The Practicalities of Being a Guide
Monthly meetings
One of the duties of a volunteer guide is to attend the monthly meetings held on the third Tuesday of the month at 1 pm. Typically each monthly meeting has the following components:
1.Apologies
2.Minutes from the previous meeting
3.Reports from Gardens staff
4.General business, e.g. any changes to procedures, items of interest to guides, requests for assistance, booked walks requiring guides
5.Professional development
A brief review of several library books, chosen by the librarian
A topic presented by a fellow guide, a member of the Gardens staff or a visitor
At the monthly meeting you put your name down for walks on next month’s roster for walks, booked walks and Flora Explorer tours.
It is also a chance to bring your lunch and socialise before the meeting starts. Signing In
Guides must sign in and sign out whenever in the Gardens for volunteer-related activities. The attendance book is located in the Guides office. If you are not rostered to take a walk, please also indicate if you are able to take one of the rostered walks should the rostered guide not arrive in time. Do this by ticking the appropriate 11 am or 2 pm column.
Procedure for a Rostered Walk
Enter your name on the roster at the monthly meeting. If there are any unfilled vacancies after the meeting, the rostered walks secretary will email everyone asking for volunteers. You can also send a request for a particular date and time to the rostered walks coordinator beforehand if you are not going to be at the meeting.
If you find you have put yourself down for a walk that you cannot take after all, you can ask
someone else to take it for you. This can be done by emailing all guides with guides addresses placed in Bcc. You should let the rostered walks coordinator know who is now taking the walk and update the roster in the Guides Office.
If an emergency occurs on the day of the walk, e.g. your car breaks down, and you are unable to get to the Gardens on time, call the ANBG Ranger on 0417 021 558. Store this number on your phone.
Walk the walk beforehand, either immediately before your rostered walk or the day before. Check that you can find the plants you want to discuss. Check that there are no obstructions on the route.
Arrive at the Gardens at least 15 minutes before your walk. Sign the attendance book, and include time of arrival.
Collect the radio from the desk in the VC, The radio must be on Channel 1. Call the Ranger on the radio to test and report on duty, using these words ‘Guide to Ranger, Guide to Ranger’ (wait for a response) and then say: ‘Volunteer guide reporting for 11 am (or 2pm) walk’.
On weekends, there will most probably be a ranger at the desk in the Visitor Centre. You must still test the radio.
Wait outside the Visitor Centre for walk participants. If there are no walkers wait around for a while. Check where visitors on your walk are from. Categories for statistical purposes are:
Australians: The name of the Australian capital city or Australian state, if not from a capital city;
Other countries: the name of the country;
Visitors who are currently living in Canberra as distinct from visiting Canberra, should be recorded as from Canberra.
After the walk, switch off the radio and return it to its cradle, making sure that the light is on, indicating that the radio is charging.
Enter the number of visitors and where they are from in the attendance book. Sign off before you leave.
The Guides Wiki
The Guides’ Wiki contains a wealth of information under the headings Administration, Links, Food for Thought, Anecdotes, stories and trivia, Plant communities, Themes and topics, Professional development, Other resources, Places to visit, Social media
It is at
Username: anbg.friends
Password: Guides
Tick the Remember Me box
Click on ANBG Guiding Friends. Do not fiddle with other things on the site.
There is a search facility in the top right of the screen. If you have two words or a phrase, place them in quotation marks e.g. “lemon myrtle”. Guides can submit material to the Wiki by sending it to Jill More () or Jane Keogh (). If you have any problems accessing or using the wiki, please contact Jill or Jane.
The Guides Google Group
The Google Group, anbguides, was set up to share information about topics of interest, coming events and exhibitions, interesting plants in the Gardens etc. Google Group items are more ephemeral (events that are about to happen, flowers that look spectacular this week etc) whereas Wiki items are longer-lasting. Items are circulated by email to members of the group and to the central location,
This site is public so that you can view all past items. If you would like to join the group so that you can receive regular emails, please let Jane Keogh know.
If you have information that you would like to pass on to the other guides, send it to Tony Lawson (), Jane Keogh () or Jill More () and post it on the Google Group which will then be forwarded to all members of the Group.
Not all guides have joined this group and this is not the avenue for getting another guide to take your walk if you are unable to take it yourself.
Keeping Things Running
The guides have a number of coordinators for keeping things running smoothly. When coordinators go away, temporary coordinators are needed to carry out their tasks. This provides a good opportunity to try out the various roles.
Convener (Glenys Bishop) is responsible for overall running of the guides, including chairing meetings, liaising with Gardens staff, organising professional development sessions, initiating and overseeing the implementation of new endeavours, communicating with guides.
Secretary (Jane Keogh) supports the convener, takes the minutes at monthly meetings, ensures they are correct, sends them out, also liaises with Gardens staff, and communicates with guides.
Nominations for the above two positions are called for at the November meeting, with elections at the December meeting each year. The following positions are filled by volunteers, i.e. no elections.
Roster coordinator (Tricia Morton) is responsible for ensuring that all rostered walks have a guide.
Flora Explorer Roster Coordinator (Barbara Podger) is responsible for ensuring that all rostered Flora Explorer tours have a guide.
Booked Walks coordinator (Trish Munro) takes bookings from groups and organises guides for those groups. (There is a documented procedure.)
Library book coordinator (Maureen Connolly) liaises with the librarian to choose books for the monthly meetings and reviews them at the meeting.
Guides Wiki coordinators (Jill More, Jane Keogh) maintain the Guides Wiki.
Google group coordinators (Tony Lawson, Jane Keogh, Jill More) maintain the group and make postings to the Google group site.
Statistics coordinator (Margaret Webber) compiles the statistics from walks, Flora Explorer and Thursday talks, prepares a monthly summary and presents an annual report to the Guides.
Guides contact list updates to the Friends database (Andy Rawlinson).
From time to time ad hoc groups are formed to prepare special walks such as the Turned On walks or the Bush Food walks and materials such as the Red Centre Garden handbook. The convener may also form ad hoc groups for assisting with planning guides’ activities or developing policies.
Volunteering for Other Duties
The Guides are often called upon to fulfil other duties. Examples include:
Staffing the ANBG display at Floriade;
Staffing information tent at Open Days at, for example, the Arboretum, the Hellenic Club; Various roles at the summer concerts.