Volunteering
As with other charity and heritage groups, Nottingham Heritage Vehicles Charity is entirely volunteer based. Some of us find time one or two days a week, others twice a month or indeed a year. However, all help counts and is very much appreciated. The more help we get, the more we can achieve over a shorter period of time. A few of our supporters undertake research from home and indeed create fleet lists of local bus operators to assist in fundraising.
Being a collection of some size, under the guidance of the charity commission we employ an almost business like approach towards developing a museum, securing the future of our vehicles and those in our care and developing the charity as a whole.
This means more time input is required from volunteers as we need to progress in assessing fund-raising avenues, raising the profile of our activities and eventually be able to open the museum even more frequently then now.
No one is paid to undertake any of the work we carry out within the charity – obviously unless we need to bring in outside help. Everyone helps in a manner in which they enjoy doing so – and thus we enjoy a relaxed, informal approach to our hobby. Perhaps getting covered in oil, paint and dirt does not appeal – but there really is a whole lot more to volunteering.
Here we have detailed just a few of the tasks our volunteers are currently working towards or undertaking on an ongoing basis.
Please support our charity in any way you feel able to!
Archives –
Detailing our vast photographic collection and growing collection of small artefacts. This includes sorting new collections, assessing the items and in some cases restoring them – even including photo restoration.
Educational Visits –
Attending local schools to undertake short talks on local transport and to allow viewing of a heritage vehicle at close quarters.
Publicity –
Creating the advertising media for our events and constantly advertising in related magazines to increase public awareness to our appeals.
Marketing –
Particularly the development and maintenance of the website and the establishment of a quarterly online magazine, in line with the development of a membership base for interested parties. This will in turn lead to additional work for our treasurer and the need for a membership secretary.
Accounting & administration –
As NHVC grows and we get closer to our eventual museum establishment the paperwork increases. The need to abide by HSE and financial legislation has to be followed correctly. On top of this as our profile increases the number of requests for further information rises – more letters and emails to respond to.
Event Stewards –
Helping to ensure the public and exhibitors alike can enjoy a safe and incident free day with us.
Producing Displays –
Developing clear, crisp vehicle and group information boards for display alongside our vehicles at events.
Commercial activities –
Although we are aiming to raise funds primarily for bus preservation this really does pull our currently small team away from the actual restoration work. We need to find time to produce, create and sort items for display along with actively promoting the donation and loan of items to use for this purpose – as well as to increase our archive. Fund raising and the need for assistance leads to the need to remain in contact with local and national companies to assist in the betterment of NHVC.
When all these tasks are done we then look for those who wish to assist in Vehicles restoration and maintenance. We seek fitters, electricians and those who wish to strip down vehicles – remembering what goes where ! We then look for others who enjoy rebuiding them, painting them, cleaning and polishing, Major, minor and ongoing repairs and the refreshing of the vehicles has to be done by someone.
Moving away from the vehicle collection, commercial activities and administration we also have a fine 1936 brick built building to restore to its former glory. Thus painters, plasterers, plumbers, electricians and good DIY enthusiasts are needed !
