The Hobby Is Alive and Kicking, But Differently

Al Stangenberger · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:59 pm **Posts:** 650

adammil1 wrote:

...
#1. You have to take a kid when he is age 4-6 to a steam locomotive. At that age it is a fire breathing godzilla, the wheels are 3times higher than him, it is an experience at least burned in my memory forever.
#2. When they show up at age 13-18 interested in volunteering for your organization you have to take them in and find work that is meaningful to them and their interests. If the kid's is mechanically oriented like me, putting him into car service till he turns age 18 would make me walk away real fast. Everyone in this hobby has their place. Some can't stand getting dirty, others can't stand collecting tickets and sitting on the train.

So anyhow I guess the key question really is how do other museums handle underage kids when they show up and want to help in the shop? In my opinion I can't help but think that if you are concerned for the future you had best figure out a good way to bend the rules for the right kid and handle each one on a case by case basis.

Adam -

Thanks for bringing up the issue of how to welcome folks under 18 into a museum shop and operations. At WRM we have a pretty firm policy that nobody under 18 can operate machinery or operate equipment in passenger service, but aside from that most shop work is OK (of course track work is also OK if a kid doesn't mind physical labor).

We occasionally get kids volunteering in our shop. As you note, their physical and mental development is so variable that we have to handle each case individually. I think what really helps is if a parent also volunteers - that changes our feeling about the liability situation considerably (and sometimes we gain two new workers).

For new volunteers of any age, the first few times will probably be doing fairly menial tasks. The big problem is making sure that they feel that their work is appreciated and is contributing to the museum's success -- it can't just be "make work." Whenever possible, someone else should be working with them to show that the work is valuable and that everybody does that sort of thing.

Our operations people say that the best "hook" to retain new volunteer operator trainees is to let them operate after hours under controlled circumstances the very first day they volunteer. I wish shop work had a similar reward available.