Claire Evans interviewed by Matthew Hick

Oral history interview with Claire Evans conducted and recorded by Matthew Hick on 30 May 2013, at the National Railway Museum. Duration: 39 minutes. [Track 01] Early involvement with volunteers as NRM employee, started 1994 as duty manager, managed front of house volunteers, 90 volunteers; Tony Steadman (TS), two Information Points, flexible structure, rostering, ad hoc, customer care shortcomings; developments, structure needed, TS role, recruitment of younger people, building on loyalty to the museum, treating volunteers like employees, move from a relaxed approach to more structured approach; volunteer seminars, improved communications; [00:06:30] specific memories of the time of change; some volunteers did not want to be managed by a woman, some volunteers from a male dominated career, challenges, TS’s mediation role; [00:08:20] positive highlights during time of change; moving forward, seminars importance; more training; volunteer Christmas party included staff, appreciated by volunteers; [00:09:30] seminars; communication was the key, important volunteers knew about events and programmes, two seminars per year, compulsory to attend one; Health and Safety training, Richard Gibbon involvement, Information point, miniature railway, presentations from different areas; future programmes; recordkeeping, logging hours done by volunteers, Customer Charter and Standards; time involved with volunteers, two years (1994-1996) whilst Duty Manager, 9 year (1996-2005) whilst Visitor Service Manager; [00:14:00] development of miniature railway, staff running ad hoc (1994), developed involvement of volunteers, Richard Gibbon did the training, daily running developed; issue of staff and volunteers doing the same job, very successful development, co-ordinators effective; [00:17:00] Miniature Railway accident, young member of public injured; cause of accident, impact on volunteers, impact on drivers, carriages changed; [00:21:10] experiences of working with TS and David Thomas (DT); TS taught CE a lot about volunteering, TS’s approach, working with TS, regular meetings, handover to DT; [00:23:30] memories of working with volunteers; dedication of volunteers, women volunteers, importance of volunteers; [00:25:20] other memories of volunteers; characters, some extremes, strong characters, examples [00:30:26] [end of track 01] [Track 02] Volunteering Policies and agreement; 1994, Chris Allender (CA) (Museum Manager) discussions with Unions about a Volunteer Agreement, one page document, signed by volunteers, Volunteer Policies from American practice; challenges in relationship between staff and volunteers; staff worrying of possibility of volunteers taking staff jobs, miniature railway example, mid 1990’s, difficult meetings, CA impact, ensuring staff that their jobs were not at risk, 2 challenging years, Christmas party helped, reduction in overtime; [00:05:40] direction to volunteering during 1990’s; Andrew Scott (AS) (Director), CE views on AS approach to volunteering, AS support for Friends of the NRM, effect on CE’s approach to managing volunteers [00:08:58] [end of track 02] [end of interview]

Oral history recording made as part of a NRM oral history of volunteering initiative led by NRM volunteering team between 2012 and 2015, with the aim to record the voices of people sharing their volunteering experiences at the National Railway Museum, including NRM colleagues supervising volunteers.