Volunteer with BRIT
Volunteers are special people. At BRIT, volunteers provide a valued resource of talent and enthusiasm. We encourage our volunteers to pursue their interests, contribute their skills, and take advantage of the opportunities to learn and grow both personally and professionally. We strive to offer each volunteer a satisfying, productive, and rewarding experience - as well as cold AC, free coffee, famous botanists, and thousands of plants (albeit as specimens)!
Volunteer Opportunities
We are seeking qualified individuals for the opportunities listed below to meet ongoing and growing needs. Please click on a link in your area of interest for current opportunities.
• Guest Services
• Retail
• Fund Development
• Education
• Herbarium
• Library
• Research
• Press
How to Apply
To become a part of a growing and vital volunteer community at BRIT:
1. Download and complete a volunteer application (pdf) and the background verification release form (pdf) or
2. Contact the Volunteer Program Management Office, by email or phone 817.546.1846.
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Volunteers Needed in Guest Services
Volunteers are needed to be a critical part of our guest services team to deliver the best visitor experience possible.
As you welcome visitors to our new facility, you will be shaping first, and often lasting, impressions formed by visitors to the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT). You will be part of a team of people responsible for delivering the best visitor experience possible, the “BRIT experience”! Greeters are needed during our standard open hours: Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm and Saturdays, 10am to 2pm. We are grateful for as many hours as you would like to work but require that our greeters work at least a four-hour shift on a regular schedule. For more information, download the full job description.
[How to Apply] [Back to List]
Volunteers Needed in Retail
One of the ways that BRIT raises awareness and support for our work is through our gift store. You can help visitors search through beautiful products for just the right item to celebrate their visit to BRIT’s new campus. Ensure the in-store or online shopping experience reflects the inviting and knowledgeable qualities found in all of BRIT’s work. Training is provided, and you will work with an experienced retail manager. Store hours are: Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm and Saturday, 10am to 2pm. You are asked to commit to a regular half-day or full-day schedule on the same day. For more information, download the full job description.
[How to Apply] [Back to List]
Volunteers Needed in Fund Development
Special Events
Do you enjoy assisting with an event from the beginning stages to its culmination? The development team at BRIT would benefit from your volunteer skills. To facilitate BRIT events running smoothly, the development/special events team is grateful to volunteers who are willing to assist with mailings, set-up and/or clean-up of events, or clerical duties, when needed. This position is very flexible and is utilized for four to six hours a month near event dates.
Membership Assistant
Are you great at organizing? Do you enjoy helping others find order? Your skills can benefit the membership team at BRIT in organizing paperwork and files. The schedule is flexible based on your availability during our regular business hours (10a.m. - 5p.m.) This job is best accomplished by working in increments of three to four hours. This position requires a thorough background check.
[How to Apply] [Back to List]
Volunteers Needed in Education
Enthusiastic volunteers can provide the critical element for delivering quality education and public outreach programs.
The BRIT SEED School Promotion Designer
The BRIT SEED School Promotion Designer will undergo some training on BRIT’s brand, and assist the BRIT SEED School staff in designing and implementing promotional materials for programs, events, and services. Promotional materials include flyers, mailing lists, social media, and creative promotional strategies. This position will also assist the BRIT SEED School team in building and maintaining our promotional e-mail lists and distribute electronic promotions to those promotional lists. The Promotion Designer is extremely important to the BRIT SEED School, and we are looking for an individual who is creative, has experience designing flyers and promoting activities or events to the public, is familiar with social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook, and has skills with Microsoft applications, particularly Excel and PowerPoint. This position will work between five and ten hours per week depending on volunteer interest and the number of events occurring that week. Contact us for more information.
Ambassadors (Tour Docents)
BRIT Ambassados are trained docents whose primary duty is to give guided tours of BRIT. Guided tours on our new campus raise awareness and appreciation for the impact of our work. By engaging visitors in an exploration BRIT, you will serve as a primary ambassador for BRIT. Through an eight-week training course, you will learn, and interpret for others, BRIT's message of conservation and the importance of plants in our lives. Public tours are offered Tuesday thru Friday at 1:30 p.m, and on Saturday, 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Contact us for more information.
Professional Development Assistants
Assist BRIT staff in delivering outstanding, educator professional development workshops. You can volunteer to help before, during, or after a workshop. Before each workshop, volunteers can prepare materials and setup the workshop space. During the workshop, volunteers can welcome and register participants, distribute materials, ensure that food and drinks are readily available, and assist with cleanup. Following the workshop, volunteers can restock equipment and enter evaluation data into an excel spreadsheet. Work before and after workshops is scheduled between 9a.m. and 5p.m. on weekdays. Workshops themselves vary from three to six hours and are generally scheduled late on weekday afternoons or in the morning on Saturdays. [Contact us for more information]
Education Interns
Education interns are very important to the success of BRIT’s programming. Interns will prepare materials and facilitate educational programs including, but not limited to camp, story time, field study trips, and Science Saturday. Interns will also have the opportunity to take a deeper look into BRIT’s herbarium, research projects, library, and more. The hours will be mutually agreed upon by the education team and the intern. [Contact us for more information]
[How to Apply] [Back to List]
Volunteers Needed in the Herbarium
A herbarium is a collection of dried, pressed plant specimens. Plant specimens are collected in the field, pressed flat between newspapers, and dried in a plant press. In the field, a collector makes notes in a notebook. Before the collected plant can be placed in the herbarium, it is put through a drying process and mounted on acid-free paper with a label based on collector data. Mounted plant specimens are then sorted and filed taxonomically and geographically in cabinets.
