Re: Workdays & volunteer hours as prerequisite of garden membership

**a*@aol.com**

Face it, every garden has its share of slugs and "lazy bastids," due to human nature. 

It's best, of course, to have workdays and volunteer hours as a prerequistie of garden membership laid out, out front and in writing, but because we community gardeners are such gentle souls and feel that "people should feel the need to contribute, not be coerced into it," it rarely happens, or the rules are not enforced with the corvee-like draconic nature that they should be. 

Oh dear - well, I must confess that I was drawn into community gardening by Liz Christy, or to be more accurate, Liz Christy's backside - I was an adolescent and Liz was sweating, she turns around and says, 
"You there, you either stop looking as my @#!, or get to work - pick up a shovel!" 

Pretty dames in shorts - not the worst thing. Or I have some nice young folks with gym bodies who have this need to "give back something," at this garden I work in - it's amazing how you catch more volunteers  with @#! than you get with  wholesome, heartfelt requests...

Best wishes, 
Adam Honigman
Hell's Kitchen NYC

-----Original Message-----
From: pzehl@ksu.edu
To: community_garden@mallorn.com
Sent: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:59 AM
Subject: [cg] Workdays & volunteer hours as prerequisite of garden membership

We currently require our garden members to sign up to participate in
committees each year which pertain to maintenance, operation and the
newsletter.  My experience in our community garden indicates that this needs
to be changed, as we have very poor response to requests for participation
by our committee chair persons.  Our gardeners do not live in the
neighborhood, and many of them seem more concerned about their individual
plots and not the garden as a whole.  This lack of participation shows in
the appearance of the garden.  A few people put a lot of effort in, but the
rest are not doing their fair share.

I have heard that some gardens require a certain number of volunteer hours
per plot per year; and these volunteer hours can be used during workdays
that are held throughout the year.  This sounds very interesting, and I
would like to hear what other community gardens are doing, and if your
garden requires volunteer hours, how many.  How do you encourage
participation, and is it a requirement.

I'd appreciate any ideas you can share with me about your own community
gardens.

Patty 

Manhattan, KS

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______________________________________________________
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org

To post an e-mail to the list:  community_garden@mallorn.com

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:  https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden