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Newsletter of the Rancho Los Alamitos Volunteer Service Council

April 2023

Congratulations to First Docent Graduating Class of 2023!

Most of you are familiar with Rancho Los Alamitos’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. These are core values for the Rancho, and you can review them on the Rancho’s website. There are myriad ways of demonstrating these values at RLA. You may have noticed our signage around the site is beginning to incorporate Spanish as well as English. Our visitor brochure is now available in Spanish. It reflects our principles and is a meaningful link to the Rancho’s history. Spanish has been a dominant language in California since colonial days. And many of RLA’s workers spoke Spanish. Their work here helped build the region’s economy. Later this year, the same visitor brochure will be available in Khmer for our Cambodian community. Open job positions at RLA are being advertised in English and Spanish. The Ranch offers only paid internships so as not to discriminate against students with limited financial means.



I am particularly pleased that Tongva culture will be incorporated into the 11^th annual Cottonwood Awards Luncheon. Inspired by our longtime friend and mentor, Craig Torres, we will intersperse Tongva menu items with our traditional barbecue, and we will enjoy Indigenous music by Toveema at the beginning of the program. Craig will be honored for championing values of sustainability and respect for the land throughout our community. We will thank Craig for sharing Tongva culture with third graders at Rancho Los Alamitos for over 25 years.

I know all of you embody diversity, equity, and inclusion as you engage with guests and each other. It shows in the comments from our visitors and is evident in how you interact with one another, with the students who visit, and in the public programs we deliver. Our commitment comes to life through each of you. Ultimately, what is hospitality if it is not welcoming, respectful, and inclusive?

With great appreciation for all you do,

Pamela Young Lee 

On April 18, 80 volunteers gathered at the Rancho to be feted by Pam Lee, Steve Squire, Doug Cox, and RLA Foundation board chair, Henry Taboada. The Volunteer Appreciation Dinner (aka VAD) is an annual event at which volunteers celebrate with music, great food, and an atmosphere filled with laughter, camaraderie, inside jokes, and, most of all, gratitude.

As all good parties do, it started with food, drink, decorations, and music. DJ Jesse Herrera was at the turntable filling the air with lively tunes. Mocktails, cocktails and wine added festive flair to the enormous charcuterie spread and tables featured to-die-for lavish floral centerpieces composed by Sue Schweiger, Rosemary Dagen, Marilyn Fox, Mary Ann Cullen, Roberta Rogoff and Susan Bradley. VSC President, Doug Cox noted his enjoyment watching the flower folks hustling like crazy to get their arrangements finished and out the door when the caterer arrived in the maintenance kitchen with huge armloads of equipment.

Several RLA staff members worked the event. Kathy Manuel-Martinez handled the mocktail/cocktail table, while Margarete Villalobos (our new Public Programs coordinator) served the wine. Pam Lee, with a variety of helpers, handled the check-in duties, while Merinelle Marchione took care of handing out the visual scavenger hunt guide and making sure guests were getting their tickets for the opportunity drawing.

Other staff, including Tracy Flaming, JJ Evelich, Darius Conner, Sharon Conner, and volunteer Carissa Conner, in a show of Herculean power, completed the set-up and take-down. Duane Mills, RLA gift shop manager, single-handedly managed parking.



Four lucky winners of the opportunity drawings won behind-the-scenes tours with Pam and four others won a "livestock experience" with Karen Thompson. All in all, it was a night to remember! 

Scenes from the Volunteer Appreciation Party

Upper left: Guests arriving. Upper right: Garden Volunteers posing (without trowels!)

Lower left: Jesse Herrera, Head Gardener turned into Disc Jockey

Lower right: Doug Cox poses with other volunteers in the Gratitude Garden

Photo credit: Marlo Lee

Thirteen new Docent volunteers—a Rancho record—completed their extensive training course April 1, and after each has successfully completed their mandatory check-in tour, they will be joining the daily docent ranks. Most will be volunteering on Saturdays and Sundays.



Their arrival gives new impetus to a far-reaching effort to provide much greater support for all volunteers, particularly new arrivals, regardless of the areas in which they work. A task force convened last year by Volunteer Coordinator Steve Squire is carefully re-examining the various existing procedures for recruiting and onboarding new volunteers, as well as paths to directly enrich the volunteer experience for Rancho veterans and new colleagues alike.



