Volunteer!

2010 Volunteer Projects

• Friends' Spring Kickoff (Mar 20)
• Soldier Meadows (Mar 27-28)
• Black Rock Rendezvous (May 29-31)
• FNW Sheldon (Jun 12)
• Guru Road Restoration (Jul 4)
• Perseids Meteor Shower Campout (Aug 12-15)
• Parman Exclosure Idaho Canyon SE Sheldon (Aug 13-14)
• Summit Springs North Black Rock Wilderness (Aug 13-14)- CANCELLED
• Burning Man (Aug 30 - Sep 6)
• National Public Lands Day (Sep 18-19)

Sign up for a volunteer shift
at the Visitor Contact Station in Black Rock City during Burning Man


Volunteer Opportunities
We need your help! Friends of Black Rock volunteers have an opportunity to give back to the region which has given so much inspiration to us. Not only does it feel good, volunteering imparts free membership and other perks, it’s a great excuse to head out towards Gerlach, and provides opportunities to get out into remote wilderness places you might not otherwise see. Here are some of the opportunities to volunteer with Friends:

Direct Service in Black Rock Desert: The Friends of Black Rock High Rock work with the Bureau of Land Management to implement the Black Rock NCA Resource Management Plan, and we are always looking to recruit volunteers for direct service projects in the Black Rock Desert region. Please go here to see a list of projects and to sign up.

Visitor Contact Station: The Friends of Black Rock manage the Visitor Contact Station in Gerlach. Volunteers greet visitors, hand out maps, provide directions, and record visitor data. Our goal is to staff this station on every weekend spring thru fall (from the last weekend of March through mid October) and we need quite a few volunteers to keep this resource open throughout that time period. This is a slow-paced easy job, mostly hanging out and talking to visitors, and we have a brief training to bring new volunteers up to speed. To learn more, please go here. To sign up for a volunteer shift, please go here, or send e-mail to: volunteer@blackrockdesert.org

Special Event: In 2008, we set up the Visitor Contact Station inside Black Rock City during the Burning Man event for the first time ever. This was a successful outreach endeavor, and at this point we plan to continue that practice into the future. So, to sign up for a volunteer shift staffing the Visitor Contact Station in Black Rock City during Burning Man, please go here.

The Black Rock Rendezvous: The Rendezvous is a lot of fun, and is hosted by the Friends of Black Rock every year in the Black Rock Desert on Memorial Day weekend. Volunteers from Friends of Black Rock, the BLM, Nevada Outdoor School, Friends of Nevada Wilderness, Burning Man, and other partner organizations will work together to make the Rendezvous happen. Go here to see the volunteer schedule for this year's Rendezvous.

The following is a brief summary of the numerous volunteer tasks;

Several hearty volunteers will arrive early to help erect the big tents, yurts, and set up camp. There will be a camp host present and on site by Friday afternoon. On Saturday morning, a few volunteers will sign in visitors. There will be an introduction/ orientation (at the main camp under the green tent), others will sign folks up for tours & staff the Friends table. A few highly knowledgeable volunteers will lead tours. On Saturday evening, there will be a dutch oven cook-off and pot-luck dinner. After dinner will be our raffle, and volunteers will check for IDs and wristbands as they serve beer (while sampling a bit themselves). On Sunday we will have an two volunteer projects beginning at 8 AM for those interested; we are building more buck & pole fence around the fragile Coyote Springs dunes, and doing a road rehab at another site. On Sunday evening is the annual FBR member meeting, followed by dinner served by Gordon's Backyard BBQ. After dinner will be Cowboy Poetry, then live music and a lot more beer (served by volunteers, of course). On Monday morning we need all the volunteers we can get to take down the tens and yurts, to load trucks with all of the gear, and to police the entire main camp site and make sure that we Leave No Trace. Hope to see ya there!

To find out more about the Black Rock Rendezvous, please go here. To see the volunteer schedule for this years event, please go here, and to sign up for a shift send e-mail to: volunteer@blackrockdesert.org

Membership Brochure Distribution:
From time to time, Friends needs people who are willing to visit various businesses in the Reno area to make sure that the displays are stocked with our membership brochures and to update any posters for current events. If this sounds like something you would like to help with please go here, or send e-mail to: volunteer@blackrockdesert.org

Documents: If you experiencing difficulty in loading the pdf files shown below into your web browser, please right-click (or control-click) on the link then choose save-file-as, then open the pdf file directly in your pdf reader.

AttachmentSize
FBR Volunteer Handbook.pdf2.85 MB