To amplify on an already very full thread I will post this as a new topic -

Most of my takeaway on the discussion of volunteers is to somehow attract more volunteers by being 'more friendly', less restrictive, offering perks, meals, etc.

While visiting this subject with a friend in the United Kingdom this morning, I was somewhat amazed when he mentioned that in Britain, volunteers wishing training for operating positions at some Museums regularly pay a tuituion fee equivalent to $125 or more for a day full of training!

While there is certainly a cultural difference to consider, have any USA preservation groups charged such a fee or tuition? At face value it might seemingly reduce our volunteer base. But on the other hand, those volunteers taking this step would be more reliable and committed to the preservation effort, having 'invested' in this interest. Casual volunteers who may or may not show up, or only plan for one or two days per season, might be weeded out. (Is that a good thing?)

Comments??

Bob Kutella

68trolley@comcast.net

I think charging a tuituion fee is the wrong way to go. Since the operating crew is donating so much of their time to crew the trains, to charge an additional fee would be totally unfair. It would be better if they were rewarded for their efforts by having their yearly membership paid if they work a certain number of hours. Asking more from the volunteers who do all of the work is a common problem of most organizations. The management seems to forget that volunteer time equals money. We need to reward the volunteers who donate their valuable time and put the financial burden on the members who don't or can't help out.

Does any of your organizations pay your workers dues for time put in?

joemann@mindspring.com

>I was somewhat amazed when he mentioned that in
> Britain, volunteers wishing training for
> operating positions at some Museums
> regularly pay a tuituion fee equivalent to
> $125 or more for a day full of training!
> Bob Kutella

Some NFPÂ’s do charge volunteers a small application fee and other fees for materials used. For example, Chicago Architecture Foundation docents give walking tours of downtown from CAF's Michigan Avenue store. Its docents must pay $15 upon application to the program and $45 for materials. Their training class runs 14 sessions, each lasting from 9 AM to 4 PM plus they have 25 hours of assigned homework. Only then are they allowed to talk to the public. These college level courses are considered a major benefit to docents. They often hear visiting scholars or prominent architects. CAF has a classroom in the Railway Exchange Building in downtown Chicago (which still sports an illuminated Santa Fe sign on its roof). Docents are required to lead about 30 hours worth of tours, although most do it for many, many years.

It is also common for museums have several classes of membership and volunteers are required to maitain a "higher" membership status. This is separate from the "Voting vs. Associate" membership distinction common to true membership organizations. It's an implicit charge to volunteers, albeit one that may come with other perks. Most cultural associations do not have voting members, but have self-perpetuating boards. That said, it generally costs a lot of money for a member to remain his/her seat on the board. In Illinois, a board member of a small organization often must "raise" $2,500+/year to remain on the Boad, a moderate size entity requires $5,000+ per year and large blue chip boards remain exclusive for a reason. These amounts may seem excessive, but I think that if you decide to charge volunteers, you have to start with the Board Members. They don't necessarily have to go out-of-pocket, but they should demonstrate that they've made enough telephone calls to raise some cash.

Bob -

The Brits are way more "railfans" than us Americans. They have more steam locomotives, more railway museums, better done - travel more.

Don't I wish we could charge rather than placing ads for help!

Jim

Pacific Southwest Railway Museum
Jim@psrm.org

> Bob -

> The Brits are way more "railfans"
> than us Americans. They have more steam
> locomotives, more railway museums, better
> done - travel more.

> Don't I wish we could charge rather than
> placing ads for help!

> Jim

Yes the Brits seem more than willing to place their money where their mouth is. Wintness the Welsh Highlands Railway which is slowly being reconstructed. Their website includes a plea for reqular donation of 10 pounds per month, ($18 more or less) that is either debited automatically to a credit card, or withdrawn from a bank account.

No mention exactly how successful this is, but it is working on at least some level. Is any preservation group in the USA contemplating or have tried this regular 'subscription' approach?

Maybe we could charge a processing fee on top of every donation that is mailed in!!!

