[Bcma-l] RE: Volunteers as Members?
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
Thu, 18 Sep 2008 08:29:30 -0700
This is a multipart message in MIME format.
--Boundary_(ID_F2X18ClBBYSvXiwrWbW93g)
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
I think Roger's made a very valid point; we all want to have an active and
involved membership rather than a "send me a newsletter" membership.
I've since learned that our policy of requiring volunteers to become society
members comes from a time when our museum was 100% volunteer run. The
thinking at the time was "if you were interested enough to volunteer, you're
interested enough to be a member". Today, I think there's still some value
in that-if people are aligned enough with our mandate to want to volunteer,
being a member should be a no-brainer.
As for those who commented that membership was one of the few "perks" they
could offer, that kind of comment suggests a little of the self-deprecating
attitude that holds many museums back. We owe a great deal to our volunteers
for all that they do, but shouldn't sell ourselves short. Volunteering for
our museums provides incredible opportunities to gain experience, meet
others who share common interests and otherwise provide an outlet for
contributing to one's community.
(In our museum, each of our curatorial volunteers should come away with a
basic understanding of the care and handling of artifacts and of basic
curatorial procedure, often enough to land that first job as a curatorial
assistant. There is a very real value in the experience we offer, especially
if we're doing a good job of matching volunteers with jobs.)
I don't think it's happening in BC, but there are many large institutions in
the States that charge their volunteers for their training. Once you've
spent 5-10 weekends in training and forked over $300, of course you're going
to be committed. That's excessive for most of us, but having our volunteers
make a small but real commitment to their positions can go a long way from
separating the "browsing" potential volunteers (that will flake out on you
in a couple weeks) from the serious ones. Sure, some museums -including
us-ask for a minimum time commitment, but we've certainly never really
enforced it.
For now, we've decided to follow through and start enforcing the policy as
written; people who want to volunteer are now required to get a criminal
check, undergo a reference check and sign up as society members. Our
pre-existing volunteers are not under any obligation, but every single one
who's heard about this was thrilled to sign up-they didn't think that they
COULD be members. (Just goes to show how little effort we apparently put
into recruiting for memberships.)
My two cents worth.
Chris Mathieson
Vancouver Police Museum
--Boundary_(ID_F2X18ClBBYSvXiwrWbW93g)
Content-type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)">
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:black;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p.MsoAutoSig, li.MsoAutoSig, div.MsoAutoSig
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"E-mail Signature Char";
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0cm;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0cm;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
span.EmailStyle18
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:navy;}
span.E-mailSignatureChar
{mso-style-name:"E-mail Signature Char";
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"E-mail Signature";
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:black;}
span.EmailStyle22
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page Section1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body bgcolor=white lang=EN-CA link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>I think Roger’s made a
very valid point; we all want to have an active and involved membership rather
than a “send me a newsletter” membership.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>I’ve since learned that
our policy of requiring volunteers to become society members comes from a time
when our museum was 100% volunteer run. The thinking at the time was “if
you were interested enough to volunteer, you’re interested enough to be a
member”. Today, I think there’s still some value in that—if people
are aligned enough with our mandate to want to volunteer, being a member should
be a no-brainer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>As for those who commented that
membership was one of the few “perks” they could offer, that kind
of comment suggests a little of the self-deprecating attitude that holds many
museums back. We owe a great deal to our volunteers for all that they do, but
shouldn’t sell ourselves short. Volunteering for our museums provides
incredible opportunities to gain experience, meet others who share common interests
and otherwise provide an outlet for contributing to one’s community.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>(In our museum, each of our
curatorial volunteers should come away with a basic understanding of the care
and handling of artifacts and of basic curatorial procedure, often enough to
land that first job as a curatorial assistant. There is a very real value in the
experience we offer, especially if we’re doing a good job of matching
volunteers with jobs.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>I don’t think it’s happening
in BC, but there are many large institutions in the States that charge their
volunteers for their training. Once you’ve spent 5-10 weekends in
training and forked over $300, of course you’re going to be committed. That’s
excessive for most of us, but having our volunteers make a small but real
commitment to their positions can go a long way from separating the “browsing”
potential volunteers (that will flake out on you in a couple weeks) from the
serious ones. Sure, some museums –including us—ask for a minimum
time commitment, but we’ve certainly never really enforced it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>For now, we’ve decided to
follow through and start enforcing the policy as written; people who want to
volunteer are now required to get a criminal check, undergo a reference check
and sign up as society members. Our pre-existing volunteers are not under any
obligation, but every single one who’s heard about this was thrilled to
sign up—they didn’t think that they COULD be members. (Just goes to
show how little effort we apparently put into recruiting for memberships…)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>My two cents worth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Chris Mathieson<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Vancouver Police Museum<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>
--Boundary_(ID_F2X18ClBBYSvXiwrWbW93g)--