Don's Stop Me Now Session 3

2. VSVA’s – what works for you?
Rory Port
Visitor Services Officer, Lanhydrock

3. Lanhydrock 2009
X 274 volunteers
X 158 room guides
X 210,000+ visitors
X 36.7% volunteer recommendation
1 x VSO to manage all things front of house.
= one very stressed VSO!
= volunteers feeling unloved
= inconsistency in service standards – VSO could only be in
one place at a time
= no time for long-term thinking or strategic planning

4. Background – 2 key drivers!
2 key reasons for re-thinking the structure of our volunteer
management
4. Improving volunteer survey results – just 20% ‘strongly
agreed’ that they were being well organised and managed
5. Reduce the operational demands on VSO in day to day
running of the House
After consideration, I felt the obvious solution was to install
a version of VVM.

5. What we were already doing
that was working?
Book Shop volunteer co-ordinator
Education volunteer co-ordinator
Buggy Driver volunteer co-ordinators
Living History volunteer co-ordinator

6. The key, why ‘VSVA’ and not
VVM?
VVM wouldn’t have worked at Lanhydrock
because.
Our volunteers didn’t want to be ‘managed’ by
other volunteers.
What are my top tips for success?
9.Tailor a solution that will be accepted and supported
10.Recruit the right people!

7. How did we go about
introducing the concept
We had the full support of our GM
Consulted and obtained ‘buy in’ from our Room
Guide Representatives
Recruited - internally and externally
Rolled out to all our volunteers during our 2011
pre-season briefing days

8. New structure, what would it
look like?
X6 ‘Visitor Services Volunteer Assistants’
These volunteers (VSVA’s) would act as assistants to the
VSO
VSO
Liaison VSVA’s
Representatives
Room
Guides

9. VSVA’s areas of responsibility
Each VSVA was assigned a specialist field based on their skills from:
– X2 Communications (inc. newsletter)
– X2 Admin
– Social Calendar
– Training (inc. mentoring)
In addition, general duties included:
– Pager cover/first response (inc. disabled access)
– Radio cover
– Rotas
– PMV’s and wheelchairs
– Rota relief
– Opening set up

10. What have the benefits been?
1. Better organised and managed volunteers
2. Better communication between staff and volunteers
3. Volunteers feeling and getting more involved
4. Volunteers more supported
5. Allow the VSO to provide more strategic support
across the property
6. To provide challenging volunteering opportunities
7. Improve visitor experience

11. What are our volunteers
saying now?
2011 volunteer survey results confirmed that
39% of our volunteers now ‘strongly agree’ that
they are being well organised and managed,
almost double that of 2009 (20%) - VSVA’s being
introduced must have played a part.

12. Top Tips for success!
1. Think about what works for your property and
introduce something that will suit your existing team
2. Involve the volunteers right from the start –
have a volunteer representative involved in making
the decisions
3. Get your key volunteers on side – representatives
etc – and use them to pass on the key
reasons/messages.
4. Pick the right people! If you are recruiting a person
for each day, make sure their approach matches the
attitude of the day

13. I would like to pay tribute to my
team of VSVA’s.