Back to the volunteer question -

1. Are our volunteers more casual and less committed to regular hours in service to the organization?

2. Are there too many competing activities in a life?

3. Is this a genetic defect or one induced by the society overall?

4. How can we better motivate and morph new volunteers to a higher level of committment?

Typically we all assume that a volunteer does this as a free choice - that is part of the definition of a volunteer. But he may be making that choice for recreation, amusement value, or out of a sense of duty to community and history. THOSE are the ones we want. And they are the fraction that might be more willing to endure some form of organization and self discipline as a necessity to making more progress. Easier to say than do, but the boat clearly gets farther if everyone is rowing in the same direction.

So yes, by all means be friendly, recognize all the volunteer efforts without trying to make a distinction between efforts, and build a team spirit. But I am not sure if we need or should start a pattern of 'bribes' or other handouts and rewards (meals, dues, gas money, etc). If that is what it takes to attract someone to volunteer service, those may not be the folks we really need. And once you start down that path, a sense of 'entitlement' will surface and you may not be able to back out of it.

Bob Kutella

68trolley@comcast.net

> Yes the Brits seem more than willing to
> place their money where their mouth is.
> Wintness the Welsh Highlands Railway which
> is slowly being reconstructed. Their website
> includes a plea for reqular donation of 10
> pounds per month, ($18 more or less) that is
> either debited automatically to a credit
> card, or withdrawn from a bank account.

I have tremedous repsect for what our UK friends do, but I would recommend we keep some things in mind:

1. many large preservation enterprises like the WHR rebuilding get massive infusions of public money, mostly in the form of Heritage Lottery funds. They are not happening entirely through individual donations.

2. The British (and all other Europeans for that matter) actually give less per capita than Americans do by a wide and growing margin. This has been a subject of concern to the current labor government. Here's what one UK university chancellor has to say:

"While giving totals have moved sharply upwards in America, to a point where philanthropic donations now account for 2% of GDP, the British trend has gone in the opposite direction. The proportion of households donating to charity has actually decreased by 10% since 1978. Although giving to universities has increased sharply in the last decade, that is because they have only recently started to aggressively seek outside funding. As for the corporate world, approximately one percent of all US company profits before taxation go to charity. The corresponding figure in Britain is 0.2%. Trend lines like this cannot continue if much of what makes Britain worth living in is to survive."

I think the real difference is that in America, religious institutions are the #1 recipient of charitable giving, followed by educational institutions and health care at #2 and #3 (I'm not sure whaich is which actually). These three causes alone soak up the lion's share of US giving.

By contrast, in Brtain, health care and universities are both essentially publically funded, and attract much lowers rates of donation. Even the Anglican church is "established" and enjoys (or is cursed with)state endorsement, so it too attracts less giving.

Accordingly, heritage causes like preserved railways are higher up the giving "food chain" in the UK than in America.

So, though I don't have numbers to prove it, it is certain that Americans give more per capita than Britons, but it is possible that the Brits may give more per capita to heritage causes than the Americans...

Cross-national comparisons can get complicated!

eledbetter@rypn.org

Not to take this too far off topic, but I'd like to mention a situation I'm involved in.

I have a degree in music, worked my way through college playing in big bands, am a retired Army bandsman (24 years), and have had a card in the Musicians Union for over 30 years. I'm currently involved in a pretty decent community orchestra, and every year they ask me to pay "tuition" for the "course" that I am taking. (This orchestra is related to the music school at one of the local universities.)

I don't need the "course", and I have given up an occasional paid playing job to help out this amateur orchestra. The interesting thing is that the original conductor (and founder) of this group once equated the orchestra to a bowling league when the subject of tuition came up. She equated the orchestra to a bowling league; instead of paying for League dues and three games every Wednesday night, you are paying to play in the orchestra. Interesting-

BTW, I was told (by an Executive Board member) that my union would look the other way if I volunteered my time, but that "paying to play" would likely get me into trouble. I was able to get the college to accept that decree.

The point, of course, is that railroad museums are not the only ones that have asked volunteers to pay participate in activities. It happens in other fields as well.


edm5970@earthlink.net