Socialise
Meet new people and enjoy some of the social aspects of volunteering. An ‘Annual Dinner’ is arranged every year (usually in May) for volunteers and there is often a Barbeque arranged for volunteers to coincide with the opening of the ‘Beer Tent’ just before the annual Gathering event in July. Many staff stay locally or in our staff caravan over open weekends to save driving home, and the evenings provide opportunities to socialise with the rest of the team.
Volunteer Roles
Traffic Department
The Traffic Department is responsible for the operation of our trolleybus fleet on opendays. As a trolleybus conductor you will interacting with the public and answering questions whilst, most importantly, ensuring their safety during trolleybus rides. Conducting is open to anybody 16 years old onwards. After working in a conducting role for a period you may be able to step up to Trolleybus Driver. Trolleybus drivers must be over 21 years old and be an active trolleybus conductor previously. Traffic department roles also include cleaning and washing buses and preparations for opendays.
Tour Guides
Are you talkative? Do you like telling a story? Then being a tour guide might be the role for you! Our guides perform walking tours around the museum, informing our visitors about the history, significance and stories of our exhibits. This role is open to anybody with a chatty, friendly approach.
Retail
Our Retail department covers our onsite café, souvenir shop and admissions team. This work ranges from meeting and greeting visitors in the admission building to preparing and serving fresh sandwiches and meals to selling the latest trolleybus books. Cash handling is involved in this position but is generally open to anybody.
Facilities & Infrastructure
This is the most varied role of them all and is available 7 days a week – not just on our opendays! From gardening and painting to clearing the gutters and laying concrete this role is essential to ensure the Museum looks its best for visitors. During the winter months this team of volunteers works on major development projects in time for the new operating season. Copious amounts of tea and coffee is also consumed in this role!!
Vehicle Restoration
Whether you’re a trained ‘chippie’ or want to learn a new skill this role could be for you. Sometimes it’s dirty work, sometimes its long and tedious but the satisfaction is arguably the greatest when your project is completed. If you fancy getting your teeth into a long term restoration project or mucking in with the daily vehicle maintenance work this is the role for you.
Engineering
This area is also varied, but generally requires some skill or at least some pre-disposition towards the field. Our Mechanical Engineers maintain vehicles up to operational standard, or do some of the heavy restoration work on chassis’, brakes, trolley gear and so on. Our Electrical Engineers also maintain trolleybus electrical equipment, or work on electrical restorations – rewiring, traction motor servicing, contactor maintenance and so on. Electricians are also required to work on the site electrical systems to keep the lights, projectors, tills, cookers and even the trolleybuses, working! An even more specialised area is in maintaining the overhead. Health and Safety legislation must be observed and relevant qualifications may be required for these roles.
Archives
The Museum is home to many photographs, documents and the like supporting the trolleybuses. It also has many artefacts which set the scene for the trolleybus era within the Museum. All these have to be catalogued after receipt in a formal manner and recorded on our database. In the future we will open our archives to examination by researchers, so we are to progress better storage of our artefacts and will need staff to be able to seek out and find items for examination.
Off-site workers
Not everything has to be done at The Museum. There are many things that can be done at home or elsewhere away from the Museum. These include administration, documentation, fundraising, attending meetings, courses or seminars to pass on information to other volunteers, or representing the Museum at other events.
Note that in some of these tasks some protection will be required, and generally staff need to provide overalls, safety shoes and hard hats where necessary themselves, or on open days come in presentable clothing for interaction with the public. Traffic staff kit themselves out in period uniforms where they can, some of which are available in the Museum.
No matter what your skills, interests or talents, people with enthusiasm are always welcomed to help us run and develop The Museum. For more information or to get involved you can email our training department. |
