Across South Australia, Friends of Parks and Nature groups play a vital role in caring for our environment. From restoring habitats to monitoring wildlife, volunteers help ensure our parks, reserves, and natural spaces remain thriving and beautiful. But like any volunteer-based organisation, growing and retaining members can be a challenge!

If your group is looking to attract more volunteers, here are some simple ways to make your activities more engaging and appealing to new members.

1. Shift the narrative: Show the bigger picture

One of the biggest challenges for volunteer groups is how they talk about their activities.

Take weeding, for example. Instead of promoting an event as “weeding within a park,” consider highlighting the impact: “Help clear space for endangered bandicoots to thrive” or “Join us in restoring habitat for native wildflowers and pollinators”

Framing activities in terms of their purpose and positive outcomes makes them much more attractive to potential volunteers. People are more likely to join when they understand the bigger picture.

2. Highlight what’s in it for volunteers

While people love to give back, they also want to know what they’ll get out of an experience. Make sure you communicate the personal benefits of volunteering, such as:

• Learning new skills (e.g. wildlife monitoring, native plant identification)
• Connecting with like-minded people
• Spending time outdoors in beautiful parks
• Making a real impact on conservation

A simple shift from “Come help with weed removal” to “Spend a morning in nature, learn about native plants, and help create a better home for wildlife” can make all the difference

3. Make it easy to join

Sometimes, people want to get involved but aren’t sure how. Ensure your group has:

• Clear, simple instructions on how to get involved listed on the Friends of Parks and Nature website. Many groups have been listed on this page for a number of years, so it may be time to update old content.
• A friendly point of contact for questions (a phone number or email)
• Flexible options—not everyone can commit to regular sessions, so consider occasional events for new members to try

4. Use Social Media to tell stories

Photos, short videos, and personal stories can help potential volunteers see what your group is about. Instead of just posting event details, try sharing:

• A volunteer’s story— “Why I joined and what I love about it”
• Before-and-after photos of habitat restoration projects
• A highlight reel of the wildlife benefiting from your work
• Consider using free graphic design tools – they’re easy to use and look professional! (just search in Google for a variety of tools). 
• Don’t forget to tag Friends of Parks and Nature on Facebook so we can share your stories!

Engaging visuals and storytelling can make people feel more connected before they even step foot in a park.

5. Run a special “Bring a Friend” event

Encourage your current volunteers to invite a friend, family member, or colleague to an event. Offer clear and easy, engaging activity (like a wildlife walk or a tree planting event) can be a great way to introduce new people to your group

6. Celebrate your impact

Finally, don’t forget to show appreciation and celebrate your achievements! A simple thank-you event, social media shout-outs, or updates on progress (e.g. “Thanks to our volunteers, 500 native seedlings were planted this year!”) can boost motivation and keep people engaged.

A few more handy resources…

Green Adelaide: 7 easy ways to recruit volunteers for the long term Factsheet here.

Facebook: Government nonprofit Facebook pages resource

DEW Accessibility Officer Yvie Eglinton’s address to the Friends’ Forum in August certainly impressed a past President of Friends of Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park.

On returning home from the Forum Dinner he emailed members of the group to tell them there was a developing program within parks that they needed to embrace immediately. He later discussed ideas with the group’s Liaison Ranger Tom McIntosh to learn what plans park staff might have for reviewing accessibility to facilities, camping, trails, visitor experiences and other park assets, and offering strong participation by the park’s Friends.

The outcome of those discussions was an agreement for Friends to conduct an audit of everything in the park that visitors can access.  Using the detailed Park Accessibility Checklist provided by Yvie, the Group prepared Audit Worksheets to enable a thorough and detailed audit of all that Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park can offer a visitor, as seen through the eyes of a person with a disability.

The Accessibility Audit of the park was carried out by Friends during their November 2024 working week. To ensure continuity of standards and evaluations only two teams of two volunteers were involved. All visitor accessible sites within the park were audited.  Not surprisingly the nature of the Flinders Ranges terrain poses numerous challenges to able bodied people and these are greatly magnified when imagining how people with a disability might be provided with access.  Nevertheless all sites were equally audited by the audit team totally committed to identifying opportunities.

The Audit Report has now to be written.  The initial review of Audit worksheets suggested a grouping of sites.  For example, there is already a small number of sites within the park that can be accessed by people with a disability and a few more could be accessed after repairs to minor issues such as track levels and width, and location of bollards and fencing.  Then there are numerous opportunities to provide accessibility by funding and undertaking more major works to enable visitors with a disability to move between carparks and visitor experience locations. Campgrounds can also be improved with sufficient funds. Perhaps the major obstacle to accessibility throughout the park is the absence of disabled toilets that meet Australian Standards and the conditions of surrounding terrain to provide ease of access to them.

The Friends group has made a start and members are ready to undertake the minor repairs identified in keeping with the work program of par management.

We look forward to welcoming visitors with a disability among the people we greet when working in the park.

If you’re Friends group would like to complete an audit, please contact Yvie at yvette.eglinton@sa.gov.au 

The 31^st AGM which will be held on Monday, 27 May, 2024, at 10 am, online via MS Teams.

The AGM will finalise the election of Board positions, and review the Board reports.  This year, all board positions are open for election.  We welcome new board nominations!

A minimum of fiifteen (15) Member Groups will need to be represented to meet the AGM quorum requirements.

Please register your attendance, and forward your group report for the 2023 calendar year. Apologies are also welcome.  Multiple member attendance is welcome  –  just provide a separate email address for each attendee so that a Teams link can be forwarded.

Please forward any registrations to attend and group reports to pamela.smith@sa.gov.au by 29 April, 2024.