Volunteers keep the museum going. Without them, the society could not offer all the programs that are so important to our community. Volunteers can spend as much time as they like helping in the museum or library. A few examples of volunteer work are: answering phones, doing fundraisers, organizing archival collections and participating as tour guides. We are truly grateful to our volunteers for their help. The following are short job descriptions where volunteer support is needed.

Museum Hosts: The museum hosts work at the Seiberling Mansion greeting guests. They are responsible for giving a history overview of the Seiberling Mansion and Howard County to each guest who comes for a visit. This volunteer collects admission and also waits on customers in the gift shop. The skills that are needed for this position are as follows: must enjoy meeting and greeting the public, have a willingness to learn information about local history and be comfortable with handling money. HCHS can never have too many hosts because we are open six days a week. Volunteer shifts are any day Tuesday-Sunday from 1-4 p.m. Sandra Grant received a state tourism award for her work as a tour guide and host at the museum.

Tour Guides: Tour guides work on an as needed basis and give guided tours of the museum to groups of ten or more people. A guided tour usually lasts about one hour. Tour guides learn from shadowing other guides and are not required to give a tour until they feel comfortable with the information. A tour guide should enjoy meeting and spending time with people.

Museum Registrar: This is a seven to eight hour a week volunteer opportunity. This volunteer works directly with the curators. Once an artifact is accepted into the museum collection, the registrar will be responsible for assigning the artifact an object identification number and marking the number on the artifact. The registrar enters data about the artifact on the computer and creates an accession folder that includes all relevant information about the artifact. This person needs to be a detail oriented, independent and flexible person who is comfortable with computers and possess basic typing skills and neat handwriting. All other training will be provided.

Archival Assistant: This is a four to eight hour a week volunteer opportunity. As the archival assistant you will work directly with the curator of archives. The assistant will be entering on the computer additional historical information as it relates to archival collections such as photographs, documents and manuscript collections. This person needs to be detail oriented, flexible, comfortable with the computer, possess neat handwriting skills and have an eagerness to learn.