Volunteer Co-ordinator Nicola Deeprose tells us about the amazing work our volunteers do around the Museum
Each year we hold a ceremony to celebrate the achievements and successes of volunteering at the Science Museum, to recognise the hard work of our volunteers and supervisors over the past 12 months. This year’s ceremony was held at our Robots exhibition. Around 50 volunteers attended along with colleagues that have been closely involved with volunteering.
We were delighted to welcome Jonathan Newby, Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Science Museum Group, who kindly agreed to present the awards for us again. We also welcomed two volunteers from the National Railway Museum in York, Brian Gardener and Tony Oldfield, who have been assisting us across all Science Museum Group sites with online document sharing, the new volunteer database and e-learning records.
In 2016 our volunteers gave around 10,000 hours and made a huge contribution to the work of the museum. The volunteer team has increased in numbers to 185, as a result of a new role in the Learning department, the Event Ambassadors, and our new blockbuster exhibition Robots. Engagement Volunteers are on hand in the gallery to show off the working robots and the handling collection, which includes a companion pet dog and loom shuttles!
In total, across the 5 available categories we received 27 nominations, submitted by staff, supervisors and volunteers alike. During the evening 15 awards were given out.
Congratulations to all of our lucky winners!
Brunel: The Innovator– Robin Hiley (Object Handling Volunteer)
Johnson: The High Flier– Courtney Williams (Learning Activity Volunteer)
Stephenson: The Dynamo– Christine Navarro (Tour Guide, Object Handling and Wounded Exhibition Guide Volunteer)
Sharman: The Explorer– Elise Zheng (Wounded Exhibition Guide Volunteer)
Twain and Tesla: The Team Players– Robots Object Handling Development Team: Howard Burton, Jane Lane Roberts, Eleanor Armstrong, Flavia Belham, Jenny Hider, Luis Bercho, Alison Faraday, Barbara Cadge, Josh Gladwin and Robin Hiley
This year’s Supervisor of the Year award went to our longest standing volunteer supervisor, who has been supporting volunteers at the museum for over 10 years- Nick Molteno in Collections Services. Nick was nominated for creating a friendly and welcoming environment for volunteers, supporting and encouraging them to grow to be an invaluable part of this team.
It was an enjoyable event and fun was had by all! Including a small reunion of some of the PowerUP! volunteers who were recruited to support the gaming festival in London over the summer.
With exciting plans for volunteer involvement in the new medicine galleries and the One Collection project we are looking forward to celebrating even more achievements next year.
If you would like to be notified of upcoming volunteer roles please sign up to our newsletter and keep an eye on the Science Museum Groups’ recruitment pages
We are currently trying to grow our team of Object Handling volunteers in the Information Age gallery, please get in touch if you would like to find out more: Nicola.deeprose@sciencemuseum.ac.uk