Montour Trail is maintained by people like you: volunteers!
A
t age 35+, we are still a volunteer organization, with only one paid staff member. Volunteers remain central to every aspect of the trail and its operation, so we welcome assistance from persons willing to share their talents.
What skills do you think you could contribute? Think of the MTC as a business. It takes an incredibly diverse set of skills to make the trail what it is and will become.
Here are the kinds of skill sets that we can put to great use, and you can feel good about your talents being leveraged on a resource that benefits the entire community!
- Accounting
- Archiving
- Bookkeeping
- Communications
- Community outreach
- Donation campaigns
- Endowment outreach
- Engineering
- Event planning
- Finance
- Fundraising
- Gardening
- GIS
- Government relations
- Grant writing
- Insurance
- Information technology
- Land conservation
- Landscaping
- Legal
- Mapping
- Marketing
- Membership campaigns
- Neighbor relations
- Networking
- Newsletter publishing
- Policy development
- Press releases
- Graphic design
- Human resources
- Office management
- Photography
- Project management
- Public relations
- Real estate
- Social media planning
- Software: Neon/CRM
- Software: Zoho
- Software: Quickbooks
- Stewardship
- Strategic planning
- Safety
- Trail maintenance
- Trail patrol
- Training
- Volunteer coordination
- Web content
- Welding
Committee Opportunities
Montour Trail Council continues to thrive because of its committees that oversee engineering, technology, membership, fund raising, maintenance, and more, so we need people with all sorts of skills and interests.
- Finance: Recommend financial policies, goals, and budgets; manage financial assets; recommend/review financial procedures, investment policies and strategies
- Engineering & Construction: Identify/carry out major Trail projects; create budgets/acquire bids; work with funding/government agencies to ensure state, local, environmental, legal compliance
- IT/GIS: Design information systems; research major IT and GIS-related alternatives; reduce security risks; research major IT alternatives
- Membership & Community Outreach: Increase membership; encourage volunteerism; develop methods for community outreach; identify fundraising opportunities
- Operations: Improve MTC’s organization and efficiency; create/amend policies; develop Board member training
- Real Estate: Identify/protect MTC’s rights/interests in real estate assets; manage corridor acquisition plans; liaise to real estate/right of way portfolio manager; manage estate records and documents
Find Your Perfect Spot
- Send an email to volunteer@montourtrail.org with your name, email address, phone number, and general areas of volunteer interest. Someone will get back to you as quickly as possible!
- Review our newsletter for what’s going on.
- Check out one of the Friends groups near you.
- If you see a Trail Patrol member riding or walking on the trail, stop and talk to them about volunteer opportunities.
- Look for volunteer posts on the Facebook Enthusiasts group, an unaffiliated forum of Montour Trail users who regularly post their observations, opinions, and news related to the Trail.
Most Recent Volunteer Positions
FINANCE: Accounts Payable Specialist
This position, in conjunction with our business operations manager: disburses payments to vendors/suppliers; prepares reimbursement payments to volunteers; records deposits and ETFs; updates vendor and donor information; assists Finance committee with annual audit; and prepares reports such as list of checks and A/P aging, using QuickBooks standard reports. Familiarity with QuickBooks online desirable. Time commitment: about two hours/week at the Trail office. If interested, contact: treasurer@montourtrail.org
TOUR THE MONTOUR: Assistant Event Director
An energetic and enthusiastic leader is needed to help with the 2025 Tour the Montour fundraising event. Duties include overseeing volunteer recruitment, working with sponsors, distributing entry forms, overseeing ride budget, coordinating course setup, and tearing down/arranging for ride supplies. Time involvement increases throughout the year, peaking toward the event. The position is part of Tour the Montour leadership team. If interested, send an email to: thetour@montourtrail.org
TOUR THE MONTOUR: Event Marketing Coordinator
We seek a marketing coordinator to assist with the Tour the Montour cycling event. This position would manage all aspects of marketing the fundraising event. This would include but not limited to posting updates through email and social media; coordinating with local newspapers and other media to promote the ride; placing information on cycling and athletic event calendars; local marketing to bike shops, cycling clubs and youth organizations, etc. Time involvement would be a few hours per month. The position is part of Tour the Montour leadership team. If interested, send an email to: thetour@montourtrail.org
You Can Make the Difference
Friends groups readily welcome new people who want to become involved with the Trail. These groups perform most of the day-to-day maintenance via regularly scheduled work parties.
- Cut grass; control weeds
- Remove trees as needed
- Patch trail ruts; pave surface
- Repair fences/bridge decks
- Maintain trail surface/tunnels
- Liaise with municipalities
- Identify grant opportunities
- Raise funds
- Plan local activities
- Preserve RR history
- Paint gates; stain benches
- Clear litter; plant flora
- Paint gates; stain benches
- Clear litter; plant flora
From time to time, we call on anyone interested to volunteer at special events that help us promote awareness, increase membership and raise funds. We also host weekend trailside activities that engage users on their regular outings. People with links to neighborhood, civic, and business organizations can help Montour better tie into its communities.
We encourage (and salute) local businesses to stage “corporate work parties,” where volunteers perform clean-up or build replacement structures, sometimes in conjunction with Earth Day, National Trail Day or Make a Difference Day observances. (The annual Make A Difference Day in late October is a great way for individuals/groups to give something back to their communities. If you want to participate, pick an area and fix it! It’s not just a great way to give back, it’s an opportunity for all of us to improve our communities.)
Many corporations donate supplies for annual events — even property for rights-of-way and plants to fill our flower boxes.
We offer opportunities to Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts (email scouts@montourtrail.org) to earn merit badges by building Trail-side benches. The Montour Railroad Historical Society, one of our Friends groups, builds, erects and restores historical RR signs and mileposts (email mrhs@montourrr.com).