Advices to permaculture centers
Seed saving
Summary of the lecture by Ivanna Bilous, Biolus family farm
Seed storage
Training Courses
Planning
Program
Venue
Budget
Advertising
Registration
Participants
Accommodation
Food
Transport
Materials
Communication after the course
Hosting volunteers
Seed saving
Seed saving is very important because it guarantees your food souversity, plants are better adapted to your specific growing conditions if you select seeds from the best plants. It is economically profitable to use your own seeds. Seed production is a profitable business, which can provide either main or and additional income for your farm. For example, you can create your own collection of spices - aromatic herbs, or collect rare varieties of tomatoes or other vegetables, rare tree species or ancient cereales…
Plants grown in biodiversity can select minerals and nutrients which they need, they are trained to withstand pests attacks and produce a healthy offsprings with good genetics. An important fact is that seeds produced on a phosphate-balanced soil store better than those obtained on a nitrogen rich soils. Permaculture approach to plant cultivation guarantees healthy and genetically strong planting material. Seeds are collected from the best, most productive, healthy plants.
Seeds should be collected from the fully ripened fruits. Grasses produce seeds early - they have the shortest vegetation period. Seeds of herbs should be collected in the afternoon (when the morning dew and moisture have evaporated) on a warm sunny day. Usually, seeds are easily separated from the plant. You can simply shake plants over a container or sheet. Often you also need to sift the seeds to separate from possible dirt, husks ... Follow this procedure for all kinds of salads, spinach, dill, parsley, parsnip, flowers, etc.
After harvesting spread seeds in a thin layer and dry for a day in a sunny place, and only then place in a paper bag, boxes, or glass jars for storage. This will give a time for different creatures (spiders, insects, beetles) to get out of seeds. Otherwise, quickly packaged seeds can become mouldy because of the moisture from insects.
After herbs legume seeds are harvested. Peas, beans, chickpeas... are collected when the pods have dried up and started to darken.
You will never lose any variety of corn if you collect seeds from the bottom third of the cob.
Cucumbers for seeds are selected in advance. Interestingly, cucumbers on the same plant might have either 3 or 4 ribs. The seeds are selected from cucumbers with 4 ribs (first and second fruit)! It is recommended to sow 3 year old cucumber seeds as the plants will have more female flowers and higher yield. Cucumber seeds remains viable for up to 6 years.
Ripped tomatoes and eggplant are cut in half and seeds are squeezed into a bowl of water. Leave it for a day or two for fermentation. Then rinse several times with clean water, soak for 20 minutes in a light manganese solution or in another available biofungicide, collect and dry on a thick paper or on a cardboard until it becomes dry. In tomatoes, the first fruit is usually irregularly shaped. Therefore take for seeds the fruits from the second truss of the best yielding plants displaying most typical features of the variety. Tomato seeds remains viable for up to 4-5 years, occasionally up to 8 years. After 3 year of storage eggplant seeds lose their viability.
Choose a ripe pepper fruits, not owerrippen, as the seeds may start rotting. Separate seeds from the pulp by hands in a bowl. Add some water, stir and allow to settle for 20-30 minutes. Stir again: those seeds that fell to the bottom have 100% viability, and those that are floating on a surface should be removed. Dry on a paper store at a the temperature above 0 ○C. Pepper is warm climate culture and and it seeds do not propagate if it was frozen. Seed remains viable for 3 - 4 years.
Melons, watermelons, pumpkins, zucchini, squashes easily cross-pollinate between each other. Therefore, spatial isolation is important to guarantee purity of the cultivars. Seeds are easily hand-picked and should be dried before storage. The seeds all cucurbits crops remain viable for up to 6 years.
Carrot, root celery, beet, winter radish, turnip, cabbage - select the best plants and store in a cellar. Root can be stored in a box filled with dry sand, cabbage is hung at stem upside down or roots are placed in a sand. In early winter plant overwintered plants in the open soil and collect seeds in autumn similarly to the grass seeds.
It is very important to collect tree seeds and grow your own seedlings. Count how many trees you have grown yourself from the seeds, not just transplanted! Fall is a great time to collect tree seeds. Almost all tree seeds has to be stratified, so store them in a fridge. Some seeds are small and easily extracted from fruits (birch, linden, paulownia); collecting seeds from a stone fruits is also a delicious process! Seeds have to be dried and stored in a dark place. Apples and pears will best propagate when sown straight from the mouth to the ground!). If this is not possible, keep seeds in the fridge and protect from over drying.
