Service Hours Guide
Updated 4/29/2014
Service Hours Requirements
Each gardener is expected to contribute complete services hours as described below. YOU WILL BE BILLED FOR UNWORKED HOURS. In addition one hour per six months is required to be completed for projects specific to our sponsors, Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, REGARDLESS OF PLOT SIZE.
SEE PROPOSED SITE RULE CHANGES FOR THE PRESUMED, NEW "NUMBER OF HOURS" REQUIREMENTS THAT WILL BE RETROACTIVE IF PASSED BY THE MEMBERSHIP.
There are two deadlines for completing service hours June 30 and Dec. 31. The cutoff for service hours is one month before gardening plot fees are due. That is, service hours run one month ahead of the actual semester end. This is done in order to send out bills.
If you have any questions about service hours, please contact your zone coordinator.
How to Check Your Service Hours
Sunshine Gardeners can easily check how many service hours they performed/recorded.
- Sign on to http://www.sunshinecommunitygarden.org/
- You will see both the countdown to perform your hours and a tab on the right hand side
that is labeled "Virtual Green Binder". A dropdown list will show on hover:
- Hours Worked
- Enter Hours Worked
Typical Tasks
- PROPOSED NEW: Maintaining pathways and common areas so that they are clean, beautiful, safe, and easy to navigate for SGC members and for the general public, including those visitors who are differently enabled.
- Organizing and cleaning the Tool Shed interior
- Weed and trim exterior area of Tool Shed
- Cleaning the SCG Trailer interior, decks, ramps and surrounding gardens
- Mow, weed and tidy the lawn and pathways leading to and behind the SCG Trailer
- Weed the "porches" of the Hoop House and Garden Port
- Work the Compost Area (can also count toward TSVBI Hour, see details below)
- Mow and weed all areas not considered Zone Common Areas (NOTE: Interior and exterior fence line work can count toward TSVBI Hour, see details below)
- Working Spring or Fall Plant Sale as assigned by coordinators (Fall PS can count as TBVSI Hour.)
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI)
Each gardener is expected to contribute one hour per six months to TSBVI upkeep. Reminder: Watering DOES NOT count as TSBVI service hours.
The following tasks can count towards your TSBVI hour.
- Remove weeds in the paths of the TSBVI School Garden...watering this garden DOES NOT COUNT.
- The fence needs to be cleared of most vegetation, the exception being one vine that produces red berries that the birds like. Remove Johnson grass, hackberry tree shoots and re-growth from stumps plus all other weeds. We are leaving the vine with red berries (Carolina snailseed.)
- Both sides of the fence that surrounds Sunshine need to be mowed all the way to the streets (49th and Sunshine). Compost area also needs to be mowed and/or weeded, depending on the season.
- Trash needs to be picked up on both sides of the fence, including rocks to protect mowing-people and their machines.
- Trash in the compost area needs to be cleared. There are lots of pieces of plastic out there.
- Both bus stops that we have adopted need to be kept clean and litter free. Report any graffiti you may discover to Janet Adams (jartdaht@gmail.com).
- When TBVSI conducts a fund-raiser (like the Fall Plant Sale) and you are specifically assigned tasks related to their fund-raiser. (SCG fund-raiser tasks, like the Spring Plant Sale, cannot be counted as TBVSI Hours.)
