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Volunteer coordinator: Caroline Birnie

This Case Study belongs to Volunteer work organiser.

Caroline is the volunteer coordinator for the Manchester International Festival, working in the arts and charitable sector. Caroline has a Masters in education training and development.

My job is to manage the volunteer programme for Manchester International Festival, which comprises the recruitment, training and management of around 300 volunteers. I give presentations to and liaise with Festival sponsors to encourage their staff to take part as volunteers. I work with community groups, universities and colleges, the public and private sectors to recruit volunteers and raise the profile of the festival volunteer programme. My role also involves budget management, and line management of an assistant.

I like meeting people from a diverse range of backgrounds, with amazing skills and life stories to tell, and fabulous experience to offer the festival. I thoroughly enjoy creating and managing the process, including decision-making and strategising, as well as managing and training people too. I particularly love that I am completely responsible for something which represents not only the Festival, but Manchester and, if done right, will enable many people to have a fantastic experience they will not forget. There is a lot of gushing in this, but I do really love my job, it’s quite pathetic!

What I like least about my job is that it is hugely administrative, which can be tedious, but I think I do enjoy it secretly as it helps me to feel in control, and helps me to learn the names and according roles of all of our volunteers.

In the future I want to continue to work in an event-related volunteer management position, but my next step will either involve a larger volunteer army to source and look after, or managing volunteer coordinators. I also plan to go to Canada to work in this industry or, if that does not happen, I want to explore a volunteer team leader role at the Winter Olympics.

Case Study sourced by Andrea Rannard of AGCAS, 08 June 2009.