Ginkgo seeds must be cleaned from it pulp which has rather nasty smell and prevents seed germination. Cones of coniferous trees self-open in warmth and easily release their seeds. Nuts (walnut, hazelnut, filbert, black walnut, Japanese walnut, etc.) should be planted in the same year after ripening. Seedlings repeat 85% the parental characteristics or might have somewhat lower or higher qualities!
When creating a forest garden as a compulsory permaculture element on your plot, it is important to inoculate fungi in the soil. You can transplant some mycelium or spread fungal spores. Collect spores from overripe mushrooms of desired species (with the large dark cap and rotting smell). Grind caps in a meat grinder, add some yeast, sugar and rain water, put in a dark place for 10 - 14 days. It imitates an aggressive medium of the animal stomach. Mix it, dilute 1 glass of suspension with 1 bucket of rain or spring water and pour the soil with this mixture at a desired mushroom cultivation sites. To reduce the number of wormy mushrooms interplant the spores of girolles. Girolles contain a substance that repel mushroom pests. It was noticed that girolle mycorrhiza repel worms from the neighboring mushrooms.
For most seeds the storage temperature should not exceed 35 - 40 ○C. Reducув air supply can lead to a partial loss of seed viability. The optimal storage temperature is from + 5 to +10 ○C.
It is important to remember that even under optimal storage conditions seeds have limited period of viability. Don`t forget to refresh a storage pool of seeds of your favourite species and cultivars!
In autumn you can sow seeds of following cultures (for the following season): lettuce, spinach, mangold, dock, parsley, dill, cultural goosefoot, parsnip, tomatoes, watermelons, melons, pumpkins, zucchini, onion, early varieties of carrot and beetroot (late varieties of carrot can shoot out if sawn in autumn), peas, asters, marigold. Seed sown in autumn undergo natural stratification, it germinates early, plants are healthier, stronger, and easily overgrow even those plants transplanted as seedlings.
Seed storage
- dry, cold and dark place
- in a closed container to avoid moisture from outside
- label name and date
Rules for collecting seeds
- always collect only dry and mature seeds
Seed longevity
- very sensitive seeds: garlic, onion, leek, chive
- seeds with short longevity (2 - 3 years): carrot, fennel, spinach, sweet corn (short to medium longevity)
- seeds with medium longevity (4 - 5 years): beens, lettuce, pea, pepper (medium to long longevity), radish, beetroot
- seeds with long longevity (5 years and more): cucumber, pumpkin, tomato, eggplant, Brassica vegetables
(from book: The Manual of Seed Saving: Harvesting, Storing, and Sowing Techniques for Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits
https://www.amazon.com/The-Manual-Seed-Saving-Harvesting/dp/1604693827)
VIDEO
How to collect seeds (Free food & flowers)
Webinar: Seed storage
Tips for organizing courses and hosting volunteering
Tips are based on the personal experience of course organizers - use the ones that are appropriate in your situation.
We have developed a basic algorithm for composing budget, course program and advertisement campaign. It is designed for the practical part of the Permaculure Design Course organized as a series of weekend workshops, but you can modify it to meet your needs. The three pages of the document are linked together by formulas and contain many formulas in them. Therefore it is better tu but zero values rather them remove spreadsheet cells. Make a copy of the document and use it! Also, contribute with your experience to designing the algorithm by commenting (online) both of these documents (highlight the text and click on the "Add comment" or Ctrl+Alt+M).
See also Convenor's guide of George Sobol (the teacher of the first permaculture courses in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine).
Training Courses
Planning
- Start well in advance (min 2 months for short, 6 or more months for long courses)
- It is advisable to have 3 separate teams: organizers (management of registration, payment, settlement, catering, preparation of the course venue), advertisers (they may be also organizers), trainers (do not exhaust them with organizational or promotional tasks - give them time to prepare their sessions). Are there any replacement options in case of leaving one of team member? [Some also advise to have ay facilitator, but for Ukrainian courses such a role is not helpful in our opinion].
- Clearly define the subject and format of the course (theory, practice, work party etc.) and follow it course program. It will determine your target group.
- Choose ONE person responsible for finances. This person must be informed about all incomes, and all expenditures are executed only upon his / her permission!
- Get a sufficient number of teachers. If classes take place all day long, it is desirable to have 2 teachers, who will teach half a day each.