The task force is currently composed of three subcommittees supported by RLA volunteers, VSC Steering Committee members, and others:



• Volunteer Recruitment (Janice Wellsteed, Barbara Keenoy, and Roberta Rogoff)
• Onboarding New Volunteers and Retaining Existing Volunteers (Donna Rogahn, Janice Wellsteed, Peta Beavis, Pat Coil, and Susan Bradley)
• Community Outreach (Cheryl Schwartz, Pat Coil, Susan Bradley, and Roberta Rogoff)

The Volunteer Recruitment subcommittee is examining the processes for community recruiting, both digitally and in-person, as well as refining the current online application process and the subsequent procedures for following up promptly and effectively. The online application form has been extensively shortened and is still under review for improvement.

The Onboarding New Volunteers and Retaining Existing Volunteers subcommittee is looking into existing volunteer onboarding processes and new Docent mentoring, as well as parallel processes for school Docent recruitment and training, establishing "irregular" Docent training and non-Docent training materials. New documents and manuals are also being evaluated, and establishing both Volunteer Enrichment and restructured Hospitality groups is under consideration.

The Community Outreach subcommittee is closely associated with the existing Community Outreach position on the VSC Steering Committee, with Roberta Rogoff currently serving as the representative. The subcommittee is charged with identifying strategic outreach opportunities, event planning logistics and processes, and recruiting more outreach volunteers. Consideration is being given to establishing a dedicated volunteer enrichment program as well.

The 2023 timeline for all of these efforts is being formally established and will then be communicated to the entire VSC membership.

A meeting of the full Task Force is scheduled for May 1.

In the Spotlight! Bookworms

Contributors: Rosemary Dagen and Robin Herrera

RLA’s house tours are always a great way to spend an afternoon. Knowledgeable docents bring history to life to the delight of all who visit. RLA staff and volunteers do what’s nearly impossible: they make the challenging and complex job of maintaining the site nearly invisible to those who visit. The group known as the Bookworms does this flawlessly.

The group was formed under the auspices of the Curatorial Committee in 2010 under the leadership of Carol Reed. Today the Bookworms meet once a month to care for and check for condition changes in the 2,700 books contained in the ranch house. They carefully dust the covers with sable brushes and microfiber cloths. They are mindful of the fragile dust covers or bits of leather that are loose. Each book is held (closed) by the spine, and a soft brush lightly sweeps the top of the book away from the spine. 

The Bookworms don’t stop with cleaning. They receive a printout of each book on which they note condition, information about inscriptions, items left in the book (example: a card or newspaper clipping) and take a photo of the cover and spine. Bookworm team member, Cheryl Schwartz, uses the printouts and photos to update RLA’s PastPerfect database. If a book appears to be missing, it is reported to curator, Robin Herrera, for further research to see if it may be mis-shelved or out for conservation.

The collection includes almost no books belonging to John and Susan Bixby (with one notable exception). Nearly every book belonged to Fred and Florence. The exception is the 39-volume set, The Works of Hubert Lowe Bancroft. It is a multi-volume history of the civilizations, natural history, and cultures of Central America, Mexico and the American West. In 2007, 38 of the 39 volumes were donated to the Rancho by a former vice president of the Bixby Ranch Company, Stewart Honeyman. Dozens of the volumes are stamped on the spine “John W. Bixby.” You can read a fascinating article from a 2016 VSC newsletter that describes the collection, how it came to the Rancho and the whereabouts of the single missing volume.

The Bookworms are a small group due to the limited space in which they work. The volunteers are Louise Hicks, Nancy Wystrach, Sue Schweiger, Carol Reed, Cheryl Schwartz, and Rosemary Dagen. They’ve received several hours of training in the proper handling of historical books and objects. Benefits of the job include looking at intricate pictures, discussing books, and reading the note cards that were used by the family as bookmarks. To reward themselves for a job well done, they all go out to lunch when they’re finished.

