special presentation by Garden Director, Joe Rothleutner. As the Garden Director, he represents the onsite leadership of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department in the public-private partnership that operates the Gardens of Golden Gate Park.
Nature Journaling
Typically second and fourth Mondays of the month at noon
Join our Nature Journaling Group! If you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive updates on their next session or if you have any questions, please contact Mira Sinick at msinick@gmail.com.
Volunteer Program Office Hour at the Conservatory
Wednesday, May 24, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Conservatory of Flowers
Whether you have a question about your Volunteer Portal or just want to say hello, please stop by this Volunteer Program Office Hour at the Conservatory. Engagement Manager Sarah Sawtelle and Volunteer Program Manager Crystal Lee Stone will be present to help answer questions. In particular, we're excited to help field questions related to the transition of the Conservatory's volunteer registration system to the new Volunteer Portal, but we also welcome all volunteers to this event.
Please RSVP by emailing Sarah at ssawtelle@gggp.org >>
Beyond the Landscape: A journey of plants and people at San Francisco Botanical Garden
Saturday, May 27, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
San Francisco Botanical Garden
Join this collaborative public program developed by The American Indian Cultural District, the Gardens of Golden Gate Park, and the de Young Museum. Attendees will explore the relationships of the landscape, plants, and people in our living plant collections at San Francisco Botanical Garden. Participants take photographs on-site to explore and examine the relationship between Ansel Adams' work and narratives that go beyond his lens. This is a walking tour ending with a community discussion of the stories of California native plants and ethnobotanical relationships to our local Intertribal community in the Redwood Grove. This event will also be hosted again on July 8.
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In addition, we wanted to share a huge thank you to Susan Slavik, Paul Bourbin, Herb Adis & Mary Lew for volunteering for several tours & special events in the month of May at the Conservatory; Ernie Ng for leading a private tour at the Botanical Garden, and Ingrid Fryklund for leading her monthly Garden Tour of the Salesforce Transit Center's Rooftop Garden on the fourth Wednesday of each month.
Best wishes,
Crystal
Crystal Lee Stone | Volunteer Program Manager
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Gardens of Golden Gate Park
P (415) 661-1316 Ext. 400
9am-5pm, M-F
clstone@gggp.org
P.S. Did you miss an update? Catch up by viewing past newsletters on Volunteer Central.
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Give, join, renew, or upgrade your membership here
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Gardens of Golden Gate Park
1199 9th Ave, San Francisco, CA 94122
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