Plant Specimen Mounter
Your help is needed to mount collected plan specimens onto acid-free paper using archival-quality glue. You will also include labels, maps, photographs, and other documentation as well as a fragment packet to store loose flowers and fruits. All mounting is done in the Ramona Goehman Plant Preservation Studio, alongside other plant mounters and occasionally a herbarium staff member. [Contact us for more information]
Plant Specimen Filer
All newly-mounted specimens and recently acquired collections are filed in herbarium cabinets. You will arrange specimens by family, genus, species, and geographic origin. Some working knowledge of biology, botany, or taxonomy is helpful, but not required. A how-to manual is provided for the specifics on properly filing a specimen. This work is completed in the herbarium. [Contact us for more information]
Herbarium Specimen Accessioner
Sometimes a herbarium cannot keep their specimens either due to lack of resources or interest. In these cases, they will donate their collection (in part or in full) to BRIT. These specimens (usually already mounted) will need to be accessioned. Your help is needed to write the letters “EX” next to that herbarium’s stamp to signify that the specimen was formerly at that herbarium. You will then stamp the specimen with a BRIT logo to show the new ownership. Finally, you will look up the genus to find the family and write the family name above the label so it can be sorted for filing. [Contact us for more information]
Herbarium Curatorial Assistant
There are many other activities available in a herbarium besides mounting and filing plant specimens. Some of these projects involve maintaining mounting supplies (stamping mounting paper, cutting linen strips, etc.). Volunteers are also needed for maintaining and updating the collection. Plant taxonomy is not stagnant; species names are changed frequently and the herbarium needs to reflect these changes. [Contact us for more information]
Plant Specimen Digitizer
Once plant specimens are ready for filing, the information about the specimen needs to be entered into a database by completing a simple form. Specimens are bar-coded so that loans and specimen transactions will be easy to process and track. Some specimens will be digitally photographed as part of the databasing process to become part of an online "Virtual Herbarium." [Contact us for more information]
[How to Apply] [Back to List]
Volunteers Needed in the Library
The BRIT botanical library is a fabulous collection containing approximately 95,000 volumes of scientific and taxonomic books, periodicals, and journals from more than 90 countries representing the majority of the world’s written languages. During normal weekdays the library needs assistance with the following:
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Reference Librarians to assist visitors in locating materials during open hours (Tuesday and Thursday 1-4pm, Saturday 10am-2pm)
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Checking in and shelving scientific journals.
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Entering data in database for the library.
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Preserving and conserving old and fragile books.
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Assisting with the archival project.
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Maintaining the reprint collection.
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Translating cataloging information from Eastern European, Russian, Chinese, Japanese or Korean books.
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Special projects.
[How to Apply] [Back to List]
Volunteers Needed in Research
We are looking for volunteers to engage in various research activities underway at BRIT. Here are just a few opportunities.
GIS Assistant
Volunteers are needed to assist with various Graphical Information Systems (GIS) projects within the Research Department. This GIS work mainly involves using ArcGIS software to create maps pertaining to research at several sites (e.g. Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge, LBJ National Grasslands, BRIT campus). Maps developed by GIS assistants will be used for spatial analysis as well as in presentations and publications by BRIT researchers. You will choose or be assigned to one of a number of current projects (e.g. mapping the new BRIT landscape to create an interactive map of all plant species and special landscape features). You will use ArcGIS software to perform a number of tasks, depending on the projects. Such tasks may include creating basemaps, layers, and shape files; locating free basemaps through internet searches; and groundtruthing. Contact us for more information.
Publication Assistant
We are in the process of writing a publication about the plants found within the wetlands of Madre de Dios, Peru. The BRIT Peru team has been working for several years now to compile a checklist. Now, the principal investigator (John Janovec) and BRIT staff are working to turn this checklist into a manuscript that will be published through the online herbarium and possibly the BRIT Press. You will identify sources of illustrations to be used within the manuscript about the Peruvian wetland plants collected by the research team. You will be given a computer that can be used to access the web and any necessary sites that will aide in the location of these illustrations. Once the illustrations have been located, you will work with Keri Barfield to contact and send letters to each of the organizations that have copyrights for the illustrations. You will then work to scan these images on a high resolution scanner within the BRIT digitization studio to be used in the wetlands publication. Contact us for more information.
Research Assistant
The research team is involved in a variety of studies in the field and in the lab. Some of the available projects involve using computers to locate needed information that will assist the research team in publication and documentation of research. Projects include Cider World, Open Science Network in Ethnobiology, Segues to Science, Spanish orchards, Peru, New Guinea, and Texas. There are a variety of opportunities available for a person to receive hands-on experience working with the BRIT research staff. The information you collect will assist the research team in completion of products such as manuscripts for journals or book publications; assist in gathering data pertaining to on-going research; and help promote a clear, consistent image of the work being done within the research department at BRIT. You will be working on a personal level with BRIT staff. There is potential for you to be able to work from home if you prefer depending on the task assigned. Contact us for more information.
In the past we have had a variety of tasks related to completing active research. The following is a list of opportunities that are available within the research department.
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Process data from evaluation forms into database
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Data entry and analysis of information collected in surveys
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Transcription of Interviews (Spanish/English) and translation into English
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Participate in cider evaluation taste testing (age limitations)
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Individualized collection of information via e-mail from participants in the network
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Collect information about programs and courses using Internet
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Gather publications on specific subjects using library resources or assigned websites
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Enter information from articles into a database
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Organize all field school supplies and develop inventory and system for distribution
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Organize meetings to discuss creative solutions to field school problems and collect information about optional equipment
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Data entry, editing web site and testing content for consistency/functionality
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Assist with establishing BRIT as a location to refill water bottles
[How to Apply] [Back to List]
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