I received today the newsletter from a friends organization;
  Our organisation seems to be dying a slow death.  True, we still
  have a continuing membership of around 50, but nearly all of these
  are long distance Friends who happily pay their membership fees,
  which helps with fund raising, but it is the local core of working
  volunteers that has declinded until it is now practically
  non-existent.  How do we go about attracting new members to do
  voluntary work?  How do we encourage local people to freely give
  of their time to help run the museum? ...  Can we capture that old
  enthusiasm that we once had? If you would like to send any suggestions
  as to how this could be done we would welcome your thoughts on this
  matter.
Do any of you have suggestions which I can pass on?

Some background: the museum was set up about 10 years ago, with
funding from the industry whose heritage it interprets, relevant
unions, government funding (it is in an econmocally depressed
area) and local government funding.  Today it is largely funded
by the local authority, but remains an independent trust.
There is one full-time director, a part-time education officer
(who is largely seconded to non-museum work) and a part-time
museum assistant, who originally came from the friend's
organization, and is one of the handful of active members (I think
it may be down to three, plus two spouses).
The volunteers are needed for all aspects of museum work, apart
from building management and marketing, which is done by the
director (the director also does research, but there is always
room for one more researcher).

--
Patricia Reynolds
Keeper of Social History, Buckinghamshire County Museum / Freelance Curator
(I am one of the long-distance friends)

16 Gibsons Green
Heelands
Milton Keynes
MK13 7NH
ENGLAND

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