Volunteers
Jack Walton, volunteer. Source: The Guardian.
Jack Walton, Volunteers are like a secret weapon of the museums sector, The Guardian, 29 January 2016
Jack Walton currently volunteers within Tyne & Wear Archives and with Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums’ Boxes of Delight service for schools. He recently won the Outstanding Contribution by a Young Volunteer under 25 award at the annual North East Regional Volunteer Awards ceremony in 2015.
What is a museum volunteer expected to do?
All sorts! I’ve helped with object handling sessions; I’ve got school loans boxes prepped and ready for groups; I’ve helped reorganise and re-number council minute books in the archives; I’ve transcribed log books that are almost five times as old as me; and I’ve even spent a whole evening dressed up as a zombie.
Volunteers are almost like a secret weapon of the museums sector.
We care about our history, heritage and collections just as much as paid staff do. We’re there to allow others to get the absolute best out of our venues and the phenomenal services they provide.
How does it feel to be a volunteer?
Pride is the best way to describe how I feel about what I do. I adore helping however and wherever I can, making sure people (staff and customers) are happy and having a good time. It’s all so at the end of the day I can step back, look at what’s been accomplished and say: “That was us – we did that.”
I also have a lot of fun. You meet lots of brilliant people when volunteering, both staff and members of the public. You also get to do things that very few other people can say they’ve done. It’s not every day you can say: “I got to hold a 1600s copy of Charles I’s death warrant!”