Volunteers

[Gareth A]

Appreciating there is a financial disaster currently around the country, it was with great reading this little article in the stage.

 

http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.p...aid-ushers-jobs

 

Appreciating a lot of venues use volunteer ushers, what is actually stopping this company starting to also roll this into Stage Door staff, and eventually backstage staff.

 

Also if this company is making this the normal across all their venues, will someone like Ambassadors also do the same?

 

 

Also are Volunteers accountable for their actions. I was in a venue once where during a show, there was a gas leak - and the building was obviously evacuated. The first people out the door where the ushers and usherettes. . . Leaving the paid staff to deal with it. Apparently their excuse was "Were not paid to deal with that"

 

So - is this a good idea to replace paid staff with unpaid staff and where will and where can it stop. ?

 

Next thing we know - follow spot operators and stage crew will be volunteers and all the paid staff will slowly be replaced leave potentially a lot of people out of work.

 

Saying this - on my touring circuit I have been to some veneus that run solely on volunteers that are brilliantly run, but that is the aim of the venue as their trust to be staffed by volunteers.

[paulears]

Bigger venues who understand their legal obligations need properly paid and accountable staff, but there are obvious limits as to quantities - so volunteers have always been a very useful method of providing theatre goers with extra services. My own venue run with the absolute minimum number of front of house staff, and the pool of suitable staff isn't that big anyway - so very often there will be clumps of people having problems finding their seats (I've never thought the alphabet that difficult) who do it on their own, because the paid staff are sorting out wheelchairs and checking tickets in the foyer. As far as I'm aware HQ are adding volunteers to do the meet and greet activities, people who actually have the time to stay in the auditorium and can see the shows. We find this very difficult - they're always having to take people out and do other audience duties that mean they're in and out all the time. The theatre friends/volunteers are handy people to have around (not that we have any ourselves) but if a retired stage worker turned up and wanted to really work for free, my boss would jump at the chance!

[Gareth A]

I know that Swindon, The Beck are ALL volunteers and not both. . . . From what I can gather a few of the bar persons are paid and that is it. . . though I could be proved wrong . .

 

edit to add quote from the stage:

 

The theatre, which is owned by the local council, employs 22 paid ushers, who say their shifts have reduced dramatically since HQ took over the management of the venue and introduced volunteer ushers, of which there are now more than 200

 

The difference is if they are having their shifts reduced, then they are not working alongside but replacing a paid member of staff . .

 

I do agree that volunteers are useful, maybe as they retire then you dont replace, but to "reduce" peoples shifts to replace with volunteers is wrong. I know if I was replaced by a a volunteer I would be quite angry. Even if they had the relevant experience, it does not make it right.

[GridGirl]

Our ushers are all volunteer (company is fully professional otherwise) - we have a Theatre Supporters organization who provide all ushering staff. Mostly it's absolutely fine - they're very well organised and duties are clearly defined - they work in teams of five (chief usher, two ushers, programme seller and coffee bar staff) and usually the teams stay together for years! Some of them have been ushering for upwards of twenty years, so it can be slightly interesting when things change - they don't always like it - but generally it works very well. All the ushers go through refresher training every year, and while there are a few of them who drive me absolutely up the wall, we have very few problems. It saves us an absolute fortune, and as well as providing ushers, the Supporters fundraise for the benefit of the theatre and generally do all sorts of good works for us.

[Gareth A]

If it works well then all the better. ! My Real question is - what happens if they started rolling this out to stage door, backstage etc, and replacing working hours for the paid casuals etc and filled it with volunteers etc. Obviously a lot of these guys may have their own part time jobs etc, but . . . yes it does save money . . . there I think is the point. . .

[paulears]

That's a bit different though, a volunteer only venue is quite common and has been a valid business model for years. Weren't we talking about the story where a venue were changing from paid to voluntary - but this was then denied? Paid PLUS voluntary seems to be what is happening there?

[Doug Siddons]

Any accountant who can get a job done for free will jump at the chance! The problem is that there are so many people who see our industry as a fun and interesting thing to be involved in, and are therefor happy to give there time and services for free. On the most part we are grateful for it. These same people wouldn't necessarily offer their time for an evenings roadsweeping and litter picking.

