Volunteer Tips and Tricks
- May 13
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 12
Updated 5/13/2026
Volunteers are a wealth of information. A series of Tips and Tricks to Make Volunteering Easier for Everyone cover the following topics. (Expand each item to see the information.)
Check Your Progress - Updated August 2026
The growing season is in the home stretch, so this is a good time to check your volunteer hours to determine what you need to do in the coming weeks. You will want to have most of your volunteer commitments filled by October when many of the ongoing projects are wrapping up. There are fewer opportunities to volunteer late in the year.
Now is also a good time to review the variety of your volunteer activities. At the end of their first year, interns consistently advise new interns to “try many activities.” In order to expand your horizons, you might want to check out the new Volunteer Bingo Card. Another option is to check out Darren’s 10-day, volunteer forecast that appears in your email inbox each Sunday, letting us know where volunteers are needed most in the following 10 days.
Counting ALL of your Hidden Volunteer Time - Updated July 2026
We are now over half way through 2026, and hopefully you are finding the opportunities to volunteer rewarding, and you are getting enough of them to be on track to fulfill your first year’s goal of 50 hours (or, 25, for those of you spreading it out over two years).
These are a few hacks, or reminders, as you volunteer. Did you know...
If you are finished with an event earlier than what was scheduled you can still claim the entire time? You allotted the time to volunteer, and if the work is done early or rain and storms threaten, you can still claim the entire scheduled period.
Your travel time is also counted as volunteer hours. Be sure to include the time it takes to get there and to get back home!
Counting Your Time - Updated July 2026
Hello again. Here are another set of tips to help during this first year. We are now over half way through 2026, and hopefully you are finding the opportunities to volunteer rewarding, and you are getting enough of them to be on track to fulfill your first year’s goal of 50 hours (or, 25, for those of you spreading it out over two years).
These are a few hacks, or reminders, as you volunteer:
Did You Know that if you are finished with an event earlier than what was scheduled OR was canceled by the project lead you can still claim the entire time? You allotted the time to volunteer, and if the work is done early or rain and storms threaten, you can still claim the entire scheduled period.
Did You Know that your travel time and preparation time are also included? Be sure to include the time it takes you to get ready for the event—including researching the topic, picking up materials, practicing, or preparing props – and the time it takes to get there and to get back home!
Did You Know that Interns are not required to obtain continuing education in addition to completion of the core course?. However, once you are a certified Master Gardener, you will need to complete five hours of CE per year. Monthly meetings can be counted for your CE hours requirement. These are held both in-person and online, with a guest speaker talking about a seasonal topic.
Apps for Identifying Unknown Plants - Updated June 2026
Many of you have finished the course instruction (Congratulations!) and now it’s on to putting your knowledge to work.
Here’s a hack to help with one of the more vexing issues when you are first starting out: identifying plants and giving information about them! There are several good apps out there (PlantNet, INaturalist being two of them) but consider using AI-based apps.
I have used both ChatGPT and Claude (you can download either as an app for your phone for free – they have, of course, a subscription option) and found both of them to be very easy to use – simply take a photo of a plant (or of a pest or blighted leaf…) and hit Send. The information that comes back includes the identification of the plant, the degree of certainty (it’s not always correct), the attributes of the plant and the care for it.
The info is much better than either the apps mentioned above and the plant IDs that Apple and Android phones have come up with. (That said, both Apple and Android-based phones are coming out with AI-powered apps soon.)
The point is to use these tools and decide which is the most complete and easiest to use. AI has made plant identification and information much easier.
And one more tip: If you do use an AI-based app, use the same “Chat” each time. For example, I use a Chat I titled “Plants” each time I make another inquiry. It makes it easier to go back to find inquiries and, importantly, the AI is likely to surprise you by making connections of inquiries you have made or even come up with corrections of past Information!
by Don Muske
June 10, 2026
Remembering What You've Done to Report Hours - Updated June 2026
Tracking Volunteer Activities - Updated May 2026
Note: When Don says "paid" for transportation, he means travel times count as volunteer time.
Using Sign Up Genius - Updated April 2026
Don M shares some pro-tips for using Sign Up Genius. These hacks are especially useful to interns but even seasoned volunteers will learn something from Don.
Volunteer Etiquette and Branding
Reporting Volunteer & Continuing Education Hours
Using State MG Volunteer Website
Designing a New Volunteer Project
Reporting For Your Project
