Held in the Detroit Film Theatre Auditorium, The Annual Volunteer Council Meeting was quite a production. I would really like to be involved with volunteer management sometime in a future career, and with volunteer management comes volunteer recognition. So I was interested in seeing what the DIA does to recognize the efforts of their many volunteers.
The DIA Volunteer Council is comprised of 6 individual committees, with a total of 697 volunteers. These volunteers put in 63,000 hours this year, which is equivalent to 30 full time employees.
Think about where you work or go to school. Pick 30 people that are around you and make them disappear. While I’m sure some of us wouldn’t mind making a few choice individuals disappear, the overall result would be devastating. With the cuts that the DIA has taken over the last several years, having 30 people work for free (actually, they pay a fee to volunteer) for 63,000 hours is invaluable.
Each volunteer is given 4 free guest passes to the DIA. If every pass is used, that will bring 2,500 visitors to the museum. That's a heck of a lot. In my Volunteer Management class last fall, we identified volunteers as being one of the biggest sources of publicity for their insitution and it appears as if the DIA has recognized their potential as well.
During the various speeches, there was much emphasis placed on being “ambassadors” to the DIA. Today’s speakers and presenters spoke of representing the museum with pride and talking about it with anyone who will listen. It reminded me a lot of being a tour guide…er… “campus ambassador” at CMU. And I find it interesting that in the half dozen staff meetings I have attended, no one mentioned this to the employees. Could it be that the museum volunteers are under more pressure to positively represent the DIA than the actual paid staff are? I wonder if this is simply because volunteers are often the ones interfacing with the public.
Anyway...
Director Graham Beal also spoke and discussed the state of the museum this year, but I will go into more detail about that later. However, I thought it was great that the director was at this event. His presence underlined the importance of the DIA’s volunteers.
Like many museums, pins are given out to recognize those who have dedicated years of service to the DIA. I counted how many people received each pin. (Why? Because I care about stuff like this, that’s why.)
15 years: 15
20 years: 6
25 years: 2
30 years: 5
35 years: 1
Honestly, I expected more 35 year pins to be handed out. I have spoken with so many volunteers who have told me their stories of first coming to volunteer at the DIA in the 60’s, I expected them all to be lined up to receive their pins. But then, I guess lots of them have been here more than 35 years, and already have their pins.
Today is day 12 for me (I’m technically a volunteer), so I’m .002% of the way to my 15 year pin!
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