Volumes from John W. Bixby’s set of The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft can be seen in this circa 1890 photograph of Susan Bixby’s parlour (now the Billiard Room). The books are visible on the second shelf from the bottom of the bookcase on the right. (RLA# 68.1.9882)

LBCC Scholar Project

For the first time, RLA will have a Cottonwood Scholar from Long Beach City College. While the successful candidate has not yet been named, the Scholar’s intern project will be to develop a strategy for communicating plant identification to visitors to Rancho’s gardens. The intern will collaborate with experts and staff to provide options to visitors who want to know more about the plants they see. The intern will create strategies for effectively communicating the options to visitors along with pertinent historical and horticultural information. The student will gain experience in museum interpretation and communications. 

Each year, 20,000 people visit the Rancho. They walk through the ranch house seeing books, furniture, personal items on the dressers, photos, and art on the walls, and of course, in many rooms, wallpaper. Beneath what we see today, all the papered walls once had several layers beneath them that revealed decorating trends, reflected events that transformed the city and the world, and showed ways the Rancho and its residents changed over time. The wallpaper we see today reflects the attention to detail and meticulous accuracy that goes into creating a world-class house museum.

When Fred and Florence Bixby and their children lived at the Rancho, all the bedrooms were papered including Granny Green’s (Florence’s mother) room, the children’s rooms, and the upstairs guest rooms. The cook’s and housekeeper’s bedrooms were also papered as were several of the public rooms. The only rooms in the house with the original wallpaper chosen by Florence Green Bixby are the family dining room and the two upstairs guest rooms. All the others are reproductions of Florence’s paper choices, or as in the primary bedroom, paper installed by her daughter.

Faithfully reproducing the wallpapers has taken many forms. In 1997, when the first phase of seismic stabilization was undertaken, all the chimneys were reinforced. In the family dining room, the chimney was taken down and rebuilt. A 24-inch swath of paper from each side of the fireplace was removed. The blue and pink wallpaper, reminiscent of hydrangea colors, was installed immediately after the 1933 earthquake. Gladys Neff, an early docent, recalled as a young girl being a guest at a tea party and Mrs. Bixby showing off her newly redecorated dining room and its colorful wallpaper. Rather than go to the expense of reproducing a single roll of wallpaper, Executive Director Pamela Seager hired an artist to hand-paint blank stock on either side of the fireplace to match Mrs. Bixby’s historic paper.

Beginning in 2012 and continuing through 2015, the Rancho worked with Bay Area wallpaper gurus, Bradbury & Bradbury and a color specialist to reproduce wallpapers that were exact matches to those that were here.In 1912, RLA restored the girls’ bedroom and chose the paper installed after the 1933 earthquake because the staff had the best documentation for the room and the wallpaper of that period. In 2013, RLA restored the back hall and the upstairs landing. The curator sent Bradbury & Bradbury a sample of the historic wallpaper that had been excavated from the wall. Serendipitously, their historical expert found an exact match of the paper in their archive of never-used historical samples. We know the colors for the wallpaper in the back hall are absolutely correct.

During the 2015 restoration, in the cook’s and housekeeper’s bedrooms, bathroom and hallway layers of wallpaper told fascinating stories of walls that were moved or created. The wallpaper and paint revealed the bathroom for the domestic staff was not installed until the Bixbys employed a female cook in 1920. There were five layers of wallpaper in the cook’s bedroom. The curator agonized with Bradbury & Bradbury’s expert, along with the color specialist, to interpret the correct hues from the aging samples of wallpaper. For this project, the third layer of wallpaper was selected for reproduction, a 1930s-era apple blossom pattern.

Not only was the effort put into the research and restoration of period wallpaper important to consistently representing the 1930s throughout the ranch house, but the restored cook’s bedroom allowed the Rancho to include the room in the public tours. With the 2014 restoration of the ranch house kitchen and ranch hands’ dining room, we gained a forum for discussing the lives and contributions of the men and women who not only worked at the ranch but who made the ranch work. 

Gratitude

I am grateful to Steve Squire and all the Staff and Volunteers who helped at the Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. It was an honoring event that reminded us of how the Staff and Board of the Rancho supports its volunteers. - Donna Rogahn

I’m grateful for the wonderful volunteers who make Rancho Los Alamitos a great place to work and for the work they do to make the Rancho a great place to visit. And to the VSC for the time they put into helping me and their volunteer teams. - Steve Squire 

Are there people, experiences, or activities at RLA that make you grateful? Send a note to cdouglascox@gmail.com.