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YOUR ROLE AS A VOLUNTEER COUNTY COORDINATOR
County Coordinator Description and Duties
As a CoCoRaHS County Coordinator you have several responsibilities within your local county and community. You play a key role making CoCoRaHS a success right where you live. Feel free to find a teammate to work with you as a co-coordinator. - Quality control data routinely and often. Spot errors and let the regional coordinators know about them.
- Probably the easiest way to spot errors is by comparing observations against one another using the interactive CoCoRaHS Maps or the Daily Precipitation Reports text listing. The "View Data" page provides access to the range of various types of observations, including Significant Weather Reports, Daily Comments, Hail, etc.
- Recruit/encourage folks to join and stay with CoCoRaHS.
- We always are in need of more observers, both to grow the network and replace those who leave. Observers are most needed in rural areas away from the main population centers. We ideally want to see 10 observing station report each day. There are numerous counties as of April 2025 with 3 or fewer stations who last reported in the past 7 months.
- Examples of recruiting tactics:
- Word of mouth
- Social media posts, including liking and sharing from CoCoRaHS Indiana Facebook page
- Injection into a presentation you are giving for your employer
- Posting a flyer at a business(es)
- Printing and sharing literature at an outreach event
- Press release
- Reach out to new observers in your county to:
- Introduce yourself and announce your availability to answer questions or refer them to the appropriate person
- Point out where to obtain materials needed for their observations if they need help
Other opportunities, if you are willing: - Help volunteers with the installation of their equipment if they are unable to do so.
- Help volunteers who do not have internet access or slow access by entering their data, or recruiting a reliable assistant to do so.
- Help organize (set-up, schedule, publicize) and lead/attend local training sessions as needed. Lead it yourself or contact one of the state coordinators to invite a trainer. See the training PowerPoint presentations page below for training materials. Let your state and regional coordinators know about the training so they can advertise.
- Represent the needs of your volunteers to CoCoRaHS regional and state coordinators, and Headquarters.
- Organize social events and volunteer appreciation (observer appreciation picnics, potlucks, field trips, etc.).
- Share info about CoCoRaHS with potential users who might benefit from the data.
You are one of our most valuable resources and we truly appreciate your time and efforts!
INSTRUCTIONAL INFORMATION Training Sessions
We highly encourage that on a time to time basis coordinators hold training sessions within your county for new observers. They may also benefit observers who need to brush up on certain aspects, as well as allow folks considering CoCoRaHS to learn more before joining. As mentioned earlier, these may be taught by yourself or if you are not comfortable in doing so, by someone else (contact your state coordinator for information on the name of someone who can help you in your area). PowerPoint Presentations Page
Our presentations page has a general presentation in both PowerPoint and PDF formats for use in training new, as well as refreshing experienced, CoCoRaHS observers. There are also presentations for schools/teachers, Spanish folks, and making hail pads.
OTHER RESOURCES
Sample Press Releases
Interested in getting the word out to your local newspaper or other news outlet? CoCoRaHS headquarters has several sample press releases that you may want to view and use as examples for your local area. Click here to view "Sample Press Releases"
Use of the CoCoRaHS Logo
The CoCoRaHS logo is registered with the state of Colorado. You may use it for your events and CoCoRaHS publicity. We ask you not to alter it in any way when using it to represent the Network. You may download the logo by clicking on "CoCoRaHS Logo".
Coordinators Training Session (recorded on April 20, 2024)
Watch the recording on YouTube. Access the PDF here.
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