Volunteers in Gardens and Arboreta


We were pleased to welcome more than 90 people to this timely conference in the European Year of Volunteering 2011 – volunteers and Friends as well as volunteer managers, co-ordinators and consultants. Speakers from gardens and heritage and volunteer organisations stimulated much discussion. There were talks from gardens and arboreta on developing a volunteer strategy, attracting and retaining a diverse range of volunteers, developing professional gardeners from a volunteer scheme, managing change through volunteers, volunteers giving guided tours, working with students, employer-supported volunteering, and more.

Consultants gave much useful advice and information on volunteers and the law, the Volunteer Rights Enquiry and Charter for Strengthening Relations between Paid Staff and Volunteers, volunteer programmes and policy and monitoring and evaluating a volunteer programme. The importance of having a clear strategy, policy and programme for volunteers, with proper management and training for both volunteers and paid staff was stressed.

On a visit to Westonbirt National Arboretum, we heard about some of the help given by their many volunteers and discussed management, training and diversity of volunteers. Our thanks to Cheryl Pearson and Hugh Angus at Westonbirt for help in organising the conference.

Working in partnership with garden staff, volunteers can bring enthusiasm, unexpected skills and different perspectives. To quote Amanda Le Poer Trench (Volunteer Co-ordinator at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew): ‘Our volunteers are priceless’.


Warning: Undefined variable $sAttachmentString in /home/plantnetwork/www/www/wordpress/wp-content/themes/plantnetwork/blocks/block-attachment-icons.php on line 75