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2008 Volunteer
Interest Form
Self-motivated? The Rivanna Trail can use your help.
Please return form to:
Rivanna Trails Foundation
PO Box 1786
Charlottesville, VA 22902
Name (Please print) _________________________________________________________
Contact information:
Telephone_______________________ Email ________________________
(If you would like to be on our RTFriends Email List for receiving occasional notices and have not done so already, please subscribe now.)
Please check the areas in which you are able to volunteer your time and skills. Feel free to write comments next to the item to clarify your level of commitment or to make suggestions. If you filled out a similar form last year, please fill out this NEW form to reflect your current interests so that we can update our records. Thank you.
Writing, computer skills, photography
_____ Research grant opportunities. Send us leads to possible funding sources. We are happy to partner with other organizations whose goals overlap ours.
_____ Improve our RTF web site. Make suggestions or submit additions.
_____ Photograph special events. We can let you know what sorts of images we need for grants and various publications.
Trail building and maintenance opportunities
_____ Co-lead one of our Saturday work parties. This job involves previewing the project with our Supervisor of Trail Maintenance, planning tool and equipment needs, meeting volunteers on the workday, gathering tools from our RTF supply, managing a project, and returning all tools to our tool shed at the end of the morning. (This is a fun and satisfying opportunity for a group.)
_____ Lead young people in trail maintenance activities. We have a need for this type of leadership especially after school and during the summer vacation.
_____ Become a Trail Adopter (TA) of a short section of trail. We ask for at least a one year commitment. The primary job of a trail adopter is to keep the trail corridor open of encroaching vegetation and to report to us problems that are beyond his or her capabilities. We dedicate work parties and special forces to bigger jobs such as footbridge repair and trail rerouting.
_____ Help a Trail Adopter on the trail section of your choice. We will pass on your name to that section’s TA.
_____ Do occasional chain sawing of blow downs with your saw. Tell us what section(s) of trail you would like to work on. We try to keep this list current. We try to rotate the people whom we call.
_____ Mow a section of trail one or more times during the growing season. Use your own equipment, or arrange your own transport of our DR mower. We have a few trail sections that are either new or in the sun, and they present more work for our Trail Adopters than we like them to have. Gas-powered brush mowers and grass trimmers have proven to be the tools of choice.
_____ Help organize our National Trails Day celebration and workday logistics (first Saturday in June).
Stream Crossings – Footbridges and rock hops
_____ Assess our footbridges. Compile a current report of bridge safety.
_____ Join a group of bridge enthusiasts who share the goal of building three major pedestrian crossings: Azalea Park, Woolen Mills, and Pen Park to Darden Towe Park. We need people with experience and commitment to get the job done: bridge design or construction, stream dynamics, state and federal permitting processes, or major fund raising.
_____ Help construct new and replacement footbridges. We are looking for people with carpentry skills and experience in use of power tools.
_____ Help design and/or build rock-hop crossings in smaller streams where they would aesthetically and functionally be more practical than bridges. We are looking for people who are strong, welcome the challenge of moving large boulders, and love to get wet. We are also looking for people with structural engineering experience to dvise us on the installation of formed stepping stones.
Hiking related
_____ Start a Rivanna Trail hiking group. You design the schedule, the distance, the audience. You may publicize on our website.
_____ Walk part or all of the trail on a regular basis and report trail conditions to us with our new “Eyes on the Trail” page.
Regional trail building opportunities
_____ The American Hiking Society (AHS) is the national voice for building, protecting, and promoting foot trails. The organization sponsors spectacular “working volunteer vacations” all over the country. See www.americanhiking.org for details.
_____ The Southern Appalachian Initiative was organized by AHS and has the mission to connect foot trails throughout the Southeast. If you dream of connecting the Rivanna Trail to the Appalachian Trail and would like to represent RTF’s interests, look for more information again at www.americanhiking.org.
Serve on an RTF Committee
_____ One result of our strategic planning process was the creation of several committees whose function is to plan and oversee various activities within the organization. These committees are open to all citizens of the community served by our trails. You can read a description of each of the committees in our 2005-2008 Strategic Plan. The committees are:
_____ Planning and Partnering Committee
_____ Protection and Preservation Committee
_____ Trail Construction and Maintenance Committee
_____ Public Relations and Communications Committee
_____ Finance and Development Committee
_____ Special Events Committee
_____ Community Advisory Committee
Things we have not thought of
Is there some other way you would like to support RTF’s efforts?
Do you have suggestions for improvement of the trail, our organization, or hiking experiences in our community? Please comment below.
Comments: _____________________________________________________________
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