Corte Madera staff refines student ambassador role to focus on high-school liaison and project work

Staff presented a revised student ambassador description that narrows the role to high-school students, sets a one-school-year term (with option to reapply) and requires the ambassador to coordinate at least one student-driven feedback or dialogue event to collect student input for the committee.

Sarah, who led the assessment, said her goal was to retain the liaison value of the position while making duties realistic for volunteers: the draft retains informal student-feedback collection, adds a required student-driven dialogue session and assigns a committee member as a facilitator for onboarding and midterm/exit check-ins.

Students and committee members responded with practical suggestions for recruitment and participation. Sydney (a student speaker) proposed outreach via the Redwood newsletter and the school TV channel; other students suggested clarifying time expectations and highlighting incentives, such as activity/credit options tied to environmental-science classes or independent-project programs. Committee members noted it can be hard to recruit student volunteers who both live in Corte Madera and attend local schools; Sarah said she would check with the town clerk on residency requirements and is open to accepting ambassadors who either live in Corte Madera or attend a Corte Madera school.

The draft also proposes active facilitation by a committee member to onboard an ambassador, hold periodic check-ins, and run a closing reflection. Sarah said recruitment would begin immediately and run through the end of the school year to identify ambassadors for the next school year; she asked the committee to share outreach channels. Several student speakers volunteered to help promote the position through school channels.

The committee did not take a formal vote; staff will proceed with the recruitment push and return to the committee with an update on applicant volume and proposed placements.