Happy Leap Day week, docents! Thank you for being a part of our fantastic programs. We couldn’t do it without YOU! Here’s our recent news:
Upcoming Docent Events
Docent Mixer at the Seymour Center – Thursday, March 1, 5:30-9pm
You can still join us for the Santa Cruz museum and informal education community meeting this Thursday at the Seymour Center. Be a part of this first ever networking event! And join staff at the Santa Cruz Mountain brewery after 9pm!
March Docent Enrichment –Skills Workshop – Monday, March 19, 10am-1pm
All docents please attend!!! We will have a special presentation by Mike Merritt, Interpretive Ranger at Ano Nuevo State Park. We are planning small group discussions and sharing about our interpretive skills. This is the most important enrichment of the year and we are excited to have all of you (Neary, Sandhills, Ohlone, Animal, Art of Nature, Storytime and Hosting docents) be a part of it!!
Sandhills Training – Monday, April 2, 2pm-4pm at Randall Morgan Preserve
Our spring field season is approaching and we’re excited about having more schools participate in our geology/fossils/restoration field program. Join us for our spring training and be a part of this fun and growing program!! Email Deb (Deborah@santacruzmuseums.org) so we know how many folks to expect.
Art of Nature School Tour Training – Monday, April 30, 10am-1pm
Through the month of May, the Museum invites school classes to come view our Art of Nature exhibit and participate in a special docent-led illustration and art program. If you have not yet been trained to lead these tours, please come to the training!! Email Deb (Deborah@santacruzmuseums.org) so we know how many to expect.
Logistics
Name Badges – There are some blank Docent name badges on the cork board behind the front desk. Feel free to write your name on one of them if you do not have your badge yet. We are changing our LOGO and will be making new name badges for everyone, soon!
Unisex Bathrooms – Have you noticed that we have switched signs on the bathrooms? We now have 2 unisex bathrooms so you can direct everyone in either direction for the facilities.
Ohlone Room – Remember to please keep hard acorn shells out of the mortar! Please break open the acorns and use only the nut inside for grinding into acorn flour. Thanks!
Programs
Ohlone and Animal Tours – March is starting to fill up with new tour dates. Check the online calendar, and sign up, so we don’t have to call around. Here’s the quick link: http://www.santacruzmuseums.org/docents/
Storytime – What a great success this program has been in the first month! Groundhogs, whales, coyotes, and animal love!! We’ve had about a dozen kids for each program, which is perfect. Decomposers (banana slug in the house!), frogs, birds and forests are coming up. Don’t forget about the amazing resources we have to use with these programs: real skulls, the Ohlone dolls and artifacts, puppets, wooden figures, and live animals! If anyone wants to do a program on snakes, we have a volunteer who has offered to bring in a live one…keep signing up and keep the great energy flowing! http://www.santacruzmuseums.org/docents/
Hosting – Thank you to our first month of hosts! You are making the Museum such a personal place! It’s fun reading your logs, “I loved getting people excited!” and “Children laughed at my jokes at the tidepool tank!” Please look at your March schedules and sign up for Saturday shifts (http://www.santacruzmuseums.org/docents/) by contacting Liz at 420-6115, or liz@santacruzmuseums.org.
Neary Lagoon – Congratulations to all Neary docents for the recent Superintendent’s Award for Museum Education. Pete made a special toast (with Iced Tea) to our volunteer community for making this program work so well!! We love you! Tours are getting rolling for the spring. Check the calendar and contact Pete to sign up today!
Volunteer opportunities – Feel like being more involved? Have friends who want to help? Here are our other upcoming volunteer opportunities:
Tide Pool Specimen Collecting – Monday, March 5th at 2:30pm
Meet us at the Hook (at the end of 41st Ave) to help collect animals and plants for the Museum Tide Pool Tank from local tide pools. Bring water shoes or wading boots if you have them. RVSP with Liz (liz@santacruzmuseums.org)
Art of Nature Exhibit Set-Up – April 2nd (two shifts available) 10am-12pm & 1pm-3pm
Raccoon by Jenny Parks
The Art of Nature show comes to the Museum and we will need lots of volunteers to help set up the exhibit. Excellent introduction to museum curating!
Art of Nature Opening Night – April 6th (two shifts available) 5:30-7pm & 7-8:30pm
This opening night will require some helping hands. Some volunteer tasks may include asking patrons to sign the guest book, pouring wine and restocking refreshments.
Art of Nature First Friday- May 4th (two shifts available) 5:00-7pm & 7-8:30pm
The Art of Nature show will participate in the First Friday Art Walk! We will again need some helping hands to help guest sign-in, pour wine, and restock refreshments.
Feel free to post comments on this Whale Spout blog. It’s a great way for us to communicate as a community. Again, thank you, docents, we love you. See you soon!!
