4.0 Background issues
24 Hour Museum needs to encourage student writers to contribute to the site on a continuous basis. We work with the beginnings of a national network of student journalists, and it’s key to our editorial productivity and regional coverage that we manage to attract student writers.
We also need to attract students and volunteers locally, as these individuals typically are trained up to use 24 HM systems. These volunteers are then very well placed when vacancies at the Brighton office are advertised.
4.1 Volunteer working - a structured approach
We have developed a structured approach to volunteer working, which typically involves the volunteer firstly working with us under the aegis of the local journalism course. This work experience involves an afternoon’s work on an occasional basis as directed by the course leader at CCB, Brighton.
4.2 Research assistantships
Keen students, who may be strong writers, good interviewers or strong sub-editors, are then selected to be Research Assistants. This volunteer route is for three months, up to two days per week at normal office hours.
Research assistants are given commissions, help with writing skills, references after the three months, and contacts help to get to the next stage of employment. Four of our full or part time writing staff have been Research Assistants on the site.
To identify these exemplary students we carry out exercises like the Student Sit-in.
4.3 Further staff benefits
A further benefit of the Sit-In is that it helps develop our own teaching or supervisory skills. We need to know if we’re asking too much of our volunteers. Staff find it useful to develop and define the skills that enable the supervision of younger/older/less skilled/more skilled volunteers.
We’ve had writers working here who’ve been much better than any of us –it can be quite intimidating!
4.4 What do students gain?
Our students benefit from a pleasant work environment; learn to work to deadlines; learn to write plain English; deploy their shorthand skills; interview for real people for stories; learn photo editing techniques; learn to ftp and assign photos to stories; learn to use an online editing client; they see their stories uploaded onto the net; they get an online folio of published work with their bylines; and best of all – they are never asked to make tea.
4.5 Volunteer history
Student work has appeared on the site since approx April or May 2001. From that time, students were solicited to work on the site as volunteers and now there are approximately 25-30 regular writers on the site, from Glasgow to Cardiff.
In April 2002 we ran our first sit-in, again in Brighton, and it was very successful, though it was seen by 24 HM staff as a test run. The main lesson learned from this test run was that it is very difficult to use an online editing client, such as the 24 HM Index+ facility, through an educational institution firewall.
4.6 How we work with students
Student writers are encouraged to find their own stories, and though many do, there are still some writers who like to be directed to stories. For our part we would prefer people to be keen enough in their writing to get out there and look for stories.
We have always been prepared to feed press releases and notices about press launches to students, however. Some may be trying to break into the arts, and have no contacts, and volunteering with 24 HM is a great way to build up contacts.
We are quite keen to encourage a limited commitment in terms of time for volunteers. This point springs from the treatment of many volunteers in the past. This is not just anecdotal: some of us in the 24 HM office have been in this situation. It cannot be good practice that volunteers give their precious time in sometimes open-ended commitments to unpaid work experience.
We try to limit volunteers to three month (or units thereof) blocks of working with us. They may do one story per month, or two or three quite quickly then nothing for a while. It’s clear that for our student writers, flexibility is what’s needed. If they do one story, then get a paid job, that’s fine.
4.7 What goes wrong?
It's very hard to run a network of writers with absolutely no budget - some would say we shouldn't attempt this. There is a very small commissioning budget - a matter of few hundred pounds per month. This is deployed to the keener writers or those who have been with us for a long time.
We know from talking with our volunteers that the keenest issue is 'where next?' Some of our writers have been with us for two years or more. They need to feel there is a further challenge, the possibility of bigger commissions, the chance to make a living, the eventual chance perhaps of a job with 24 HM.
These comments and points, occasionally made strongly by writers on the site, are what forms the next challenges for our volunteer policy.
