Help Wanted: Must be Committed and Reliable

The Frog Decline Reversal Project, Inc. (the FDR Project) runs a variety of activities which are meant to help slow and hopefully stop the decline of frogs in this area. Some of these activities are things that can be done by volunteers on an ad hoc basis but many tasks require some training which means that we expect a long-term, professional committment from the volunteer. If you are considering becoming a volunteer, please read through this page before contacting us. If you live in Cairns and would still like to get involved in our activities after you've read it fully, then phone or email us. We will arrange an interview and show you our setup.

Ask yourself WHY you want to volunteer with us

We get lots of calls from people who sound keen to help frogs and we spend a great deal of time explaining what we do. We then schedule an interview at the potential volunteer's convenience but the vast majority of callers don't even show up for their interview or phone to cancel. (Other community groups in Cairns report the same problem and it baffles all of us!) We can't figure out why they called us to begin with! So please ask yourself why you want to volunteer for us and what you want out of the experience before you pick up the phone to offer us your help! Everybody has their own thoughts about "what's in it for me" which might include:

• meeting new people and socialising
• a means of being able to get what psyche gurus refer to as 'positive stroking' (pats on the back) which might not be coming from other daily activities
• just filling in time which benefits somebody else as well
• getting free training
• gaining a required skill for a job
• a means of implementing an inner driving force to do something 'real' to help the environment

Which of these points you value will determine what kinds of volunteer opportunities are right for you. For most of our current volunteers, the most relevant point that applies is the last one!

Our Work Environment

• The CFH is run by a Curator and is located in a private home, as is the office for the FDR Project, Inc.. We are on the southside so volunteers having to drive some way to get here probably want to be able to spend a few hours each session to make the drive worthwhile.
• We are closed mornings due to the Curator's health problems. We welcome volunteer assistance with hospital tasks between 1:00 and 6:00pm. We function seven days a week but are not always here every day depending on the tasks at hand.
• Most of the time, only one or two volunteers at a time might be at the CFH with the Curator and there is a mountain of work to be done. The CFH/FDR office is quiet but it is extremely busy. This means that volunteers need to be comfortable with focussing on the tasks at hand and working independently rather than lots of conversation and socialising. If you really need someone to chat with while you work, perhaps you can find an environmentally friendly colleague who will pair up with you when you are here.
• We are very consciencious when it comes to duty of care. We do not allow volunteers to engage in activities which might pose any risks to themselves or others. We expect safety procedures to be followed such as wearing protective clothing and being mindful about one's conduct during surveys. This also includes not allowing volunteers to engage in frog care as all the animals we have here are diseased and until the government comes up with the funding for proper investigation, we don't really know the full scope of what we are handling.

What sort of tasks do we have for volunteers?

Lots of things such as picking up injured frogs, washing tanks, helping with mailings, running errands, carpentry and other assembly work, computer work, answering phones and making phone calls, internet research, database entry, surveys at night (during the wet season), manning our display at events, plus other odds and sods. Our work is based mostly in the following areas:

• disinfection for the Cairns Frog Hospital (the CFH)
• tadpole rescues and raising
• gathering information about local environmental issues
• producing educational materials
• breeding insects and cleaning their tanks
• attending government forums and meetings
• drafting submissions and grant applications
• logistics associated with displays and events
• administrative tasks to support all the above
• fundraising to support the above

The greatest need for help involves cleaning up. The frogs in care must be kept very clean and we normally have at several dozen in care plus tadpoles and juveniles. We have about 150 tanks which must be washed three times - first in bleach and disinfectant, secondly in F10, and lastly in iodine. The frog room needs to be wiped down and floor washed once a week.

Administration is the next most time consuming area as the group is DGR and registered for GST. There are required procedures for receipting and bookkeeping and member support activities as well as general communication and educational support for the public. During wet seasons, there are thousands of tadpoles to be cared for and metamorphs to be temporarily held to make sure they are healthy before they are returned to point of origin for release.

Specific ad-hoc needs

The stress of coping withnew highly contagious, airbourne diseases in the area has put quite a strain on our current volunteers and especially the Curator. We have needs for a variety of new volunteers which could be very limited by choice in what they do for us.

• We need more tank washers which involves standing at a sink for extended periods.
• There is a mass of computer work to do, especially with Microsoft Access and our new GIS software
• We need to produce more educational materials - especially small posters - and could use the assistance of a local graphic artist.
• We need professional advice on a mix of topics including legal, soil science, marketing, grant writing, primary school education, toxicology, climate change, genetics and especially psychology, film production and the functioning of the media industry. If you are a professional and only want to assist occasionally by providing us with your own professional expertise, we would love to talk to you.
• Schools phone us all the time to ask for speakers to come to their classes and we have no-one to send them. This is a shame as interested children are the ones who will be making the environmental decisions in the future. If you are a retired teacher or uni student studying for an education degree and would like to enjoy the teaching experience without the long-term commitment, call us! We would love to have someone who is available once a fortnight to visit a local school to talk about frog conservation.

Professionalism by Necessity

There are so many volunteer opportunities out there that you can pick and choose from. If we're not quite 'your cup of tea', that's fine. We hope you'll choose another group to help. Many volunteers feel that volunteering should not be as demanding as a paying job but, in our circumstances, the tasks here need to be handled with the same dedication and drive as a career job because we are dealing with live, diseased animals.

We have public liability insurance through the Landcare program and this covers you when you are working in the FDR project office, our official meetings and within the boundaries of our display stalls at major events. It also covers volunteers when out in the field doing surveys - it does not cover tank washing. When budgeting permits, tank washers are paid and this allows coverage under QLD Workcover.

We try to educate volunteers as much as possible and offer periodic workshops when sufficient members can attend. The more you learn, the more you can do. But at the least, we hope the personal satisfaction of making a genuine contribution to frog conservation will be reward in itself. If you have any questions or are ready to set up an interview, please contact us.

last edited: July 1st, 2009