1. Field Work
- Scientist's Assistant -- assist visiting scientists and their teams while they are here. Several scientists need volunteers while conducting their field work in the Smokies and will call ahead of time needing volunteers for the field.
- Citizen Science Project Assistant -- assist or be the team leader on several ongoing projects, such as fern forays, tree teams, etc. Several projects we conduct happen several times throughout the year and these projects need people to help.
- Field Photographer -- accompanying scientists and/or Park personnel for the purpose of photographing organisms in the field and scientific activities.
2. Clerical
- Office Assistant -- making phone calls, filing, office organization, various projects within the office. Hours required: 4 hrs/week (could be more if willing).
- Newsletter Coordinator -- coordinates writing of articles, helps edit the newsletter, responsible for the layout, graphics and pictures using current template. Hours required: 4 hrs/week twice a week on a quarterly basis.
- Mailing List Manager -- makes corrections as they come in; add/delete names from the mailing list, work with Newsletter Coord and Printer when Quarterly needs to be mailed; keep track of donors w/in mailing list. Hours required: 1-2 days/month.
3. Education/Outreach
- Community Events Representative -- raise public awareness of DLIA by attending conservation and public events; answering questions, educating the public, recruiting other volunteers while setting up, taking down, and manning booth. Hours required: up to 8 hrs/day twice amonth (sometimes less; sometimes more).
- Exhibit Coordinator -- set up and take down various travelling exhibits. Maintain current inventory of framed scans and what exhibit is where and for how long. Also, look for new places for the exhibts to be displayed. Hours required: 2-4 hours set-up and take down when exhibit is travelling.
- DLIA Materials Distributor -- distribute brochures and newsletters to designated locations in TN and NC; assist executive director in finding other locations to display printed materials. (This would be on a quarterly basis; w/ a few check-ups for refilling between quarters). Hours required: 8 hours/week on a quarterly basis.
4. Fundraising
- Grantwriting -- Assist in researching and preparing grants to fund educational programs, research, exhibits, and equipment. Grant writing experience necessary. Create necessary interim and final project reports for granting institutions.
- Special Events Planner -- Help with planning, design and execution of various special events, such as, live and silent auctions, festivals, and more. Designing themes, ascertaining auction items, promoting the events, posters, invitations, etc. Confirming guests, entertainment, menu/caterer and others. Must have good personal skills, be creative, and outgoing.
- Host a House Party -- Help broaden DLIA's circle of friends and supporters by having a gathering in your home. House parties are a fun way to introduce friends, colleagues and family to Discover LIfe in America. Our staff will provide presentations on DLIA and help you with the work and planning of the party.
5. Computer/Technical
- Web Editor-- Assist in website updates and management. DLIA has a new website and needs help in moving information from the old website to the new and keeping the new website current with upcoming events, species of the week, etc. Experience or knowledge of Drupal would be helpful but not required.
- ATBI Database Entry Specialist -- Accompany and help visiting scientists enter collection data; take historic documents, extract data, and enter in database via Park's database entry interface
- Image Database Editor -- add new pictures to the image database and edit image information (metadata) in the database to provide easier sorting and finding of existing photographs
- Laboratory Photographer/Scanner Operator -- photographing microscopic organisms via camera/microscope combo. operating large high-resolution scanner, scanning recently live plants and other species. Must be able to use photoshop to edit and clean both scanned images and camera/microscope images.
To see how you can help NOW, see Immediate/Ongoing Jobs page!
Complete Volunteer Application here