- Do not invite more than 30 people to practical courses, preferably - 15.
- Determine decision making point regarding the course (for example, a half of the minimal number of participants have registered by the middle of promo campaign period). As well as to continue cooperation with teachers / organizers / advertisers (develop clear measurable indicators for monitoring compliance with the tasks).
- Do relatives / neighbors / principals support your idea to organize the course? If they are not happy about the idea now, it is most likely that apotheosis will happen during the course, and the participants won’t enjoy this drama.
Program
- Base it on your experience (what is your expertise and what will be easily and interesting for you to teach), your needs (what your team wants to learn and what you need to be done at your plot), and the experience of teachers (you can search them based on your needs or to present all necessary topics (e.g. in PDC); see database of Visegrad and Beyond designers and experts).
- Use as much of local resources as possible: materials for practicals and local teachers (arrange courses based on the competencies of the local team).
- Develop course schedule accounting for the group dynamics: lectures in the morning (when brain works best; include discussions), practical / physical work after lunch (stir up the afternoon nap), excursions during the cool of the evening. Avoid physical work in the open air during the midday heat! Include morning exercises, and energizers during the day (especially between a series of lectures).
- Mark sessions that can be carried out during bad weather and be prepared for a schedule shifts according to the weather. Or instruct the participants to be prepared to work in outside during rain.
- A large number of participants and a limited amount of tools is always a challenge for the teachers. It may be necessary to break big group down into smaller teams, divide the tasks (the problem is that each participant wants to learn the entire process, not just a part of it), assign several instructors for the workshops (who will explain at the beginning of the task to each team and make sure that it is understood). Also, in case of a large number of participants, be prepared to reduce the number of topics in the program and to allocate more time for getting to know each other and for presentations by minigroups. Be ready that some participants will be disappointed if they did not understand something, and the teachers did not find time (due to the big size of the group) to explain it to them individually. Expect more the noise and chaos from the large groups which are harder to gather after breaks.
- Consider the capacity of your site (trail width, etc.). If the trails they are narrow, it may be necessary to split participants into smaller groups. If there is no radio guide or megaphone, do not talk when the group is moving - start explaining only everyone is gathered around the narrator.
- Teachers should inform the organizers in advance which tools and materials (and in what quantity) do they need for their sessions. What kind of equipment (if you are planning to show video - don’t forget about the loudspeakers!). For a designer's workshop, ask the organizers to prepare the maps, photos in different seasons, conduct a dream circle with the team / fill out a questionnaire. Identify in advance where and what you will do during practicals - created objects should be part of the overall functional design.
- For short courses (and if you do not have a day off during the course), it may be sieful to offer an extra day for relaxation, communication, excursions and volunteering.
Venue
- Will the course be a push for you to build a compost toilet instead of a pit and a solar heated shower?
- If you have a cesspool pit, treat it at least with some biological preparation to reduce odor. Supplement if with the lid: you do you want the flies to sit on the sh-t and then on the food. There will be a lot of this valuable permaculture product: assign a volunteer or organizer who will look after toilets and think carefully of composting. It should not get into groundwater or directly contact with garden cultures!
- A greywater management system developed for your family may not have enough capacity to withstand the load of 20 to 40 people. It may be necessary to develop a temporary greywater system for the course.
- Provide sufficient number of showers and toilets (at least one for every 10 people). If you do not provide enough warm water for the shower (you can just place 5-6 l bottles in the morning at the sunny place or heat the water in the caldron), the participants will not wash themselves, which will lead to an ecological catastrophe :).
- Do not keep people indoors all the time! Organize the second place for classes in the shade outdoors (do not forget about the the sun movement) protected from drifts. Is it possible to install outdoors a screen (it may be simply white bed sheet) and a multimedia projector? Provide a good ventilation in the room (for lessons during bad weather and with a projector). Will your outdoor classroom withstand a strong wind (board is falling , tent is loudly clapping, flipchart paper is flying)? Do you need to remove a tent during a storm? Are you ready to protect your seats (eg straw bales), external equipment and sockets from the rain? Provide comfortable sitting options - people can not sit long on the wooden bench.
- If you are conducting your course in the countryside and use a multimedia projector, be sure to plug it in via voltage regulator (and switch off during rainstorms)! The lamp is very expensive!
