With the Festival of Biodiversity just a week away, I decided to see what Raffles Museum Toddycat Volunteer Managers (aka civetgirls) Xu Weiting and Fung Tze Kwan had been up to since they started recruiting volunteers. They had recruited their honours junior Meryl Theng (aka ottergirl) which is wonderful. And they had seen to all the critical things required for the exhibition.
Well, after a fine performance at numerous exhibitions and with their familiarity with GDocs and blogging since their honours years with me, I wasn’t expecting to find gaps to plug. Which is why I have had peace of mind since the end of the semester.
But I remembered how tough it used to be and fiddled with the Guide Recruitment Google Doc. After re-organising it, I realised we had an impressive number of volunteers, but not nearly enough.
This has always been a critical and tough part of the job.
The most important element of a Raffles Museum Toddycats exhibition has always been the volunteers behind these specimens – enthusiastic proponents of biodiversity in Singapore telling stories to engage, fascinate and inspire have always been well received by members of the public.
This year we are hoping to put up our largest exhibition to date to engage as many people as we can. The previous exhibitions we have done would be a dry run for this Festival of Biodiversity, which we hope to be an annual affair with the community.
After reviewing the manpower, I realised we still needed zoology guides to take on four-hours slot each (and to stay fresh):
Sat 26 May 2012
- 11.00am – 5 volunteers needed
- 2.30pm – 6 volunteers needed
Sun 27 May 2012
- 8.00am – 3 volunteers needed
- 11.00am – 3 volunteers needed
- 2.30pm – 2 volunteers needed
So I’m calling out to our biology alumni, especially those who took LSM3261 Life Form and Function, to join in the fun and take on a 4-hour slot. Just sign up here: http://tinyurl.com/toddycats-fob2012
During the Festival, Raffles Museum Toddycats will have these stations:
- Animals of the forest
- Animals in freshwater and urban areas
- Animal of the Sea and the threat of marine trash
- Paper craft and RMBR mechandise
- Kid’s station with games
And the list of specimens in preparation are here: http://tinyurl.com/toddycats-fob-specimens. It’s quite the load, and I am lugging the lot down next Friday and hope I will find help!
It’s really wonderful to see this all happening – we have a new generation of Toddycats led by young and enthusiastic leaders who are entering the fray, at a time when this is all the more important. I know they will have as much fun with this as we have had, for over a decade now!
Otterman speaks... 