In April the Museum Development teams from the North West, Yorkshire and the North East launched the first Northern Museums Volunteer pass giving volunteers the chance to benefit from offers in 112 museums in the North of England.
The pass scheme is a mutually beneficial partnership between participating museums and entitles volunteers to free entry (and/or additional benefits where advertised) at participating museums in the region. A leaflet is produced annually listing all participating museums and the benefits at each institution for volunteers.
To be eligible to participate in the scheme museums must be able to offer a benefit to volunteer pass holders visiting from other museums. This may include:
- free entry to the museum
- 10% discount in the shop and/or cafe
- free tea and/or coffee
- free guide-book and/or pen
These benefits may be extended to include one guest accompanying the volunteer pass holder.
Once accepted into the scheme, museums will be issued with named Institutional Passes, which they can loan out to their volunteers, and also Individual Passes. The Institutional Pass is equivalent to 10 volunteers. The Individual Pass is not transferable.
The Volunteer Pass Scheme is viewed as a valuable recruitment and retention tool and museums manage the scheme in a variety of different ways. The passes can be used for CPD and/or training as well as a reward and incentive for volunteers. As individual passes are not transferable, we recommend that the passes are accessible only to your active volunteer base. If museums require any additional passes we would encourage the use of the institutional pass in the first instance.
If you are interested in participating in the scheme next year please complete this short application.
If you would like further information please speak to Alex Bird – alexander.bird@manchester.ac.uk / 07852 138110 or Gillian Waters – gillian.waters@ymt.org.uk
Museum Development North West 