- Be sure to tell the participants before the course and at the beginning of the course about the possible dangers and inconveniences (mites, snakes, mosquitoes, heat, rain, open holes, allergic and toxic plants) and how to prepare for them. Emphasize (preferably in writing) that participants are fully responsible for their health and the health of their children. The use of dangerous equipment (angle grinder, disc mower, staple / nail gun, etc.) should be only allowed after respective training and under the supervision of experienced person! Note, that city dwellers may not be able to use an ax or scythe properly and may not know the safety rules. Are you or other residents of your site have a nice habit of throwing old nails, pieces of wire, spiny branches or thorns on the ground? Clean the courtyard and workshop before the course or at least the barefooters about these dangers. Think in advance ether the children are allowed to swim without supervision?
- It may be necessary to assign duties to participants: to erect(in advance!) temporary showers, toilets and a tent, to bring water, to clean, to help with cooking food. Perhaps you should split participants into teams and make a rotation schedule (it is desirable that the roles are alternated, and the previous team is passing instructions to the next). Note, that a lot of responsibilities will exhaust participants: make the most of the preparatory work in advance and get a sufficiently large organizational team. Write, if necessary, (in advance) the instructions (including for places of common use) and allocate enough time in the course schedule for everyday duties.
- Organizers should prepare the place for the course in advance as much as possible before arrival of teachers and participants. It takes time - do not postpone till the last day, when you will have enough of other organizational duties! For short courses, teachers and participants often come in the first day of the course, and therefore do not have the time to help with preparations - the organizers must FULLY to prepare the place, equipment and training space for immediate course start upon the group arrival.
Budget
- Make a realistic budget - break even with the half or two thirds of the maximal planned number of participants.
- And if there is more money, how will you divide them? Agree this in advance and in writing so that this pleasant outcome will not turn into a conflict.
- What happens if you do not have enough participants to cover all costs? Who will receive less money and are they ready for this? If there are several thematically linked courses with a common budget, are you ready to cover gaps in one of the course in series? All of this presumes having written arrangements in advance.
- Include ALL course costs: teaching, advertising, creating an online course page (we can and add your facebook event to the facebook page of the Visegrad and Beyond Network of Permaculture Centers), management of registrations and catering, accounting, cost of excursions, consumables (household, office and for practical classes), telephone communication (for advertisers), transfer of participants from the station and to the excursions, expenses of teachers (transport, accommodation and food), expenses for commercial advertising, printing of the course banners and flyers, video recording, cost of food and accommodation for participants. Include taxes and bank fees.
- It is advisable to calculate separately the cost of education (calculated on the basis of the cost of training and the minimal number of participants), food and accommodation (money for the last two positions can be collected in cash on-site if preferred).
- Account for inflation index. Agree about inadmissibility of the costs not included in advance to the budget and not mutually agreed.
- Volunteers are an attractive free hands, but with no obligations and sometimes expecting to help for 5 cents and receive discount for 5 euro (the latter may be invited only in case of the lack of the participants). Rely on proven, trustworthy people. Evaluate the volunteer services of the and discounts in money equivalent. Write commitments, give clear instructions.
- Free places or discounts - you may want to provide them to the with low-income participants (what are the criteria for belonging to this group?), and members of your team. It is important to immediately determine the maximum number of privileged or free places and take it into account for free places in the budget.
- If the registration fees were collected on organizational account , try to make maximum use of the cashless transfers (for accommodation, food, supplies).
- Dear accountant, do not pay the full amount of fees to teachers and organizers until the course ends and you will properly check the budget (and preferably ask others to review it as well)! You can pay some advance with the cash collected at the course.
Advertising
- Start it as early as possible - it takes almost half the overall organizational time and efforts. Budget for advertising is an additional opportunity for organizers to earn money. You can hire professional, but nobody tell better about the course than the organizers and trainers.
- People do not read Emails - call them in a week or two and ask if they have received Email, do they have any questions, are they interested course (mark interested in the contact list and continue to work with them).
- Most people nowadays receive information about courses from social networks (mostly facebook): create an event, add it to the page of the your permaculture association and Visegrad and Beyond Network of Permaculture Centers, and post updates regularly. Ask for help all the course teachers and organizers: to post regularly about the topic that is most familiar to them (reminders might be needed!). It is convenient to distribute the topics by the days of the week, to compose posts in advance and schedule it publication (Facebook offers such option). Posts regarding the organizational issues should be posted on the event page, and while posts for advertisement - on the facebook of organization. Let all thematically close groups to know about your event of and keep a register of your contacts.
