Volunteering

Roles

Role	What it involves	Time
Front desk and information point	Welcoming visitors, the shop, answering questions about the town	One half-day a fortnight or more
Gallery steward	Looking after the galleries, helping visitors and families	One half-day a fortnight
Walk leader	Leading the monthly Town Trail and group walks, after training	About six walks a year
Archive and documentation	Cataloguing objects and papers, scanning photographs, research enquiries	Tuesday or Thursday mornings
Schools volunteer	Helping with taught sessions; a background check is needed	Weekday mornings in term
Lilac Fair	Stewarding, setting up, the procession, the raffle	The fair weekend, and meetings from January
Cordial committee	Bottling gooseberries in July, picking and making in May, the stall	Two busy weeks a year
Garden and lilacs	The museum garden, the lilacs on Church Walk and at the statue	Flexible
Building and odd jobs	Small repairs, displays and the winter closure works	Flexible

How to start

Pick up a volunteer form at the museum desk, or ask for one by email at volunteers@vengerberg.org. Janet Openshaw, our volunteer coordinator, will then arrange an informal chat, show you round, and arrange your first sessions alongside an experienced volunteer. There is an induction for every new volunteer, covering health and safety, safeguarding, handling objects and the front desk.

Volunteers must be 16 or over, or 14 with a parent or guardian volunteering alongside. We can sign forms for school and award schemes.

What we offer

• Training for each role, and refresher sessions each winter.
• Travel expenses, if you ask for them.
• Tea, coffee and a volunteers’ room.
• A volunteers’ outing and the Christmas party.
• A reference after six months.

The volunteer handbook

Every volunteer is given the handbook at their induction. It explains how the museum runs day to day, and what to do if something goes wrong.