Volunteering at the National Football Museum
Tue 23rd April 2019 | General | By Stewart Taylor
In this concluding article, we look at the role of a volunteer and get to illustrate that with a few personal reminiscences of the last 18 months or so of my direct involvement with the museum.
The concept of volunteering is well known and is often described as “giving something back”. This description is really only skin deep, as the reasons why individuals volunteer and which organisations they are involved in run much deeper that that.
We can look at this from the points of view of what the museum can offer a volunteer and what a volunteer can offer the museum.
The National Football Museum offers an opportunity for individuals of all ages to interact with people in an environment which is safe. This aspect is hugely important to many, given the increasing isolation of individuals within modern day society, and contributes significantly to improved mental health.
In addition, the wealth of expertise at the museum - not only in terms of the exhibits, but also the staff and visitors – gives a massive opportunity to learn more about what is, after all, our national sport.
What a volunteer can offer, in addition to their time, is their relevant experience. This is not simply restricted to knowledge of football, as it includes social skills which allow interactions with visitors to meet the overall objective of enhancing the visitor experience.
In many ways, the true experts are the full-time staff, but a volunteer has a certain freedom within a structured framework to discuss many subjects with the wide variety of visitors who visit the museum.
I’ll end this short series of articles by sharing with you some of my own experiences whilst volunteering, which I hope will give an impression of the attraction of the National Football Museum.
The museum often acts as a ticket collection point for supporters of visiting clubs to the Etihad or Old Trafford for European matches. These are busy times and just one of many sticks in my mind which relates to the supporters of Feyenoord before the Champions League Group Stage match against Manchester City last season.
It is often suggested that the tallest Europeans are the Dutch, and all of the supporters of Feyenoord that day seemed to bear that out - they were mostly very tall. After collecting their tickets, many of them assembled for pre-match drinks outside The Old Wellington and Sinclair’s Oyster Bar in Shambles Square, creating a great atmosphere. It was good to meet many of them on the day - just don’t mention Ajax!
As can be imagined, the National Football Museum has a tremendous number of international visitors and, during my time, just about every country of the world has been represented.
Amongst the most memorable are the South Koreans. who are incredibly keen to find anything related to South Korean players playing for Premier League teams. Unfailingly polite, but lacking language skills – to be fair, how many of us speak Korean? - they have the tendency to use a translator function to present questions on a mobile phone.
This is fine but it becomes difficult to give any understandable answer except a simple yes or no. Having said that, it has been said that football is the universal language of the world and, certainly to a point, that is true.
Somewhat closer to home, we have visitors who educate us locals on matters which are not always relevant to football but valuable interactions nonetheless. The chap who was a neighbour of George Best in Belfast was great to talk to about the early life of George.
On a completely different, level I recall a conversation with a former Manchester Corporation bus driver who explained the answer to the well-known local question: why did the 53 bus not complete a full circuit of Manchester? A hugely significant question for those of us who travelled the 53 bus route back in the day.
There are many, many interactions on a weekly basis but there we just have a few examples which perhaps demonstrates, at least in part, the diversity we see at the museum.
The overall conclusion and an answer to the question at the beginning of this article: I volunteer because its fun!
From time to time, volunteer opportunities become available at the museum. Details are posted on the website and can be accessed via this link
The photo below shows Stewart in volunteer mode at the Handling Table, which is one of the most interesting places to be in the museum for interactions with the visitors.
Volunteering at the National Football Museum
Tue 23rd April 2019 | General
By Stewart Taylor
In this concluding article, we look at the role of a volunteer and get to illustrate that with a few personal reminiscences of the last 18 months or so of my direct involvement with the museum.
The concept of volunteering is well known and is often described as “giving something back”. This description is really only skin deep, as the reasons why individuals volunteer and which organisations they are involved in run much deeper that that.
We can look at this from the points of view of what the museum can offer a volunteer and what a volunteer can offer the museum.
The National Football Museum offers an opportunity for individuals of all ages to interact with people in an environment which is safe. This aspect is hugely important to many, given the increasing isolation of individuals within modern day society, and contributes significantly to improved mental health.
In addition, the wealth of expertise at the museum - not only in terms of the exhibits, but also the staff and visitors – gives a massive opportunity to learn more about what is, after all, our national sport.
What a volunteer can offer, in addition to their time, is their relevant experience. This is not simply restricted to knowledge of football, as it includes social skills which allow interactions with visitors to meet the overall objective of enhancing the visitor experience.
In many ways, the true experts are the full-time staff, but a volunteer has a certain freedom within a structured framework to discuss many subjects with the wide variety of visitors who visit the museum.
I’ll end this short series of articles by sharing with you some of my own experiences whilst volunteering, which I hope will give an impression of the attraction of the National Football Museum.
The museum often acts as a ticket collection point for supporters of visiting clubs to the Etihad or Old Trafford for European matches. These are busy times and just one of many sticks in my mind which relates to the supporters of Feyenoord before the Champions League Group Stage match against Manchester City last season.
It is often suggested that the tallest Europeans are the Dutch, and all of the supporters of Feyenoord that day seemed to bear that out - they were mostly very tall. After collecting their tickets, many of them assembled for pre-match drinks outside The Old Wellington and Sinclair’s Oyster Bar in Shambles Square, creating a great atmosphere. It was good to meet many of them on the day - just don’t mention Ajax!
As can be imagined, the National Football Museum has a tremendous number of international visitors and, during my time, just about every country of the world has been represented.
Amongst the most memorable are the South Koreans. who are incredibly keen to find anything related to South Korean players playing for Premier League teams. Unfailingly polite, but lacking language skills – to be fair, how many of us speak Korean? - they have the tendency to use a translator function to present questions on a mobile phone.
This is fine but it becomes difficult to give any understandable answer except a simple yes or no. Having said that, it has been said that football is the universal language of the world and, certainly to a point, that is true.
Somewhat closer to home, we have visitors who educate us locals on matters which are not always relevant to football but valuable interactions nonetheless. The chap who was a neighbour of George Best in Belfast was great to talk to about the early life of George.
On a completely different, level I recall a conversation with a former Manchester Corporation bus driver who explained the answer to the well-known local question: why did the 53 bus not complete a full circuit of Manchester? A hugely significant question for those of us who travelled the 53 bus route back in the day.
There are many, many interactions on a weekly basis but there we just have a few examples which perhaps demonstrates, at least in part, the diversity we see at the museum.
The overall conclusion and an answer to the question at the beginning of this article: I volunteer because its fun!
From time to time, volunteer opportunities become available at the museum. Details are posted on the website and can be accessed via this link
The photo below shows Stewart in volunteer mode at the Handling Table, which is one of the most interesting places to be in the museum for interactions with the visitors.