- Use paid advertising (social networks, google, journals / newspapers, radio / television) only if you are well familiar with these tools. Otherwise it will be the waste of money.
- Use the opportunity to present your event in person: at eco-festivals, meetings, fairs. It is convenient to have a universal course banner (with no dates and places indicated and the link to web-site provided) to present the course at different occasions. Flyers and business cards can be also handy.
- Search for information partners and offer them mutual advertisement. Make a section at the top of your web-site to present info partners and mention them in the promo materials. Such barter can also work with the online journals and blogs.
Registration
- Collect in the registration form the information about desired accommodation option, dietary and medical restrictions, children and accompanying persons (inform about the cost of participation for them, usually this is only catering costs; parents may be asked to pay for supervising their children).
- Your email with the registration confirmation may fall into spam - ask for confirmation reply and call to those who did not send a confirmation. We recommend using Email and the phone to communicate with the registered participants, as not everybody will regularly check their Facebook / Viber acounts etc.
- For the convenience of the organizers it is worth to offer a lower early bird registration fee.
- It is convenient to offer discounts based on the advertising budget (for example, for a second member of the family the discount is the amount that advertiser gets for one participant) and the estimated value of the voluntary works. These sums should be the real money included into the budget, so that in case of not being able to find reliable volunteers you can hire another person.
- It is necessary to collect in advance the full cost of training or at least an advance payment and reserve places only after receiving the payments. This gives certain guarantees with unorganized participants.
- Be ready that up to the half of registered people to will change their opinion regarding participation, and some of them will not consider it necessary to inform you about this change, especially in advance. Collect confirmations from participants before the event.
- Be sure to clearly inform participants about the terms of refund in case of cancellation of participation. This will ensure more serious attitude towards the course. As a rule, organizers retain the percentage of taxes (if money are collected on organizational account) and bank commissions. Accommodation refundment depends on your agreement with hotel. If the cancellation take place less then one month before the course (and you have to do an extra promo work) is is wise to retain up to 30% of registration fee, if it is one week or less (when it is quite unlikely to find a replacement) - retain up to 50% of fees. Think about the refund conditions in case of unforeseen circumstances (illness, sudden work etc.).
- Calculate in advance the sum that you need to collect in cash during the course (full registration fee, accommodation, meals, books and other additional products - do not forget to bring these products with you to the course). Do you offer breakfast in the first day and supper at the last day of the course(days of arrival and departure for the most of participants)? Is there a possibility to pay only for 1 or 2 meals per day (and what would be the price)? Collect information about cash transactions in one document (electronic or printed). Make regular photocopies of the handwritten tables.
- It takes some time to administer the registration. Allocate responsible person and include financial compensation for this work.
Participants
- Indicate at the event page either the place is accessible / designed for disabled, children, pets. Are you offering a special educational / entertainment program for children? Mind the complexity of working with the children from different age groups.
- Example:NGO “Permaculture in Ukraine” offers free participation for children under the age of 16. Older children can participate in the course, smaller - entertain themselves (parents look after them on duty, or pay for supervising their children), babies should be accompanied (usually by a family member). Parents should explain to children that they should not interfere with learning process. Parents are fully responsible for the health and behavior of their children. If the venue is not suitable for children, this should be indicated on the event page.
- Inform participants in advance, what is not provided by the organizers and must be brought by participants themselves (for example, drawing tools, big paper for sketches (option - old wallpapers and calendars), tracing paper, plotting paper, rubber boots, working gloves, clipper, grafting knife, yoga rug, mosquito and mite repellent), brought for exchange (seeds, leaflets on projects) and prepared in advance (presentations of projects, background information for design project, workouts for morning exercises, energizers).
Accommodation
- Think about different accommodation options: tents, shared rooms, separate rooms. Some participants would want to save as much as possible, while others are willing to pay for their comfort. And you do not you want to lose neither of them.
- The best thing is to offer your own premises. A usual country house, it loft and a hayloft can be turned into shared sleeping rooms. Sleeping places should be comfortable (not bowed beds or sofas) and rooms - cozy (remove all trash, make cosmetic repair, provide a table, chair, electric socket). Perhaps you can rent a room or a house from neighbors? Think of mosquito protection.
