The chapter provides several types of volunteer opportunities. Committee work provides a longer-term opportunity and Special or One Time Events offers variety with several different options. Volunteering for the chapter can offer many rewards. You may learn a new skill, increase your knowledge of native plants, expand the public’s knowledge of native plants and much more. Not only will you help the environment but you will also get to know other members of the chapter.
Contact our Volunteer Coordinator for more information and to volunteer for any of these committees or special events.
Current Board-Related Committees
Membership: Maintains the membership records, supports member retention, and promotes chapter growth.
Plant Sale: Responsible for coordinating the annual native plant sale.
Publicity: Serves to notify the public of meetings, activities, and projects sponsored by the Illinois Prairie Chapter.
Newsletter: Coordinates the preparation and distribution of an Illinois Prairie Chapter newsletter at least quarterly.
Programs: Plan a schedule of programs and activities (with input from the Board) for the General Membership meetings.
Volunteers: Recruit volunteers among the members for various chapter-sponsored activities.
Website: Coordination of activities necessary to maintain an up-to-date Illinois Prairie Chapter web presence; stay up to date on website activities at the National level; and perform other duties as deemed necessary by the Board.
Special or One Time Events
Booth Volunteers: Help the chapter expand the public’s knowledge about the benefits of using native plants at various events around the area such as the Master Gardener’s Home Lawn and Garden Show. Responsibilities may also include set up, take down, and delivery of the booth materials. These hours can be counted toward Master Naturalist and Master Gardener volunteer hours.
Dirt Crew Volunteers: Individuals willing to work on outdoor native plant projects as they arise. Notification of an upcoming volunteer opportunity will be sent via e-mail. Those contacted will need to notify the Volunteer Coordinator of availability. Volunteers are welcome to bring friends and family to the project site to help out.
Field Trip Committee: Assist with the planning of native plant-related field trips.
Forever Wild Partnership: Identify potential native planting partnerships and partnership project mentors to assist with the project.
Garden Center: Work with local garden centers to encourage them to offer more native plants for sale by giving them brochures about gardening with natives, offering to give native-plant related presentations, or by sponsoring an onsite for a “Natives Day” where our chapter members would staff a display and answer potential customers’ questions about native plants.
Historian: Collects and organizes information about chapter activities and events to be used in milestone celebrations and advertising. Familiarity with Google Drive and different file formats helpful.
Library: Sets up the chapter library at all indoor chapter meetings, check out books to members, send reminders for overdue books, and adds new books to the library.
Mentor Program: Members with questions or wishing to have a house call should send these questions to the Chapter’s email address ([email protected]). An experienced chapter member will address any questions received or arrange an on-site visit.
Note: Experienced members add your name to the mentor list by seeing a Board member or sending a message to the chapter email account.
Photographer: Responsible for capturing photographs at chapter events for use in the chapter newsletter and for other publicity purposes.
Pollinator Pathway: The Pollinator Pathway was created as means of improving the health and abundance of both pollinators and the native plants that sustain them. By mapping native plantings in Central Illinois, we hope to both build awareness of local native plantings and recruit participants to fill in the gaps where resources for pollinators are scarce. The committee maintains the online Pathway map and is continually focusing on ways to recruit new Pathway participants. The committee meets at least once a month.
Social Media: Assist with management of the chapter’s public Facebook page as well as the chapter’s Facebook group for members only. This includes regularly posting appropriate content on the public Facebook page to keep people informed and engaged and monitoring the public page for any inappropriate comments.
Youth Education/Outreach: Assist with developing opportunities for engaging school-age children with native plant-related activities. This involves identifying potential community and school partners, coordinating programs, collaborating with partners to develop programming, and scheduling chapter representatives at event information tables.