Our FORMAL recognition is similar. We recognize them at the annual staff
Christmas party with gifts and certificates of appreciation. They get free
parking and admission, as well as discounts at the gift shop, their share of
the commemorative ties and t-shirts, etc.

BUT - my staff and I FREQUENTLY take them out for lunch at our official museum
pub, "The Earl of Sussex", where the food is great and the beer is even better!
and we usually pay for it ourselves, as we don't have much in the hospitality
budget. Funny thing; they take us out at least as much as we do them!!!

I find that it is the small, personal gestures of appreciation which are most
effective. An example:

One of our oldest volunteers (and most loyal) is a wonderful old gentleman who
was a major in the Green Howards, the UK's premier line infantry regiment. His
birthday is on Saturday, when the Royal Canadian Legion branch to which he and
my next-door neighbour (a retired Intelligence Corps colonel and Korean War
hero, who is also one of our volunteers) and I belong is having a black-tie
Robbie Burns dinner (imagine being condemned to eat haggis every birthday of
your life!!! Blimey!). Prior to the dinner, to which we're all going, I'm
having them and their wives over for champagne and seafood hors d'oeuvres, when
we'll present dear old Bob with three hand-painted miniatures of a rifleman of
his Regiment, in the dress of 1815, 1840 and 1860. I know he'll be surprised
and (I hope) pleased by this little gesture.

It's not the museum that is paying for all this; it's me - and my staff
frequently do similar things for other volunteers.

I think it's this kind of highly personalized thank you that really makes the
difference! You can't do it for everyone, but for the volunteers who are ALWAYS
there, it's part of our tradition.

Harry Needham
Canadian War Museum