It is vital to review and alter how we do things to bring tangible lasting change and ensure that everyone feels able to join in with biological recording schemes.
The NPMS is open to everyone. We are a safe space, where people can bring their whole selves to volunteer with us, and we’re committed to making the scheme accessible and inclusive beyond already engaged audiences. We are threading the principles of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) throughout our workstream and ethos and have made good progress whilst recognising there’s still much more to do.
Removing barriers to involvement
With the NPMS, there’s something for beginners right through to expert botanists. The design of the scheme to include different NPMS survey levels ensures a mix of experience and confidence levels.
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Wildflower level – Ideal for people interested in plants and starting out in botany who can identify or can work towards identifying a smaller list of some of the more easily recognisable species.
Indicator level – Ideal for people confident to identify some of the trickier species where there are similar confusion species or the species is part of a larger genus.
Inventory level – For advanced botanists confident to identify all vascular plants within their plots whether in flower or not.
Why not start at Wildflower level and build ID and survey skills over time? Moving up to indicator level and beyond!
Our volunteering offer is evolving
We now have multiple opportunities for people to get involved in desk-based roles supporting the NPMS from home without taking on a survey square.
Volunteer photographers
Our photography volunteers are building a bank of botanical images for use in training materials, newsletters, social media, presentations, on the website, and in other scheme communications. Images are a vital engagement tool.
Data entry volunteers
Data entry volunteers are helping by entering data on behalf of volunteers who can't or aren’t confident to enter their survey data themselves. This means people don’t need to have access to a PC or an email address to take part in the scheme. Opening it up to a wider offline audience.
NPMS Permissions Support Volunteer Northern Ireland
We now have a volunteer helping with land access permission in Northern Ireland by identifying and contacting landowners to request access permissions for survey on NPMS squares which are on private land. This makes it easier for new survey volunteers to get started and is beneficial for people who may find approaching a landowner a little daunting. It is a pilot role, and we hope to widen the opportunity to other UK countries and regions in the future.
Other ways to volunteer
We have a large NPMS community and there are always a range of ways to contribute. From writing blogs for the website or articles for the NPMS seasonal newsletters, taking a survey selfie and tagging us in on your socials, or even making a plot portrait of your current or past square to help others and share your NPMS journey wider. There’s always something to do and we love having volunteer contributions.
Choosing a square that’s right for you
More detailed square information is now available to help people make informed choices when looking for a square to take up. Through the square details option, you can now view a summary which will show.
- Whether the square has been previously surveyed
- The date it was last surveyed
- What species have been recorded
- How many plots are in the square
- Site images taken by previous volunteers
- Any designations such as SSSI, NNR and what percentage of the square falls within the designation
- What Vice Counties the square falls in and what percentage of the square falls within each Vice County
Learning and developing
We are proud of the learning opportunities provided through the NPMS. Our training programme is developing and changing all the time in response to people’s needs, and we’re always keen to hear feedback on topics of interest methods of delivery. There’s a mix of on and offline training to maximise participation and accommodate different learning styles and preferences. Webinar sessions suitable for recording, are accessible on our YouTube channel for people to view at their own pace or refresh on a session they joined.
We put a lot of thought into the in-field training days we deliver around the UK each year. We select locations and venues that are accessible and have appropriate facilities to enable volunteers to take part comfortably, confidently and safely. These sessions are always great fun. They enable practical hands on learning and the opportunity to share knowledge and interact with fellow volunteers.
Recent changes to the information display and navigation on the training events and resources pages have made navigation and event booking easier.
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Facilitation of buddying
More people choose to connect with fellow volunteers for sharing knowledge and best practice, shadowing a more experienced volunteer, recording squares jointly to share effort, or even just being in touch with other local volunteers with shared botanical interests. Requests to be in touch with fellow volunteers are now easier to facilitate since we included an expression of interest in ‘buddying’ via your account. You can opt out anytime. As admins, NPMS staff can see who has indicated an interest in buddying, however this information is not public.
If you are interested in buddying with other local volunteers you can re-visit your account to change your options and contact [email protected] to ask if there are volunteers local to you who are also open to being in touch. We never share contact information without the express written permission of both parties.
Buddying is a self-led activity, and not something that is required of volunteers. Buddying interest is switched off on NPMS accounts by default and is something that must be manually switched on by volunteers depending on preference.
Volunteer voice
Our amazing volunteers are placed front and centre of everything we do, and we love sharing volunteer voice and stories through newsletters, webinars, blogs, and the annual report amongst other things. Our winter series of creative workshops helps ensure that the community isn’t just a fair-weather one and there are opportunities to engage with us and with each other all-year round.
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Getting started
We know it can be tricky to get started with a new square. There’s detective work in finding out who owns the land in your square and asking per mission to survey. We have developed a toolkit to help smooth the process and make access permissions easier to arrange. The toolkit will also help answer some of the more common questions that landowners might have, and has now been added to the resources area.
We are listening
We welcome thoughts and suggestions about what makes it easier to engage with the scheme, and what we can do to support you to get involved. As part of reviewing barriers to engagement, we have a permanent short survey you can take part in NPMS Participant Questionnaire | National Plant Monitoring Scheme or you can contact us anytime with your feedback and suggestions or if you would like to discuss your access needs to support your participation in the scheme [email protected]
