Besides viewing for pleasure and classroom teaching, this presentation can be used in three ways:
1.) to recruit volunteers for archaeology projects,
2.) to promote cultural resource preservation, or
3.) to teach history.

The Facilitator Guide provides historical perspective and teaching aids for each of the five segments of the video presentation. It contains objectives, discussion topics, test items, answer keys, bibliography, recommendations for further reading, a list of organizations to contact, and other useful information to help the instructor provide background and context for the video tape. For ease of use in the classroom, the presentation is divided into five segments:

1. Missions To The Past
"Missions To The Past" tells the story of Father Kino, his early work with the Pima Indians, and the building of Tumacacori Mission near Arizona's border with Mexico. This segment promotes the idea of individual volunteerism. Volunteers are shown learning to mix adobe mortar, patching holes and capping walls.

2. Islands Of The Past
"Islands Of The Past" recounts the early development of Phoenix connected with the story of the Hohokam Canal System and what is now known as Heritage Square. This segment encourages individuals to become involved in partnerships to preserve the past and integrate the past into the present - i.e. create "Islands Of The Past." The two "islands" are Pueblo Grande, a Hohokam platform mound, and Heritage Square, a fully-restored block of early twentieth-century Phoenix homes. In this segment, volunteers perform cameo historic reenactments at Heritage Square.

3. Bad Place Home
"Bad Place Home" is the literal translation of "Casa Malpais." This segment takes place at Casa Malpais ruins, near the small town of Springerville in northern Arizona. It tells the story of the early settlement of the area by the Anasazi and the Spanish. The preservation theme is that small communities can benefit economically from partnerships and cooperation with other cultures to protect cultural resources. The SHPO Heritage Fund is mentioned in connection with the work at the site. (This segment implies that there is more benefit in preservation of such sites than in neglect, vandalism or thievery.) The volunteers in this segment are shown in excavation activities and reconstructing stone walls.

4. Margaret's Freehold
"Margaret's Freehold" takes place in Maryland. It is the story of Margaret Brent and her strong influence on the colonization of Maryland. It takes place at Historic St. Mary's and shows what state governments can do to preserve and bring alive important stories of the past. The volunteers at St. Mary's, working in the "ordinary", at the tobacco plantation, and in excavation activities show what it was like to live in the 1600s in the colony of Maryland.

5. Volunteers In Time
"Volunteers In Time" is a look at exciting state and federal government programs which depend on volunteers. Volunteer programs of the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office, United States Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and Natural Resource Conservation Service are covered. (All of these organizations contributed funding for "Who's Minding The Past?") Each volunteer program is shown within the context of an interesting project: the SHPO Site Steward Program at Homolovi, a Forest Service (Passport In Time) survey and excavation in New Mexico, a BLM (Adventures In the Past) rock art documentation project high on the Vermillion Cliffs in Utah, a nationally renown children's education program at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Colorado, etc.

An on-camera spokesperson presents information about the importance of cultural resources before and after each segment. At the conclusion of the presentation, viewers who wish to sponsor or participate in similar fascinating projects are told how to contact their local organizations.