 

The situation here is the same as providing sound and lights for a gig, how often have you been asked to provide some kit for a fee only to be told "my mates doing it for free". There is a certain inevitability that this will apply to backstage as if someone, who has the necessary skills and is willing to give his time for free, offers their services any house would be mad to turn him/her down.

 

I feel very sorry for the paid staff who are suffering because the unpaid staff are moving in on their territory, but if you made our jobs unpleasant and tedious this wouldn't happen.

 

The plus side to this is that "in theory" this should make everything more profitable.................

[Robin D]

The situation is not always clear cut. A few years ago now, I was a parent with a child on a youth theatre summer project in an area where we did not live. We stayed the fortnight in a caravan. I assisted with some of the set prep as I was 'around' and had several years of experience in schools and amateur theatre. As the end of project show approached it became clear that they were struggling with the available crew to do the show as it now stood (the budget had been based on a simpler set) so I and another Dad (with no prior experience!) volunteered and worked alongside the normal crew for 'love'. We did this for the kids, and indeed the crew who after working alongside for 10 days or so were now 'friends', but I'm sure there are some that would argue that we diddled local casual crew out of some money. I've never thought about it like that before, but suspect that the management would have tried to carry on with who they had as the project was already over budget with costumes and LA insistence on a higher level of chaperones. Was I wrong?

[johnlinford]

Well, I've been to some pretty epic weddings - the fact that the happy couple work in the industry so the marquee came from a friend, as did the lighting, sound, band for the reception etc etc etc all for free while theoretically costing people work is little different, but realistically unlikely to have actually cost anyone anything as it would have been much smaller scale otherwise.

 

The bloke who's doing lots of sound stuff for free because he enjoys it and means that small local shows aren't hiring my kit as much does actually affect my income in a noticeable way, and is a bit more galling...

 

With regards ushers, it's a pretty common practice - ours are paid with watching a show for free and an ice cream, and there are usually enough people willing to see a show for free that there's not a problem filling slots. Extending this to many other roles would seem a little odd, though arguably stage door duties could be volunteers; back stage work there are plenty of am dram types who would be happy to crew in a "professional" theatre - it all gets a bit complex...

[Gareth A]

Our ushers are all volunteer (company is fully professional otherwise) - we have a Theatre Supporters organization who provide all ushering staff. Mostly it's absolutely fine - they're very well organised and duties are clearly defined - they work in teams of five (chief usher, two ushers, programme seller and coffee bar staff) and usually the teams stay together for years! Some of them have been ushering for upwards of twenty years, so it can be slightly interesting when things change - they don't always like it - but generally it works very well. All the ushers go through refresher training every year, and while there are a few of them who drive me absolutely up the wall, we have very few problems. It saves us an absolute fortune, and as well as providing ushers, the Supporters fundraise for the benefit of the theatre and generally do all sorts of good works for us.

 

Should that be a reason to cut down peoples shifts? Yes it saves a fortune, but what about the people who had regular shifts and their income was based on it. .

 

Any accountant who can get a job done for free will jump at the chance! The problem is that there are so many people who see our industry as a fun and interesting thing to be involved in, and are therefor happy to give there time and services for free. On the most part we are grateful for it. These same people wouldn't necessarily offer their time for an evenings roadsweeping and litter picking.

 

The situation here is the same as providing sound and lights for a gig, how often have you been asked to provide some kit for a fee only to be told "my mates doing it for free". There is a certain inevitability that this will apply to backstage as if someone, who has the necessary skills and is willing to give his time for free, offers their services any house would be mad to turn him/her down.

 

I feel very sorry for the paid staff who are suffering because the unpaid staff are moving in on their territory, but if you made our jobs unpleasant and tedious this wouldn't happen.

 

The plus side to this is that "in theory" this should make everything more profitable.................

 

In theory - well I am pretty sure it does make everything more profitable. . . but . . . admittingly in this theatre industry, nothing is that clear cut

 

 

The situation is not always clear cut. A few years ago now, I was a parent with a child on a youth theatre summer project in an area where we did not live. We stayed the fortnight in a caravan. I assisted with some of the set prep as I was 'around' and had several years of experience in schools and amateur theatre. As the end of project show approached it became clear that they were struggling with the available crew to do the show as it now stood (the budget had been based on a simpler set) so I and another Dad (with no prior experience!) volunteered and worked alongside the normal crew for 'love'. We did this for the kids, and indeed the crew who after working alongside for 10 days or so were now 'friends', but I'm sure there are some that would argue that we diddled local casual crew out of some money. I've never thought about it like that before, but suspect that the management would have tried to carry on with who they had as the project was already over budget with costumes and LA insistence on a higher level of chaperones. Was I wrong?

