Volunteering & Community Officer - Kendal
- Employer
- The National Trust
- Location
- Kendal, Cumbria
- Salary
- 13,010 pa
- Closing date
- 9 Jun 2022
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Job Details
Summary
Join our great team!Do you have a proven track record of having responsibility for the day to day management of volunteers and are passionate and enthusiastic about the benefits of great volunteer involvement? A typical day might involve delivering inductions to new volunteers, organising the room guide rotas and approving their expenses, writing exciting new role profiles to grow our committed volunteering team, and ensuring the volunteers have everything they need while supporting the collections team with the smooth running of the house.
Regular weekend and bank holiday working is required during the open season (April to October). Your working days when we are closed during November to March can be flexible but is typically Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
If you have any questions about the role please contact our Collections and House Manager Georgina Gates: georgina.gates@nationaltrust.org.uk
Interview date: Tuesday 31st May
What it's like to work here
Sizergh Castle has been home to the Stricklands for almost 800 years. It is a living, breathing and evolving house which continues to be a family home while also welcoming over 75,000 visitors per year through its doors. The grade 1 listed building holds a collection of over 2200 objects some of national and of international significance, with the famous Inlaid Chamber taking ‘jewel in the crown’ status of this architecturally intriguing mansion. The house itself has over 70 volunteer room guides. A further 100 volunteers are to be found in the gardens, as well as teams of dedicated estate, back office and visitor welcome volunteers.
In the house, the visitor open season typically runs from mid-March to end of October. Our volunteer room guides play a critical role in the visitor experience and safety, from providing a warm welcome on arrival and delighting visitors with stories from Sizergh’s past, through to ensuring the building is evacuated in the event of a fire alarm. We provide rigorous fire evacuation training to each volunteer every year, as well as pre-season briefing days and mandatory e-learning. We also like to share new conservation knowledge and historic research, to help our volunteers engage visitors with the work of the National Trust and the significance of the house and collection.
But it isn’t just about room guiding. In the house we also have volunteer tour guides, flower arrangers, fundraisers, collections documentation assistants and conservation cleaning volunteers. We’re always looking to involve volunteers in new opportunities! The dedicated Collections and House team includes two Collections Officers, two Collections Assistants and the Collections & House Manager. Each of these roles involves the supervision and day to day working with the volunteers, but the Volunteering and Community Officer will manage every aspect of the volunteer journey while working collaboratively with the collections team. Click here for more information about this location
What you'll be doing
- You will work closely with the Collections & House Manager as well as the Collections & House Offers to ensure that our volunteers contribute successfully to a first class visit to the house, while also providing the best possible volunteering experience.
- You will be responsible for the daily volunteer rotas, co-ordinating across house open days to ensure we have the volunteer resources when and where we need them most.
- You will actively recruit for new volunteers, hold ‘taster days’ and support new recruits through the induction process.
- You will ensure that our collections & house volunteers have the appropriate training and inductions to maintain our high standards of visitor interaction while also meeting our H&S compliance and conservation requirements.
- You will contribute to how we share stories of Sizergh’s history and its people by supporting collections engagement projects for the benefit of our visitors and volunteers.
- You will embed best practice across all Sizergh teams, and spot future opportunities to develop our volunteering and community work, finding new volunteering roles and working with the relevant staff to create role profiles.
Who we're looking for
- Someone with passion and enthusiasm for volunteering, and a good knowledge of principles around volunteering and community.
- Someone who is able to quickly and positively adapt and flex to change, with a clear understanding of how to deliver best practice in a busy operational environment.
- Someone with strong demonstrable experience of delivering communications to volunteer teams, along with listening, building trust and the ability to influence others.
- Someone with the ability to take an analytical, measured approach to their work.
- Someone who understands how volunteers can enrich the visitor experience and how volunteers can help grow support for the work we do.
The package
The National Trust has the motto ‘For everyone, for ever’ at its heart. We’re working hard to create an inclusive culture, where everyone feels they belong. It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too.
Wherever you’re from, and whatever your background, we want to hear from you – and it doesn’t matter if you’re jam first, cream first, or even if you don’t like scones at all. Everyone is welcome.
Benefits for working at the National Trust include:
- Flexible working whenever possible
- Free parking at most locations
- Free entry to our properties for you, a guest and your children (under 18)
- Substantial pension scheme of up to 10% basic salary
Click here to find out more about the benefits we offer to support you.
Company
The National Trust is committed to promoting and preserving those places of natural beauty and historic interest for which it has the privilege to be responsible for the benefit of the nation, for everyone for ever.
The Trust is proud of what has been achieved over the last 126 years and is determined to maintain those high standards of conservation, stewardship and curatorial care for which it has been recognised throughout the world.
Its achievements have enabled the general public and the Trust’s members and visitors to enjoy and appreciate the countryside, coastline, gardens, historic buildings and collections, all of which encapsulate so much of the history of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. There is a duty to tell that history in a complete, balanced and accurate way, and without judgement.
The National Trust continues as a guardian of the past, and for the future, to uphold its duty to maintain and enhance what has been entrusted to its care.
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- The National Trust
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