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Imperial War Museums
No other museum tells stories that matter more than theseIWM is a global authority on conflict and its impact on people’s lives. We collect objects and stories that give an insight into people’s experiences of war, preserve them for future generations, and bring them to today’s audiences in the most powerful way possible.Our family of five museums uncover the causes, course and…
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Description

Extraordinary Everyday People 

Join our team of over 1,000 volunteers across our five sites. Our volunteers help bring to life the stories of our collections, promote great visitor experience and care for our many significant objects.

You don’t have to be a history buff, just enjoy getting involved and support our mission in telling the stories that matter. 

Our opportunities are designed to be meaningful and enjoyable; we want to ensure you can give as much or as little as you like to our cause. 

Love selling? Love our Museums? 
As a retail Volunteer you will be the warm and welcoming face to people entering our museums. This multi-faceted role is all about helping IWM promote sales and build long lasting, active relationships with customers within our retail spaces.

Duties

We are seeking keen communicators that love working with people who can proactively promote our retail offer. Volunteers in this role will need to be flexible in carrying out a variety of tasks, happy to take time to listen and enjoy exchanging knowledge.

This multi-faceted role is all about helping IWM promote sales and build long lasting, active relationships with customers within our retail spaces.

As a Retail Activator this is the types of activities you might be involved in:

  • Drink & food demonstrations / model making
  • Deliver children’s activities to promote children’s books
  • Provide short book reviews
  • Promote visits to other branches and encourage membership sales
  • Provide way finding and local travel and tourism information
  • Directing visitors to the IWM website to access our various commercial offers
  • Stocking and tidying shelves / support with stocktaking
  • Pack items into bags and wrapping gifts for special occasions
  • Conduct short visitor survey’s
  • During busy periods support queue management 
    • help upsell the guidebook and promoting gift aid
    • provide excellent customer service and answer visitor questions about their visit
    • Talk about the unique architecture and history of the site
    • Promote temporary exhibitions / wear promotional tee-shirts
    • During special events (Air shows) help with tickets scanning and wayfinding
Who will the volunteers be working with?
As an Activator volunteer you will support our retail team to promote the goods in our shops and support the team during busy periods and events. You will be supported by fellow volunteers as well as the retail team and the Volunteer Engagement team on site.
Training
You will need to attend one of the selection days on one of the following days. (These will be combined with applicants for our other branches as well and might not all be at IWM London. We recommend you choose one at IWM London if possible):

• Saturday 12th Oct (taking place at IWM London)
• Tuesday 15th Oct (taking place at IWM London)
• Wednesday, 16th Oct (taking place at Churchill War Rooms)
• Saturday, 19th Oct (taking place on HMS Belfast)
• Sunday, 20th Oct (taking place at Churchill War Rooms)
• Tuesday, 22nd Oct (taking place on HMS Belfast)

An Induction session will then be offered to successful candidates shortly after.

If you are not available on these dates, please let us know your availability.

Time commitment

We are hoping for volunteers who are available one day per week, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. We are seeking your regular commitment to make the most out of this role, the training provided to you, and to give you time enough to put this into practice/action.
Recommended volunteer hours are between 11am to 2.30pm (morning or afternoon shifts) including briefing and debriefing.
Application deadline

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