Processing and response to new volunteer applications
Excel database update of all the volunteers.
Review and evaluation of the festival – what went well and worked/not so good/things to improve in future festivals.
Most importantly after 3 full weeks here – I had a meeting with the project manager Rachel about the structure of the project – drawing up a diagram of all the roles needed to be filled – what they each involve and how they link. Vital for the organisation to be sustainable for the future.
We also went over the goals and aims from the 1st week and saw what was achieved in my role of volunteer coordinator in management.
22/07/2014 – Tuesday
Evaluation/review day
Posting new advertisement for a new coordinator role after I leave.
Completing my own evaluation/diary of my role.
Contacting volunteers by phone and email for future interviews.
Database sheet entry for volunteer hours and evaluations.
Evaluation and review of the review survey completed for the inactive volunteers.
Planning out a plan template for an induction day for a new volunteer coordinator candidate – as I will be training them on Wednesday.
23/07/2014 – Wednesday
All day – Induction training day with new volunteer coordinator
Also an interview for potential volunteer
Phone and email correspondence with other potential volunteers.
Volunteer application processing.
24/07/2014 – Thursday
Volunteer application responses via phone/email etc
Long Evaluation form questions to fill in for the festival on Sunday using all the volunteers feedback answers.
Snake surveying forms data input.
Creating a monthly newsletter.
Assisting on a plant foraging walk on the Heath- 2.30 hours long with a group of 30 people attending.
Interview for a new volunteer.
Evening at the Heath
25/07/2014 – Friday – last day!!!!!
So this is it – my internship finished. What a great experience!!!!! I have learnt so much – met soo many people, creatures and wildlife- and achieved a lot in terms of the skills and roles and goals.
Thanks both to the Charity Insights team and to everyone with RSPB Wild About Hampstead Heath ( i.e. Rachel more specifically) for this more than wonderful opportunity.
14/07/2014 – 18/04/2014 Preparation for the Festival!!!!
14TH July 2014 – Monday
Email and phone correspondence with potential volunteers
Volunteer Wildlife Interpreter Interview s.
sign spraying
Response to specific volunteer role applications sent via websites and email.
Researching events happening this week in different communities like Hackney – to try to attend or post adverts in about the festival.
Starting to draw up a project plan looking at all the roles in the project – the sustainability of each role for the future of the project with volunteers only as the workforce.
Drawing up a plan to follow for future coordinators to use and share about what their jobs/tasks would involve – i.e. For the recruitment – target audience and ways of reaching them, weekly, monthly tasks to do and attend etc.
Creating new ideas about where to advertise the festival – researching popular sites – newspapers and events etc. Looking at the target audience etc.
Contacting organisations to post our event about the festival.
15th July 2014 – Tuesday
Email and phone correspondence with potential volunteers.
Processing of new volunteer application form sent to put on database.
festival art
Advertising on websites for the Heath festival with the festival poster and other details.
A drawing of a preparation plan summary for the volunteer fair tomorrow in Camden.
Making a summary plan of the activities needed to be completed in the creative session in the evening.
Creative session with other volunteers to help produce activities that were drawn up as well brainstorming of new ideas on top.
Arts and crafts part – so making, drawing, painting, sticking, spraying and getting ‘arty’ so beginning all the physical decorations and activities for the festival – i.e. making a massive beehive, bees etc.
16th July 2014 – Wednesday
Preparation for Camden Volunteer fair – printing leaflets, flyers, posters and arranging things to take to put on our stall.
setting up for volunteer fair
Volunteer fair in Camden – representing Wild about Hampstead Heath on stall by myself!!! Other organisations present also. Interacting with other different volunteer organisation – networking and also speaking and interacting with public who were walking around who may want to volunteer. Got many emails and had many interesting conversations!!! Really great and beneficial experience!!!
17th July 2014 – Thursday
Responding and contacting all potential interested volunteers from the fair yesterday who provided contact details.
Correspondence with other interested volunteers – to arrange interview times and dates.
Statistical analysis on the feedback survey designed for inactive volunteers.
Preparation for the festival – more arts and craft!! – Continued from Tuesday.
Kubota ride to pick up equipment & activities
18th July 2014 – Friday
Responding and contacting all potential interested volunteers from the fair yesterday who provided contact details.
Correspondence with other interested volunteers – to arrange interview times and dates.
Preparation for the festival – more arts and craft!! And putting all the activities together that have been completed.
Kubota ride around to collect equipment and activities in north of Heath.
The summary diary of the main activities day to day I was involved in the 2nd week.
Hedgehog trap on the Heath
7th July 2014 – MONDAY
Finishing & editing volunteer flyer leaflet with photo edit.
Researching all the volunteer advertising websites WAHH project appears in, so looking at how the project is observed by potential volunteers.
Spreadsheet for the different advertising websites WAHH project appears in and also potential websites to advertise in that are used at present by other volunteers. So updating existing adverts and placing new ones. Using the information given by existing volunteers – and the pie chart from statistical analysis already completed to find out which advertising method/organisation to go through so to get more volunteers.
Writing a template advert for the volunteering roles which can be used to be reposted once advert expires in future.
Researching volunteering fairs and events in the month of July – e.g. Camden Volunteer fair and booking in for a slot.
8th July 2014 – TUESDAY
Continue the research into volunteering advertising websites – update and create new ads on all the old and new websites for volunteering from the research carried out on the 7th July.
Register with Volunteering fairs by email and phoned them to confirm attendance.