 

Nope. I dont think your wrong at all. The difference is, would they have got casuals in or struggled through? That is something you will never know, but you probably actually made everyone's life easier, including those of your children, unless your a parent who shames them :unsure: But no. The difference is that according to the stage, the usherettes have had their shifts reduced because of the volunteers. Thats the difference. Thats active - your part was reactive to the situation.

 

 

I will say, I have nothing against volunteers at all. As I said in my original post, I have been to venues which are staffed by volunteers both FOH and backstage, and had a utterly pleasant experience. To the point, we blew their lamps in the house parcans, so I gave them my spares to replace them as they were a charitable trust with little money, so volunteers kept the venue running, while at the same time providing the man power to refurbish it.

 

I do believe volunteers have a place in theatre on all sides of the iron, however NOT at the expense of people loosing their paid shifts in the process. But as I said, this does not apply to venues where they are staffed on a skeleton paid staff and then volunteers filling it out. A lot of towns would have no theatre if it wasn't for this.

[richard]

I do believe volunteers have a place in theatre on all sides of the iron, however NOT at the expense of people loosing their paid shifts in the process. But as I said, this does not apply to venues where they are staffed on a skeleton paid staff and then volunteers filling it out. A lot of towns would have no theatre if it wasn't for this.

 

While I appreciate the sentiment, I don't think that what you say makes total sense - most theatres which use volunteers do so because it is the only way to make them work - which is probably what is happening here..

[karl]

My local theatre uses volunteer stewards and always has done. If they employed people to do the same thing they probably couldn't afford to operate.

 

So could the practice of using volunteers be rolled out into other areas such as technical?

 

Well, stewarding consists of:

 

• Checking tickets.
  
• Pointing people to their seats.
  
• Selling ice creams in the interval.
  
• Evacuating the building should the need arise.
  

A two hour training course, a couple of sessions shadowing an experienced steward and away you go.

 

Would you trust somebody with less than ten hours experience to operate your backstage functions alone?

 

Another point is that you have little control over volunteers. If they all have something else to do on a particular night tough you can't exactly make them come to work. Also, from my experience in the amateur world, you get a lot of people who think they want to be involved but once the novelty wears off and they realise the effort and commitment involved they soon disappear.

[Just Some Bloke]

I wonder if we'll see more of this sort of thing?

 

Take a loook at point 2 bullet point 1 on the following:

 

Cabinet Office 'building big society' pdf

[cfmonk]

Bigger venues who understand their legal obligations need properly paid and accountable staff

 

 

Interesting point Paul. Could you elaborate?

 

I would point you towards an organisation with whom I am heavily involved, St John Ambulance, is run and staffed almost completely by volunteers. The paid staff are there in support roles and are less accountable than our legions of volunteers. I would be interested to know how you have made the link between "paid" and "accountable"....

 

Chris

[melkin]

our venue utilises a base of 85 volunteer ushers and has done for almost 30 years. I think the reason why it worked so much is that they were actually volunteers of the arts council for the main purpose of ushering at the theatre which means they are all interested in theatre and have a passion for the arts (particularly the local arts). I thik if you can find that sort of base of volunteer (maybe through a friends group) it works really well.

 

We send out availability lists every month and they let us know when they are available etc and how many duties they want to do. We then sit down to "rota" them all to the performances. It is easy to be let down etc by a few but we can always find a replacement with such a large base.

 

They did used to get a voucher to use at the theatre for each shift they did however for tax reasons and such we obviously had to stop doing that but not one of them has been put off. They are all still as loyal as ever. We have had evacuations and they are all quite happy to do as they are trained for. (they get a briefing and training reminder for each shift).

If anyone has any ideas though as to how we could implement some sort of benefit (without it being taxable) please leave a reply!!

 

I think its important to find a balance. If you can find a willing base of volunteersto use in some functions that don't require a great deal of skill then brilliant but for jobs where there are inherent daily dangers and hazards and require skill the I thik its important to utilise the base of paid skilled staff who have often spent years gaining experience in the industry and/or qualifications etc.