Transcript
Part 2: You will hear Megan Price giving new volunteers information about roles and events at Harbourline Aquarium.
Speaker: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Harbourline Aquarium. I’m Megan Price, and I look after volunteer training. Thanks for coming in, some of you are here because you enjoy marine life, and some because you want a practical weekend role. Either way is fine.
I’ll go through the main volunteer tasks, then I’ll mention our biggest events, what we look for in volunteers, and the training dates, finishing with our annual thank-you activity.
During normal opening hours, we place volunteers in the Entrance Hall. That’s where visitors arrive checking maps, asking where the toilets are, or whether there’s a lift. Your job is to keep things moving, direct people to the right area and stop a queue building up, especially when a coach group arrives.
Next are the feeding talks. These take place in different zones, seals, rays and the reef tank. Staff run the talk, but volunteers help before and after. You hand out information cards, and you remind people where the next talk will be. Some visitors assume they need a separate ticket for the talk, just to be clear, they don’t, so you can reduce questions at reception.
We also run school workshops on weekday mornings. You don’t need to teach science, but you do need to manage the group, keep children together, make sure nobody wanders off, and help them follow instructions, particularly around water and wet floors. It’s mainly supervision.
Another activity is our Touch Pool sessions, where visitors can gently touch certain animals, like starfish, under staff guidance. Volunteers support the staff by setting up the area and checking everything is ready, towels, water testing strips, and the simple signage. It sounds minor, but if one item is missing, the session gets delayed.
We also have an Adopt an Animal desk near the gift shop. This isn’t hard selling, but it is about encouraging visitors to support the aquarium’s conservation projects. People often ask where the money goes, so you’ll have a short script and a leaflet. It’s mostly answering questions and letting people decide.
Finally, there’s the online side. We post updates about talk times, new arrivals and behind-the-scenes images. Volunteers don’t need marketing qualifications, but we do need help choosing suitable photos and writing short, clear captions.
Right, events. We run three big ones each year, the Shark Sleepover, the Coastal Careers Day, and the Winter Lights Trail. They’re all busy, but the one needing the largest volunteer team is the Shark Sleepover. It runs overnight, there are several activity stations, and we need extra people for safety and group management.
What matters most for new volunteers isn’t expert knowledge, you can learn the basic facts. The key quality is reliability, turning up when you’ve said you will, and following procedures.
Now, training dates. The first induction session is in the week starting the sixth of May, sorry, that’s the staff training week. For volunteers, it’s the week starting the thirteenth of May. Induction is one evening, and then you choose a short shadow shift.
And finally, our thank-you event. Last year we did a restaurant meal, but this year we’re doing a behind-the-scenes tour after closing time, including areas the public never sees. We’ll send sign-up details once you’ve completed your first shift.
