First Unit 86 meeting of 2011

by Lynnda

SJG • 2/13/11

It was good to see so many guides at our meeting last Thursday. The Tateuchi Community Room was almost filled to capacity. Joan began the meeting and brought our attention to the new projector recently purchased by Unit 86. What a great tool for all future meetings and trainings.

Lisa Chen explained there would be a new sign-in sheet this year. She emphasized the importance of accurately collecting volunteer hours, both at the Garden and off-site. Last year, about 4,000 on-site volunteer hours were recorded. Many, many more hours were spent off-site, and Lisa is asking us to keep track of those hours this year. The totals allow the government bodies funding the Japanese Garden to know how committed the volunteers are. This is also instrumental in pursuing grants for future projects.

Belinda Chin gave an excellent program to encourage us to review our tour techniques. Her suggestions for leading a tour were helpful, along with comments from the group. Her handout will soon be posted on the blog. She ran through the entire tour, including suggestions for introducing yourself, setting expectations, knowing who is in your group, using teachable moments, and ending the tour. It was a perfect way to start preparing for the busy tour season.

Here is link to Belinda's handout (this click will take you off this site, but you can click back)