Wildlife camera
Finished a template for volunteering adverts to use in the future.
Started writing and editing the letter to send to the volunteers that have been inactive for a long time – with a feedback form so creating a template to use for the future.
Email correspondence with potential volunteers – arranging times and dates for interviews (7 in total)
Outdoor Snake survey with forms to fill in during it.
Collecting also the wildlife camera roll to observe and check it.
9th July 2014 – WEDNESDAY
Email correspondence with potential volunteers – so responding back to sent applications via the volunteering websites and email correspondence with other volunteer enquires.
Phoning volunteers who have left voicemails.
Arranging interviews with volunteers.
Writing up a review template for volunteers who have been inactive for a long while – designing a quick and catchy review so they will fill in so we can get feedback from them and coming up with an incentive for them if they answer the questions.
Creating ideas for how we can keep our existing volunteers happy – so brainstorming ideas.
Writing up activity cards for the wildlife interpreters for the different activities to teach the public like the bird feeder activity and researching facts for them to use i.e. about birds in this case.
10th July 2014 – THURSDAY
Quite a few Volunteer Interviews today & then emailing registration forms and all about you forms to them as well as any other extra info they wanted emailed over.
Email and phone correspondence with potential volunteer applications that have been sent.
Designing the quick review from yesterday on survey monkey and finishing the editing and sending it off to all the inactive volunteers on the database so we can get feedback from them.
Researching and making notes of events and activities happening in the following week to remind the volunteers about so to get them involved.
Snake surveying
11th July 2014 – FRIDAY
Volunteer application responses via email.
Arranging interviews for volunteers next week.
Setting up bike activities for the weekend – so finishing up the group activity design, printing off posters and activity leaflets, arranging all the books, leaflets, CDs for the bike to go out.
Excel database update of information for new volunteers with their application form processing.
Researching volunteering events for this month to get involved in – applying as an organisation with different close by boroughs.
WILD About HAMPSTEAD HEATH is a reaaaaalllllllly dynamic, exciting and fulfilling project going on at the moment. There really is sooooo much to be wild about the Heath from all its wildlife, habitats, people and the events going on there.
What a really cool week – have learnt so much and completed so much in a week. It was a brilliant start – meeting the team and the wildlife on the Heath and I happened to start the same week that was a training week for an education officer role so it was perfect timing. The team well basically it is the best team to work with –
Here is a summary diary of the main activities day to day I was involved in the 1st week.
30th June 2014 – MONDAY
Housekeeping and building tour
Introduction to the project and partnership as well as overview of the project
Walk around the Heath
Introduction to outdoor learning: educational benefits; working with groups, learning styles; health and safety considerations, lesson planning and curricula.
The educational officer showed us additional activities, covering adult learners and teacher training for the group activities that take place on the Heath for the public.
1st July 2014 – TUESDAY
Hedgehog prints collected from the Hedgehog Trap set on the Heath.
Discovering the Heath – so looking at the wildlife and habitats present there, the ponds, streams, gardens, trees etc.
Snake walks, crayfish, hedgehog traps to try to attract them so can track them for surveying.
Checking out the wildlife cameras installed on the Heath.
So looking at the Outdoor areas available both to public when they are lead by groups and also the parts of the Heath that are left only for wildlife to encourage more diversity on the Heath.
Understanding how the ecologists on the Heath keep track of the vast diversity of the heath – with all its habitats and wildlife. As well as how improvements can me made in the future to make it more efficient and less costly.
2nd July 2014 – WEDNESDAY
Office work. Learning more about the coordinator role in terms of the managing side of it and the outreach role – where the main task is to try to encourage more volunteering on the WAHH project.
Learnt about the general procedure for volunteering – looking at cribs sheets for getting volunteers via email, phone and face to face. So the procedure needed for this – how to speak and what content to mention.
Also maintained the databases for all the volunteers at present – being the way they found out about the project so can invest more time and effort in doing more advertising in this way – if a particular way i.e. a website seems to be a very popular way people are finding out about the project.
So need to think about visual representation i.e. pie charts, graphs to show the number of volunteers that are fixed, not as regular ones and ones that have never actually volunteered but are on the email databases. And the visual representation of the means that the volunteers found out about the project.
Thinking up new ideas about attracting volunteers on the Heath.
Also looking at the structure and order needed to run a successful and efficient project for the long term after the 3 years. So looking at the different roles needed, the amount of volunteers needed and so on.
Used trello, excel and word as well as emailed few groups to spread the word about the Heath.
Creative session coming up with educational group activities
3rd July 2014 – THURSDAY
Introduction to volunteering offer of WAHH.
Introduction to interpretation
Testing out a guerrilla interpretation event
Listening and observing about what makes volunteers happy and want to volunteer.
Creative session for the bike.
Come up with ideas for a toolkit and make it – putting them into action at the weekend.
Introduction to the community outreach programme.
4th July 2014 – FRIDAY
Statistical analysis of the volunteer numbers – job roles and the ways they found about the project. Pie chart and Graph analysis representation to Rachel – project manager.
Looking at Do-it org and environment jobs website which seem to be popularly used by the volunteers.
Also contacting the volunteers who haven’t stated how they found out about the project.
Designing a volunteer flyer leaflet – new layout- colours and message so researching styles and layout on the internet.
Carried out Volunteer interviews.
Setting up the bike for the weekend – so preparing all the activities and putting them together for the volunteers to be using.
Emailed volunteers with info – and forms to fill in.