- Be sure to check in advance the hotels or hostels which you plan to rent. Cheapest options may be so awful that participants will run away from it. Make sure to book the room in advance and request a written confirmation of your reservation. It is advisable to pay in two installments: advance and after leaving the participants. This will be an additional tool for controlling (dishonorable) owners of these facilities. Agree (in writing) the conditions for cancellation and refund of the deposit.
Food
- Mind the logistics: relative location of the course venue, accommodation and eating place, so that participants will not have to walk far three times a day in the heat and rain, and teachers won`t need to spend lots of time to gather participants after each break.
- Ideally, organize on-site cooking from your own products. This is also an opportunity for organizers to earn some extra money. You need to arrange a kitchen space and hire a cook (it could be someone from your team). You can ask participants for help (for example, quickly chop salad for supper). Reduce the number of dishes in the menu (it is enough to offer only main dish). Ingredients (eg onions, cheese, milk, eggs, etc.) should be served separately, allowing participants to mix them according to their own taste (raw food eaters, different types of vegetarians etc.). The easiest option is to offer the vegetarian menus to all. For the raw food eaters, you may need to buy an extra fruits, dried fruits, seeds. Ensure that these extras are accessible (only) to this group. Calculate the cost of different menu options.
- Mark the containers for drinking water and dishwashing (different from those used in the bathroom, for laundry or cleaning!). Place flood and and dishes in the place protected from flies and pets.
- Provide fruits and teas (herbal?) during breaks. Avoid purchasing cheap biscuits.
- Explain to participants the risk of consumption of chemically treated vegetables and fruits from the neighboring (farmer) fields. Explain whether you allow to participants to pick vegetables and fruits from your garden. And what belongs to neighbors.
- If you order food, note that ordinary chefs are most likely not familiar with the vegetarian menu, and especially with feeding raw food eaters (considering that vegetarians can have the same porridge, but without beacon). Usually, they prepare small portions of very simple salads are not aware of diversity of ingredients which can be put there. Ask them to add less oil, butter and salt, to give more raw food and less of cooked and roasted food. It is advisable to develop a special menu for course participants. You can negotiate with a cafe or restaurant to purchase some of the products from you, or just bring your own herbs. Agree on payment by installments (as a control tool and given the fact that some participants may refuse the proposed meal).
- Is it possible to cook on-site (inform participants that there is no scheduled time for cooking), order local milk, cheese and eggs, buy products in shop?
Transport
- Inform participants on different travel options, e.g. BlaBlaCar.
- If you need to organize a transfer from the station, first check the possibility of utilizing participants vehicles. Gather this information in the registration form.
- Sometimes it is cheaper (and easier) to organize a taxi transfer than to hire a minibus.
- Is parking lot organized and can it be hard to get to the road after rain?
Materials
- Ask teachers to write session plans and handouts for participants. The first one will help to recall the structure of session next time and to repeat the session by another teacher.
- It may be useful to develop homeworks. This will allow to complete the course for those who have missed some sessions.
Communication after the course
- Send notes, contacts, photos (it is convenient to use Google Drive), videos (links to YouTube playlist), information for volunteers, link to join the organization and various thematic groups.
- Create groups (in facebook, google) for experts and alumni to support their further growth in permaculture, including professional one.
- Gather the feedback from participants. We recommend you to use this form (and view responses here).
- Organize videoconference for full course covening team, collect feedback and update this instruction.
Hosting volunteers
- If you propose diverse work, then only long-term volunteers will really help you (taking into account the time for their training). Consider the possibility of having interns (and paying for their work after their acquire the necessary skills).
- Short-term volunteers will want to have a tour around your site. Account this time and your capacity to offer guided tour (you can use recorded video, description of the design project, information signs).
- Well placed written instructions will save your time for explaining things to volunteers. Ask volunteers to help composing instructions! Pay attention to indicate safety rules, what is allowed and what is not.
- Offer diverse work experience accounting for the interest of the volunteer. People come to you to learn, not only to help.
- Create a work plan (that includes the time for rest; and provide respective instructions) for the whole day, so that the volunteer did not have to constantly distract you and can work in your absence.
- A long-term volunteer is almost a member of your family. He / she should feel comfortable in the kitchen (maybe you should arrange a guest kitchen?), rest with you, use sports equipment etc.
- Allocate a restricted, family zone and a guest area, and inform the volunteer.
- Conveniently designed workshop with tools located at their designated places will make your life easier, as well as for your volunteers.