Home >> Volunteer VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES There are many different ways to get involved, and just as many different tasks that need to be done here at Surfrider. Depending on what you're interested in, or what you have talents for, we have a job for you. If you have any special skills, let us know. If you have the interest but not the experience, be sure to attend one of our Core Volunteer Orientations. Core Volunteer Orientation is designed as a way to get more people familiar with Surfrider at a higher, more involved level and develop more environmental activists. The training lasts about 60 minutes and we will cover some background info on Surfrider and our chapter along with training and insight on getting involved with organizing fundraising and outreach events, coordinating beach cleanups, the Policy Committee, Ocean Friendly Gardens, Kids For Clean Water education presentations, computer based help and more. The next Core Volunteer Orientation will be on Wed. September 22 at the Forum Hall in UTC/La Jolla (4315 La Jolla Village Dr., above Wells Fargo branch that is adjacent to the mall) from 7:00-8:00pm. You can rsvp (not required) on Volgistics (below), contact Bill or simply show up on Wednesday. For all new volunteers without a Surfrider Volgistics account, please fill out our volunteer form and choose the opportunities that interest you: Volunteer Application Form Already have an account? Need to post hours, sign up for new assignments or set your preferences? Click Here to Log Into Your Account The best way to specialize in a campaign or program you are interested in is to get involved in it's committee. Here's a sample of some of the local campaigns and programs that are looking for volunteers, scroll down to the bottom for a calendar of committee meetings and events: KNOW YOUR H20 Do you know where your water comes from? San Diego's water travels several hundred miles from the Colorado River and through the canals of the State Water Project in northern California. Due to drought years and legislation, less water will be delivered from these sources in the future. Know Your H2O is a campaign to educate the public about the three most common options proposed to increase our water supply: conservation, Indirect Potable Reuse (IPR) and desalination. It's your water, too. Get involved! Contact Belinda for more information. HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTT! This is our campaign to educate the public that cigarette butts are litter and they have a big impact on the marine environment. We need volunteers for writing letters, brainstorming, and occasional special projects that help us get the word out. Right now we are looking for volunteers to help with our cigarette litter hotline - you can volunteer from home on this one! To get involved, please email Molly. BORDER POLLUTION ISSUES Surfers in souther San Diego County face some of the most polluted water in the US when the Tijuna River is flowing to the ocean. Help be a part of the solution to this public safety and environemntal problem. Contact Dan for more information or to get involved. OCEAN FRIENDLY GARDENS Ocean Friendly Gardens (OFG) aims to reduce the dry season runoff in San Diego County. OFG reduces runoff through conservation, permeability and retention in our gardens. Volunteers are need to help with planning meetings and getting the program more exposure in San Diego. Contact Bill for more information. RISE ABOVE PLASTICS! Rise Above Plastics (RAP) is a starting point for raising awareness of the problems that plastic brings to our oceans. Because our RAP campaign is self-directed, anyone can join us. Let us know how it goes, and send us your stories. We’ll post them on our blog. There is also a RAP Committee that meets on the 2nd Tuesday of each month to discuss what's going on locally and how to get involved. Contact Jon for more information. BEACH CLEANUPS We have regularly scheduled beach cleanups around San Diego County. We provide the trash bags, rubber gloves, and other items needed. All we need is you to show up and help out! (For more information, see our Beach Cleanups page.) Contact Donna if you need more info or would like to help lead our cleanups. SAN DIEGO ACTION NETWORK The role of the Action Network is to track issues on a local level by attending city council meetings along with reviewing agendas and proposals. Click Here for a full description of the position and contact John for more information or to get involved. BLUE WATER TASK FORCE Surfrider teams up with San Diego Coastkeeper to conduct water monitoring one Saturday per month. The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health does a great job with daily ocean and bay recreational water testing so we decided to go upstream into our watersheds to isolate the sources of pollution. Contact Adrian for more information. KIDS FOR CLEAN WATER We need volunteers to present our prepared Clean Water presentation. This is usually done at various schools around San Diego County, but we also present to a variety of commnunity groups and others who are interested in learning more about clean water. If you like working with kids or the public, this could be just for you. The main requirement is that you have time available during at least one school day per week. Contact Mary for more information. FUNDRAISING AND EVENT PLANNING We have annual fundraisers and special events spread throughout the year. We need volunteers to help with event planning and setup, as well as people to do PR work, staff a Surfrider info booth, and help us get sponsors. For more information, contact Bill. PUBLIC RELATIONS AND ADVERTISING We need volunteers for our Outreach program. There are opportunities for webmasters, graphic artists, newsletter editors/workers, and people who can help with publicity and media relations. Contact Ken for more information. WEBSITE AND INTERNET Our chapter needs more motivated people to help with website updates and increase the reach and awareness of our blogs. Click Here for a full description of the website specialist position and Click Here for a full description of the blogger position. For more information or to get involved, contact Bill. CORE VOLUNTEER If you can't decide what to choose but you know you want to help, this is for you. The role of a Core Volunteer is to assist the Chapter with various functions and to be a Surfrider ambassador by helping get our mission and message out to the public on a grassroots level. Click Here for a full Core Volunteer description. For more information or to get involved, contact Bill. ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES Send us your ideas! If you can help in ways not listed here or can think of another project that we need to do, let us know. We would like to take some of our existing projects and campaigns and improve them, as well as expand them into additional communities that we are not yet reaching. We are also looking for volunteers who can show up at city council meetings in support of Surfrider issues. Other things that we are looking for include graphic design, such as the design of T-shirts and posters. If any of this sounds good to you, contact Donna for more information.