Dear Docents,
School tours, hosting and storytime – oh my! Fall is here and we are happy to get into the groove of the school year. We appreciate you using the docent calendar to sign up: www.santacruzmuseums.org/docents/. Our new trainees are eager to start their observations and shadow our experienced docents. Contact Pete for Neary, Liz for Ohlone, Animal, Hosting and Storytime shifts (420-6115 x 10), or stop by the front desk to see the schedule.
Docent trainings - Join us for the last three trainings:
- Neary Lagoon programs Monday, September 24, 10am-1pm at Neary (meet at California and Bay)
- Natural History Storytime – Thursday, September 27, 3-5pm
- Sandhills Exploration – Monday, October 1, 10:30am-12:30pm at the Randall Morgan Preserve in Scotts Valley (meet at 10 to carpool from the Museum).
Let us know if you plan to attend. More details here or call Deborah at 420-6115 x 12.
Museum-based tour refresher - September 28, 2-3pm. Experienced Ohlone and Animal school tour docents, feeling a bit dusty after the long summer? Come by for an informal review of the Ohlone and Animal tour artifacts and school program scripts. Share favorite techniques with your fellow docents and sign up to lead programs!
Docent launch and volunteer lunch – Monday, October 8, 11am-1pm. Please join us for the kick-off to the school year and help celebrate our new trainees. We’ll provide the food and drink in our outdoor amphitheater. Come enjoy the great company! RSVP appreciated to Jen (jen@santacruzmuseums.org, 420-6115 ext. 15).
Program Updates
Neary – Big news…off with a bang! Field trips start next week! After a few class presentations, we’re looking forward to getting programs going down at the lagoon (I mean, marsh!) Join us for training on Monday, 10/24, 10-1pm as we expand our docent crew for these award-winning field programs. Recent wildlife viewings include: the heron trifecta (green, black-crowned and great blue), a strong wood duck population, mallard drakes changing from their summer eclipse plumage, and returning coots.
Sandhills – This week, Matt and Deborah visited our Sandhills field site with the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County’s steward. We staked out where we will be doing our restoration for the fall and connected with a Morgan Preserve neighbor who has been taking wildlife photos, including bobcat, coyote, deer, thrasher, spotted towhee and quail. October 1, 10:30-12:30pm is our on-site docent training day. We’ll meet at the Museum at 10 to carpool. Contact Matt (matt@santacruzmusems.org, 420-6115 x 13) to let us know if you can offer a ride, or need to ride with someone. See you then!
Hosting – We had a great training on Saturday and are very jazzed about our new trainees and the great value of this program. We have lots of new artifacts to bring out to engage our visitors including: honeycomb, sea cow fossil bones, and the Ohlone atlatl!
Nat Time – We love our Thursday afternoon program! Storytime docents, don’t forget to use our great resources to enhance the themes: wooden figures, puppets, felt board cut outs, Ohlone dolls, artifacts from the education kits and docent bins. Next week is otter appreciation week and we’ll do a special program and training, 3-5pm. Aren’t those preschoolers and families adorable?!
Upcoming Docent opportunities
We are planning some fantastic monthly Docent Enrichments for the school year. In addition, we will send out information on community events that can enhance your knowledge of local natural history and environmental stewardship. Mark your calendars:
Wednesday, October 24
- 2-3pm – Docent orientation of our new exhibit: Keen Eyes and Curious Minds
- 3-5pm Education Open House
October 29, 10am-1pm – Storytelling workshop with Nancy Lenz and Bethany Kilzer
November 10, 1-5pm – Community Engagement workshop at Seymour Center with our informal education partners
December 5, 1-2:30pm – Tour of wastewater treatment plant
Thank you Docents for all the wonderful energy and time you devote to the Museum! We couldn’t do this without you. We look forward to a great year together.
-Deborah, Liz, Jen, Pete and Matt
