This month’s theme of Recruiting Your Replacement offers school garden coordinators the opportunity to assist with the transition of leaving their position and helping to ensure that the hard work they invested in their school garden project lives on.
Consider the following suggestions to help recruit your replacement:
- Write a simple job description and timeline of managing the school garden. This simple document can help define what is needed in the short term as well as the scope of work for future coordinators. Consider a format of a simple list by month of the tasks, projects and events you manage.
- Structuring the school garden project as a group project rather than a sole endeavor would provide people to carry on the work while a replacement was found. Consider having someone identified in the group as the alternate to the coordinator. Should you accept another position, retire or decide to focus your energy elsewhere they will be waiting in the wings to take over.
- In Creating A Support Network from the California School Garden Network Gardens for Learning guide, they suggest you get as many people involved in the project as you can. The larger the project, the larger the support network you need. The more people involved, the more likely it is that your program will be successful, because the weight of the project will not rest on one individual.
- Give as much notice as you can when you decide to leave to help ensure a smooth transition for your school community. Share suggestions about who to approach to take over the project and how the work might be handled in the interim period.
Want to know more?!
- Monthly School Garden Checklist
- Forming a Garden Committee from Kids Gardening.
