Members of the Kresge Garden Co-op meet every week to connect and discuss internal cooperative topics and have a garden update to discuss tasks and projects.
Core members are responsible for bottom lining maintenance of the garden at all times, and in addition have specific internal duties, listed below, which allow the garden to thrive as a front runner of the growing campus garden movement. By having these student staff positions, the garden has the capacity to maintain our goal of 6-10 interns per quarter. The added responsibility of all core members is management of internships, and having close relationships with one or more students who are shadowing them. By adding internships and increasing capacity, the Kresge Garden Co-Op will be able to mentor more young gardeners and pass off the torch to knowledgeable horticulturalists.
In addition to facilitating internships, core members have weekly garden hours (2 hrs) which keep the garden open the majority of weekdays, for any student to come in and work on a project with a core garden co-op member and become more familiar with the garden.
Positions:
Co-op Member: “Someone who’s got Kgar dirt under their fingernails;” this includes drop-in volunteers, interns, anyone who is working in the garden.
Core Member: Someone who shows up to most meetings and workdays, has a vote in group decisions, has the ability to hold garden hours (this is optional). Entitled to share of harvest.
Staff Member: Year long or grant cycle long commitment to be fully present in the garden. Is obligated to attend every meeting, every workday (situational exceptions), weekly garden hours, entitled to share of harvest, designated by crop plan. Is an integral part of group decision making and group projects; as well as, holds a specific, either predetermined or personally created, role. Gets paid, depending on the amount of money allotted to us from grants.
Qualification to be Staff Member:
2 quarters of shadowing (volunteer/intern/core) a current Staff Member
Attendance and participation in weekly meetings and workdays
Attend a Staff Members garden hours once a week
voted in by all current members
Roles:
1. Liaison Campus Wide:
Outreach with campus organizations and partners: be on Common Ground Student Board (attend meeting every other friday, about an hour long), coordinate workshops and activities, initiate communications and outreach to other student gardens (Stevenson, College 8, 9/10). Communicate with the Demeter Seed Library, CASFS Farm, Chadwick garden, and Food Working Group to build relationships, as well as, trade seeds/add to seed collection, reach out for transplant donations.
2. Liaison Kresge/Porter Wide:
Coordinate with Kresge classes about interns/using the space; keeps track of their hours and completes ENVS internship guidelines (intern reviews…). Help create flyers with Media Coordinator and advertisements for garden hours, workdays, and workshops to put up around Kresge. Table for the Kresge Garden during the first freshman Kresge and Porter Week. Communicate and collaborate with the World Cafe and the Food Co-op; sustain good relations and be reliable. Organize quarterly leadership retreats (ex: camping trip to Big Creek)
3. Financial Manager
Maintain Budget, meet with staff about necessary Purchase Orders, collect receipts and manage employee hours/pay, and bottom line grant proposals and revisions to Great Law of Peace before end of every grant cycle.
4. Field ManagerWork on Crop Plan with Propagation Manager, implement crop plan in the garden, bottomline designating what plants will go where, oversee organic humane pest control, and maintain shed/tools.
5. Propagation Manager
Work on Crop Plan with Field Manager, implement crop plan in greenhouse, maintain positive relationships with Jim Velzy, seek out and manage plant/tool/general donations from on-campus and off-campus organizations, and bring transplants from greenhouse to garden (hardening off).
6. Media Coordinator
Make flyers and artistic advertisements for the Garden’s needs, constantly update websites (UCSC and Weebly) with pictures, events, garden hours, etc…
7. Historian
Records and organizes things: harvest log, water log, workday attendance,... Maintains thriving Garden History binder and Plant Identification Guide, bed signs up to date and looking good, Elder outreacher, maintains Kgar community contact list, and keeps bookshelf in shed organized.