Volunteer Opportunities
Considerable effort and care is given to volunteer recruitment, an ongoing process and successful component of MPPP. The project is fortunate to have long-standing volunteers and is continuing to attract new people with commitment to the philosophy of preservation. Volunteers come from tour attendees, area residents, the professional community, the spring Pláticas seminar series and avocational groups. Many new volunteers are brought to MPPP by current supporters who have contacts with similar groups.
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Project Director Janet MacKenzie spends countless hours coordinating the many activities of the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project. MORE |
Many volunteer hours are also spent with the Summer Youth Intern Program, in the archival library, in database management, data entry, office assistance, web site development, Site Watch on the Wells Petroglyph Preserve, and on the MPPP Board of Directors and associated committees.
If you are interested in volunteering with the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project, please contact Volunteer Coordinator Gretchen Yost at [email protected]
Volunteers may be needed in the following areas:
Volunteer Tour Docents on the Wells Petroglyph Preserve
Docents are trained to lead public, school and private tours that are basic to the Project's commitment to education, preservation and community service. All of the 120 or more tours on the Wells Petroglyph Preserve are led by volunteer docents on six trails on the Wells Petroglyph Preserve and typically take two to two-and-one-half hours. MORE
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Wells Petroglyph Preserve tour docent Chris Riveles (center) leads a tour on the Wells Petroglyph Preserve. |
Petroglyph Recording Volunteers
Volunteers are trained to work in teams of two, three or four recording petroglyphs to achieve our goal of recording all the petroglyphs on Mesa Prieta. Teams collect a variety of data which are entered into a multi-level relational data base: locational, photographic, drawn graphic, metric, classification, directional and descriptive.
Survey teams work in advance of the recording teams to determine areas of petroglyph density as well as the difficulty of access to and within recording areas. Currently about thirty-five recording and survey volunteers work on Mesa Prieta.
Training for petroglyph recorders is offered once a year in the spring depending on the needs of the project. MORE
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Award-Winning Summer Youth Intern Program
Each June, twelve students, aged thirteen to nineteen, are chosen from applicants to be trained as petroglyph recorders in the same way as adult volunteer recorders are trained. They receive a small stipend for their work. At the end of the program, they are taught how to enter their data into the GIS database at the Northern New Mexico University. Volunteers assist with preparation and distribution of applications to representatives at Valley schools and assist in preparing recording packs and materials for the youth teams. Adult volunteers also play a key role during the two-week program, mentoring the youth in the field and in data base entry techniques. Preference is given to adult volunteers who can commit to the entire two weeks of the program. MORE
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4th - 7th Grade School Curriculum - "Discovering Mesa Prieta"
Volunteers are trained to interface with teachers presenting the curriculum in their classrooms. Each teacher using the curriculum is provided with an educational resource trunk containing 50-60 items including photographs, maps, posters, books, art and cultural materials that support the lesson plans. Volunteers supply the trunks and resupply them when returned to the office prior to being reissued. Volunteers also assist with preparing other teaching materials. MORE
Volunteers in the Mesa Prieta Office
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Day-to-day office duties and activities to support the project are performed by volunteers working with the Project Director. Tasks include answering phone calls and emails, data entry, responding to recorder, surveyor and docent needs, collecting mail, conducting supportive tasks associated with curriculum and youth programs, working in the resource library, filling and mailing merchandise orders as well as numerous other tasks. Office volunteers may work from once a week to once a month and perform tasks they are familiar with and comfortable in doing. |
Aileen Cruz, a veteran Summer Youth Program Intern and Young Adult Mentor with the summer program, volunteers in the Mesa Prieta office entering BLM recording data. Aileen is from Ohkay Owingeh and is the first Pueblo Miss NMSU Native American. |
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Data Entry into the MPPP Database
Petroglyph recording data and a variety of geographical data are entered into the project’s purpose-designed multi-level relational GIS database, which has an MS Access interface. Access to the database will be available to researchers and others with permission. A separate Cultural Landscape database is developed to contain information about cultural landscape features recorded on the mesa. These include artifacts, structures, trails and other significant historic and prehistoric features that tell researchers more about the people who lived on the mesa over a period of thousands of years. Volunteers do data entry in the project office based on their availability.
MPPP Board of Directors and Committees
About a dozen volunteers serve on the MPPP Board of Directors to plan, implement and oversee all of the MPPP activities as well as manage the Wells Petroglyph Preserve. For current officers and board members please see: MORE
Major committees are Petroglyph Recording, Tours, Technical Processes, Fundraising, Education including School Curriculum Program and Summer Youth Intern Program, National Monument, Web Site, Library and Public Relations, Outreach and Promotion and Governance. MORE
If you are interested in any of these committees, please contact Volunteer Coordinator Zulema Fall at [email protected] and she will send draft descriptions of the work that needs to be done by each committee.
The committees conduct all of the business of the project in addition to annual, five-and-ten year planning, grant writing and fund raising. Committee members also conduct training, volunteer recognition, special events and numerous other activities related to the project.
Terrain Management on the Wells Petroglyph Preserve
Maintenance and upgrades are conducted regularly on each of the six Wells Petroglyph Preserve trails. Volunteers pitch in with rakes, shovels, chainsaws, pruners, wattles, straw bales and other implements to make the trails safer and to reduce erosion on the Preserve that results from natural elements and tour traffic. Approximately 70 docent-led tours are given each year on the Preserve and the traffic contributes to wear and tear on the fragile terrain resulting in erosion and possible boulder movement. Remediation is conducted during regularly scheduled trail maintenance work days. Volunteers bring their own tools and donations of trail stabilization materials are greatly appreciated.
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New Mexico Site Watch on the Wells Petroglyph Preserve
About ten volunteers are trained by New Mexico Site Watch to monitor their assigned areas monthly on the Wells Petroglyph Preserve. Volunteers receive training from the State NM Site Watch Program, then are oriented to sites on the Preserve to monitor monthly. Unfortunately vandalism has occurred on the Preserve and is a continuing concern.
MPPP Annual Volunteer Appreciation Picnic
Each year, the project sponsors a Volunteer Appreciation Picnic on or near the mesa for more than 100 volunteers with the project. Various volunteer recognition awards are given as well as other tokens of appreciation. The Project values each and every volunteer and strives to thank them for the many hours worked, miles driven and other contributions they make to the project.
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