Volunteer Opportunities

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Volunteer Opportunities

Contact Information

Renton History Museum

235 Mill Avenue South

Renton, WA 98057

425-430-6440

Email[email protected]

The Renton History Museum relies on volunteers to fulfill its mission to preserve, document, interpret, and educate the general public about the history of the greater Renton area.

The museum welcomes volunteers who want to contribute skills and talents by leading tours, greeting Saturday visitors, or helping with special projects.

Interested parties can submit a completed application via the link below. Note that you will need to sign up for an account with CERVIS to complete the application.

Volunteer Application

Benefits of Volunteering

As an active Renton History Museum Volunteer, you are entitled to the following benefits:

Free admission to the Museum
Free admission to all Museum programs, including speakers
Invitations to all new exhibit openings
Volunteer Newsletter and Renton Historical Society & Museum Quarterly Newsletter
Organized visits to other museums and locations of interest
Invitations to all Thank You Events for volunteers
20% discount in the gift shop

Education Facilitators

Education Facilitators engage guests as learners. This volunteer role helps guests explore many facets of an idea. These volunteers may perform mini-curricula within the exhibits, help learners explore an object (e.g., a lump of coal), play small games or do small activities, and even help introduce STEAM ideas (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) that relate to the topic.

Education Facilitators are expected to commit to at least 6 months of service. A friendly, playful, and flexible person would flourish best in this role.

Tour Guides

Tour Guides provide tours to the public, school groups, and other organizations that schedule visits to the museum. Tours are scheduled upon request and will usually take place during regular museum hours. Guides must be enthusiastic public speakers with a working knowledge of all museum exhibits and Renton history.

Tour Guides are expected to commit to at least a year of service. Because tours are only given on request, this position does not have a regular schedule, but we try to schedule tours at least two weeks in advance so tour guides get plenty of notice. Tours last around 30 minutes, so this role requires perhaps the most training and practicing to master the material.

Greeters

2 Greeters and 2 visitors in the Museum lobby Greeters serve as front desk ambassadors for the museum on Saturdays. Greeters work in pairs in three-hour shifts from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm or 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm. They open the museum, welcome visitors, collect admissions, sell gift shop items, provide information, and close the museum. To work as a Greeter, you must have excellent people skills and be able to conduct financial transactions accurately.

Greeters are expected to volunteer at least once a month and to commit to at least six months of service. We are currently most in need of this volunteer position since they run the museum every Saturday. This is a great position if you are looking for a regular commitment or need to fulfill a certain number of community service hours in a set amount of time.

Administration
As an add-on to the Greeter position, this role assists with administrative tasks such as stuffing envelopes, folding programs, organizing, and recording supplies, etc.

Oral History Team

Image of Oral History team getting trained by power point presentation Oral history volunteers work independently outside the museum building to interview influential Renton citizens and collect their stories for the museum’s archive.

Museum staff select candidates to be interviewed and pass along contact information and basic biographical info to the oral history team. Volunteers develop appropriate questions, arrange and conduct interviews with the candidates at a time and place that works best for both parties.

Collections/Archives

Collections/Archives volunteers primarily help the museum with data entry and organizing and digitizing our collection. This may include transcribing text, creating indexes for collections, updating databases to reflect current collections, taking photographs for documentation, and so forth. Since many of these important projects take some time, this is a longitudinal position. This position requires attention to detail.

Occasionally there may be special projects for these volunteers and opportunities to work directly with the Curator. Due to the extreme time commitment for these special projects, however, these special projects will only be offered to long-term Collections Volunteers.

Special Events Volunteers

Volunteers who are looking for a smaller time commitment can help museum staff run special events like Renton River Days in July or programs at the museum that require help with set-up, clean-up, supervising visitors, and managing supplies. Because our events schedule fluctuates, opportunities for Special Events Volunteers are more sporadic than other volunteer positions.

Exhibit Assistance

The Museum sporadically requires assistance with exhibit maintenance, gallery preparation, and design materials. Exhibit Assistance volunteers will help the Museum with fixing and creating exhibit pieces, graphic design, media components, painting and simple construction, and so forth. This volunteer position does not require a long-term commitment and is great for people who are handy with tools or artistic and can briefly lend their time when help is needed.

CITY OF RENTON WASHINGTON