Zone Leader Responsibilities

Thank you for joining the Tennessee River Rescue community! Zone leaders are the primary contact for a site and are responsible for joining pre-event meetings,  coordinating volunteers, marketing, and day-of-event needs.

The TRR is always held on the 1st Saturday of October. The non-profit organization WaterWays is responsible for donation sequestration and coordination of materials. WaterWays is the event’s home base, but it is a community-led initiative run by local Zone Leaders. This event can’t happen without you! 

Pre-Event Meetings

Pre-event meetings are coordinated by WaterWays staff. These meetings are collaborative and meant to introduce the network in addition to nailing down event details such as confirming zone sites, leaders, and waste disposal needs. 

Marketing and Volunteer Coordination

A zone leader is in charge of contacting volunteers to participate in their site clean-up. 

Great places to reach out to include Schools, churches, local businesses, sporting & scout groups, and community organizations. 

It helps to share social media posts from the Tennessee River Rescue Facebook page @Tennesseriverrescue and to post flyers at places with high visibility, like a grocery store, church, or school. 

Managing a Site

When selecting or taking over leadership of a site, please keep in mind how accessible your location is and what age range of volunteers is appropriate. At the site, you should display a TRR banner and possibly a tent and table to let volunteers know where to meet for materials and to sign a release waiver. A zone leader’s contact information will be posted on the TRR website along with a site description. Volunteers will be in touch with you for details up to and including the day of the event. Zone leaders are in charge of reporting site needs to WaterWays staff. 

Depending on how big your site is, its good to have folks with trucks that can go pick up trash bags along the site to bring them back to the dumpster location. 

Zone leaders are responsible for picking up materials from WaterWays staff on the set pick-up time. Materials include:

  • Garbage bags 

  • Grabbers 

  • T-shirts 

  • Banners

  • Hand sanitizer (possibly donated by Scenic Cities Beautiful) 

  • Day-of Responsibilities and Data Collection 

A zone leader needs to be at the check-in site or coordinate someone to sign in volunteers and hand out materials. Share with volunteers what data will be collected, potential hazards on site, and where to put the waste collected. Some sites give out a prize to the person that finds the weirdest/coolest piece of trash! If this is something you want to do, you can pick up a prize from WaterWays staff on the materials pick-up date. 

Things to have on-site day-of:

  • Waiver (to read)

  • Waiver Signature Sheet 

  • Community Service Slips

  • Hand Sanitizer

  • Wet Wipes

  • Paper towels

  • Masks

  • T-shirts

  • Garbage bags

  • Gloves

  • Trash grabbers

  • Sunscreen

  • Bug Spray

  • Ink Pens

  • First Aid Kit

  • Rope 

  • Bungee cords

  • Whistle

  • Banner/Signs

Other Items that Zone Leaders have found helpful to have on site:

 

First-Aid kit, Ice packs, Scissors, Tape clear and Duct, Table, table cloth, Clip Boards, Zip Lock bags, Stapler, Step stool, Folding Chairs, Basic tools such as pliers, leatherman, Name tag

Oversee Waste Management and Disposal

Please dispose of all trash items in your site’s dumpster. If you are recycling metal, gather metal scraps and clean cans to take to Commerical Metals. Commercial Metals gives us a donation based on the amount of brought in. Plastic can also be recycled, but it HAS TO BE CLEAN. Dirty, mud-caked plastic cannot be sent to recycling. For all tires, please either arrange for someone to take tires to Mr. T’s Tires. If you cannot arrange for someone to take tires, please make arrangements with WaterWays staff, and we will have someone pick-up from your location. TIRES CAN NOT BE DISPOSED OF IN THE DUMPSTERS. 

Please record # of Trash bags, # of Tires, and volunteers at your site and take lots of photos! 

Report Data to Brooke@mywaterways.org