Your help is needed!  We have had a few people respond saying they want to help but we need more people to help. Please consider sharing your knowledge to help the entire volunteer program.

Volunteers-In-Parks (VIPs) are a significant part of park operations. You do what needs to be done, whether in the tidepools, the Visitor Center, the Lighthouse Kitchen Garden, the Entrance Station, as a Weed Warrior, in the Bunker, or in other areas of the park. There are many opportunities for VIPs to contribute.

The Volunteer Navigation Committee (VNC) also needs your help in keeping the VIP program itself running smoothly by making sure staff and VIPs have what they need to be successful. VIPs can help with training, developing processes and procedures, leadership, and working to establish and maintain a connected community of staff and VIPs.

To that end, there are three opportunities for you to help. The VNC is developing working groups to tackle each opportunity. Please consider joining any of the working groups to help with these projects. Send an email to cabr_volunteers@nps.gov and let us know how you can help:

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1. Set up training for each type of VIP role/opportunity

Our task is to Develop training for all the volunteer opportunities (as TPERP has done).   Each volunteer area, such as Military, Lighthouse, etc. needs to come up with a training curriculum, which might be a virtual, multi-hours course, or a procedures manual, or shadowing, or perhaps a short overview video, etc. Each area is to determine its needs and produce the necessary documented training.The Volunteer Supervisor and representative volunteers in each area will decide what is needed and how best to set it up for their areas. The volunteers will then help produce the training material in partnership with the VIP supervisor. The VNC can assist the volunteers with creating this training once the outline is established.

Here are the Volunteer Opportunities that we have identified for training. We have included the Volunteer Supervisor as well as possible ideas for  training:

Opportunity	Supervisor	Type of Training Needed
TPERP	Pauline Geisler	Virtual multi-hour course, shadow shifts
Lighthouse Information Station	Sandy Hernandez	Virtual, shadow shifts
Visitor Center	Sandy Hernandez	Virtual, shadow shifts
Roving	temp. Briana Carmona	Video overview
Weed Warriors	Lonie Brown	Video overview
Kitchen Garden	Sandy Hernandez	?
Park Beautification	Amanda Gossard	?
Greenhouse	Patricia Simpson	?
Herpetofauna Survey	Samantha Wynns	?
Shorebird Survey	Samantha Wynns	?
Facilities Management	Deric Johnson	Shadow
WWII Bunker	Sandy Hernandez	?
Entrance Line & Station	Tom Wagner	?
Science Explorers Club	Samantha Wynns	?
Volunteer of the Day	Sandy Hernandez	?
Living History	Sandy Hernandez	?

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2. Community Building among VIPs and between VIPs and staff

The task is to bring back the pre-COVID-days camaraderie among VIPs and between VIPs and staff. Since the shutdown, the interaction between VIPs has been limited to their role and shift without any opportunity to meet and get to know volunteers and staff in other areas. We need to have special events and activities for all VIPs and staff, such as potlucks and sunset picnics, and also encourage volunteers and staff to come to VNC meetings so they can rebuild that social connection..

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3. Develop a list of Continuing Education (CE) topics

We are compiling a list of previous Continuing Education talks that are available, but we would also like to bring back our regular Continuing Education events and need help coming up with good topics. Staff members are eager to schedule these talks but need our input on things we would like to learn about.

Here are a few suggestions for CE topics. What would you like to learn more about? Contact cabr_volunteers@nps.gov with your ideas:

• Kumeyaay on the Point
• Why is our Coastal Sage Scrub so cool?
• Fort Rosecrans
• The Flying Ammonite
• CNM’s 21 military fortifications, including the only remaining pop-up searchlight
• The TTT (Topside to Tidepool Trail); or something on all three of our trails
• CNM’s State Marine Reserve and the Stewardship Strategy to Protect it – is it working?
• Living in the new lighthouse (talk given by the current CO there, or by Karen). Maybe even something on Lighthouses of California.
• Let’s talk about the Las Isles Coronados
• Where did our abalone go?
• ANYTHING from Ernie Cowan, a local nature observer and writer

Please consider helping the VNC with these projects and as always, thank you for what you do to support the park.