Leading a workday can be a lot of fun, and co-hosting a single workday fulfills half your community garden hours for the year. It’s not just showing up for the day of the workday, however.
Here’s a guide to your responsibilities as a workday host:
Before the Workday
- Find out what work needs to be done by communicating with the Workday Coordinator(s), looking around garden and checking shed binder. With the WD Coordinator, help create a work list and determine whether we need any materials (green waste bags, mulch, manure, cardboard, etc.).
- Coordinate starter food with your co-leader – the garden provides a $25 stipend to kickstart the BBQ. People are encouraged to bring pot-luck dishes and grill items, but the leaders generally bring hot dogs and sausages.
- The most successful workdays often include an element of fun – e.g. seed swap, “how to” session, entertainment, biggest squash competition or holiday festivities. Talk to the WD Coordinator if you have ideas.
On the Day: Leading the Workday
- Put out sign up list (these lists can be found in the shed binder in a plastic sleeve, a few pages in).
- Remind people to sign in and record hours as they arrive. And to sign out.
- Post list of tasks and activities on the chalkboard (board behind the shed, chalk is in the drawers).
- Divide gardeners into work groups, if needed.
- Direct gardeners to those activities and keep an eye on how things are going.
- Close out tasks when complete and move workers to new tasks.
At 11am, match sign-in sheet with gardeners (walk around, talk to gardeners). Add anyone who didn‘t sign in.
- Set up table and BBQ for potluck lunch.
- Advise gardeners of lunch hour by giving a “15 minutes to end/bbq coming” shout out.
- Make sure all tools are cleaned and returned to their proper places.
Note: All green waste should be put into the compost area, except invasive weeds. Those should be put in the new “bad weed bins” in the southwest area of the garden. We can load bad weeds and compostable waste into the green bins that are located near the bad weed bins.
The key to the green bins is above the door in the main tool shed (or in the black tool cabinet).
IMPORTANT: Before you leave, please take a walk around the garden and out to the mulch and manure areas to make sure all the tools have been collected. We’ve lost a good number of tools and not all from theft.
Pot Luck Deliciousness
Charcoal and grill are in the small shed behind the main shed. The combination is the same – 3675. Charcoal chimneys should be used (no starter fluid, please!) and there will be paper and matches in the shed. If you are unfamiliar with a chimney or bbqing, ask WD attendees. Someone will be a griller.
Paper plates/holders, serving dishes, utensils, bbq tools and table coverings are in plastic bins in the small shed. Sometimes we need condiments, sometimes we have – it will be part of the conversation with the Coordinator.
After the Workday: Almost Done
Make sure sign up sheets somehow get to the Workday Coordinators. Most leaders take a photo and send. You can also simply leave them in the back of the binder and then let the Coordinators know that they‘re there.
Dishes used: Please take any dirty dishes home, wash, and return to the garden before the next workday.
Feel free to post a message about the workday success on the Yahoo site. Hand off incomplete or new task list to the Workday Coordinator(s) and provide any feedback on the process.
Finally, celebrate! You were a leading part of the community!
Note for the Winter months: Rain sometimes cancels a workday. If weather looks menacing, call or email a Steering Committee member and get instructions on how to cancel. Contact info will be provided beforehand. We generally stay on “mist.”