Volunteers are an important part of the Western Foundation. Their efforts help us grow and serve researchers and others in the community. They also have the opportunity to experience museum tasks and projects that many people never have the opportunity to! Our Volunteers lend more than 1,000 hours each year, and allow the WFVZ to move forward on all kinds of projects and programs!
Starting in 2022 we will have four kinds of volunteer positions available: (1) field research assistants (contact Linnea at wfvz dot org); (2) education assistants (contact Paul at wfvz dot org); (3) collections assistants (contact Rene at wfvz dot org); and (4) fundraising and outreach assistants (contact Jennifer at wfvz dot org). Depending on the experience of the volunteers, tasks in 2022 include counting birds in the Santa Monica Mountains or on the Santa Clara River; establishing nest box transects and checking boxes during the spring; assisting with outdoor education (classes and family bird walks) and museum education (tours and classes); entering collections data; helping to relabel cabinets and drawers in the collections; helping with science exhibts and displays; and helping with open house, silent auction, and membership outreach!
Helping with the Open House Entering skin data to our database
Preparing study skins Helping with the exhibits
Some of the collections tasks that volunteers have helped with in the past inlcude:
- Computerizing study skin, egg, and teaching collection data
- Preparing bird study skins
- Checking the bird collections for pests
- Online database checking
- Reorganizing the broken egg collection
- Computerizing the library book collection
- Entering and shelving library journals
- Photocopying requested journal articles
- Assisting at museum open houses!
