2012 Yearbook

22 Y E A R B O O K 2 0 1 2 with each consultation. However, AMS still values volunteers who can report back on site visits, research local archives, represent them at public inquiries and provide specialist advice. The Victorian Society has two building committees with a wide range of voluntary professional FYQFSUJTF BT XFMM BT BO JOGPSNBM network of contacts. Its lecture series is also delivered by volunteers. When volunteering to advise on these planning and regulatory matters, professionals with a day job in the public sector have to be particularly DBSFGVM OPU UP DSFBUF PS BQQFBS UP DSFBUF B DPOnJDU PG JOUFSFTU *U XPVME clearly be improper for them to use confidential information obtained in one field for the purposes of the other. Church organisations have an even MPOHFS USBEJUJPO PG FYQFSU WPMVOUBSZ work by conservation and building professionals. At the local church level this could involve acting as an informed client for an architect or surveyor engaged to carry out repairs, or carrying out vital routine maintenance. At a more central level it could involve serving on the advisory committees of the denominations XJUI FDDMFTJBTUJDBM FYFNQUJPO from listed building consent. 5IF /BUJPOBM 5SVTU /5 IBT B QBSUJDVMBSMZ XFMM EFWFMPQFE TUSVDUVSF for volunteering. While the archetypal NT volunteer has been recruited at or for a particular site and is JOWPMWFE JO IBOET PO DPOTFSWBUJPO PS custodial work, there is also a wide range of opportunities for specialist volunteers. These include professional roles such as bridge surveyors or mechanical engineers, governance volunteers working on the various specialist committees, and a range of training schemes and internships. NT’s sophisticated approach to volunteering has clearly inspired a SFDFOU MBSHF TDBMF JOJUJBUJWF CZ #SJUJTI Waterways, which this year will transfer its assets to the voluntary sector in the form of the Canal & River Trust. Its website shows a wide range of opportunities, many PQFSBUJPOBM TVDI BT MPDL LFFQJOH CVU some administrative or specialist. The website also provides information on training schemes and includes links to other waterways organisations and in particular to canal restoration projects. These projects encompass the full range of historic environment volunteering, from design and specification to pick and shovel. The 8BUFSXBZ 3FDPWFSZ (SPVQ JT UIF MFBEFS IFSF XJUI øô ZFBST PG WPMVOUFFS FYQFSJFODF JO DBOBM SFTUPSBUJPO Open air museums and transport heritage sites also rely heavily on volunteering to maintain the quality of their operations. Opportunities tend to be operational, involving either the actual maintenance and development of the sites, interpretation for visitors PS PSHBOJTBUJPOBM SPMFT &YBNQMFT PG organisations with well developed volunteering include the Ironbridge (PSHF .VTFVN 5SVTU UIF 8FBME and Downland Museum and St Fagans National History Museum. Looking further afield, volunteering abroad brings additional benefits to both the recipients of the work and the volunteers themselves. There’s still a tendency for historic environment conservation to be insular. Volunteering abroad is an antidote to this, bringing close contact with other cultures, other conservation values and other building technologies. Romania is home to two remarkable building conservation initiatives involving IHBC members as organisers and volunteers, reviving traditional craft skills in a country where they were deliberately eliminated. The Transylvania Trust has a major conservation training and building restoration project at Bán"y Castle, while the Mihai Eminescu 5SVTU JT DBSSZJOH PVU FYFNQMBSZ conservation and regeneration projects with the inhabitants of a group of world heritage site villages in another part of Transylvania. Further afield still, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios has projects in the developing world that not only provide volunteering opportunities for its own sta", but also amount to volunteering by the practice as a whole, as part of its commitment to social responsibility. These projects include two schools in Uganda, a community sports facility in Ethiopia and a youth centre in Yemen. The projects employ traditional and local building materials and techniques. Returning to the UK, the IHBC itself o"ers a range of volunteering opportunities in its governance, regional structure, publications, events and specialist committees. Volunteering to help run the institute gives many members the chance to influence public policy and to push the boundaries of conservation knowledge far more than they could in their regular employment. In summary, volunteering is alive and well. Perhaps too alive if you’re viewing it from the dole queue. However, there’s an awful lot of caring and sharing in the historic environment that simply wouldn’t happen without systematic volunteering. As in so many heritage fields, we have to find a balance between public and private benefits, and in that DPOUFYU XF SFBMMZ OFFEO U GFFM HVJMUZ about the professional development dividend from our volunteering. Mihai Eminescu Trust volunteers Colin Richards, Mick Krupa (archaeologist), John Harrison (head of environment), Joe Kingdon (carpenter, McCurdy & Co) and Herefordshire College of Technology apprentices Shawn Goodwin and Joe Richards construct a new stairway access to a town wall defence tower in Sighiosara, Romania, a world heritage site.