How to get younger people interested in volunteering on Railways

"list all those non-white railway volunteers you're aware of.."

 

Were these people volunteers?

 

Thanks, I did not know what the current set up was. So a bit premature for the HRA to set up a recruiting desk in KK?

 

Having spent 30 years managing railway volunteers, I've reached the conclusion that the secret of attracting and retaining volunteers, young or old and irrespective of ethnicity, is personal relationships. I find that most people volunteer either with friends or because they have one or more friends already volunteering here. Those who arrive as individuals usually develop friendships with existing volunteers, but if they do not they seldom last long. Another point is that, if two friends have come to the railway together and one later leaves, for whatever reason, the other one is likely to follow and no amount of persuasion will prevent this happening.

Attracting young volunteers involves particular difficulties; there is no doubt that youngsters now are less keen on physical work than were previous generations and are increasingly brought-up in a clinical world where dirt and grease are regarded as a Bad Thing. There is another issue which seems to affect heritage railways in particular and which people are rather shy of talking about- it has to be said that a proportion of young people who offer themselves as volunteers on railways or are encouraged to do so by others, have certain problems; to put it bluntly, they are not the full ticket! Of course, working as a volunteer on a railway can have major benefits to such people, but unfortunately they require a high level of management and impose certain risks that most railways simply cannot handle.

 

Using NatPres as a baseline, this isn't an issue limited to younger volunteers…

;-)

Simon

 

Glad someone mentioned it! I do wonder whether some folk are reluctant to accept any young people because of this. I know some people were reticent about people my age joining before I did, but they soon worked out I was a fairly sensible and bright chap.

 

Age is no barrrier to doing something stupid, i have known 16 year olds, who i knew would work with minimal supervision and 60 year olds that to be honest could not even get the making the tea right from my experience i soon found myself forgetting a young persons age, if they proved to be able to do what was expected of them, on the footplate a keen 18 yo was easier to teach than a older guy, who was just not physically up to it, but would not listen to what they were being told.

 

Surely the question should be why don't we have many volunteers from certain groups?

 

Very true Martin, however I do think there is an unfortunate "image" associated with young people interested in railways that doesn't apply to older generations as much.

 

the only problem i encountered was when the older teenagers were on Thomas duty, some were like Zombies, to many distractions , and when we has a member s teenage daughter join us, some very stiff words were needed along the lines of her dad will feed you bit by bit into that engines firebox if you have any idea about chatting her up

 

One could argue that the minds of youngsters are more malleable and pick up on new things faster than compared to older folk. Hence, it's important that bad influences are removed early.

 

most the ones i worked with we level headed ok some needed a "reminder" occasionally but by and large were a credit to themselves, in the mess room theey were not exactlty adverse to joining in the banter either , but i think that was largely because they were treated as adults and not children by the majority of us, and the few who did, , we often would get our charges saying we're not kids dont treat us like kids.

 

Indeed.
Speaking as a member of the 'younger people' club referenced in the thread title (though maybe at the upper end depending on definition), here's two slightly different examples of people thinking that as they are older they know best. Encounters with said people have made me question why I bother at times.
The first individual has been a volunteer for a number of years but has no real authority. He likes to play being in charge and reacts poorly if younger people challenge him.
The second individual has been only been a volunteer for a couple of years but has been given responsibility for which he lacks experience and has an attitude probably left over from his previous work (non-railway). There have been a number of occasions when his lack of experience has shown him up and has become very defensive if differing viewpoints are offered.

 

I have and as recently as the Spring Bank Holiday on the KWVR. We also had a young volunteer of black Costa Rican heritage working on our project. Mad keen on railways both old and new but he's taken up athletics now to the detriment of his volunteering.

 

I think this is the most pertinent point I have read on the thread. Although the days of being a youngster have long gone after my initial burst of enthusiasm I would have not carried on volunteering if the social element had not been there and mixing with others of the same age of both sexes. I used to refer to it as Apres Trains, and it was meeting in the evening and doing various things as a group, often not railway oriented, even if it was just meeting at the railways adopted pub. Whilst we were happy to chat and mix with elder age groups we wanted to be chatting about music, current affairs, TV etc and some of the other groups were very railway orientated and all they talked about was trains. That was of little interest to us and to be honest discussing finer points of the London underground workings in 1930's or pro's and cons of different valve gear just did not interest us.

On the railway where I volunteered, there still appear to be a fair few youngsters and plenty of chatting up appears to still be going on. The big difference is that my generation as students did not have to look forward to student loans, we had decent grants and could get benefits during the summer holidays once we went to university. We could therefore happily spend much more time volunteering rather than being forced to get a job to pay off our debts.

 

That's a very good point. Except, perhaps, for the retired, everyone seems to be under more financial pressure than in the past and this is particularly true of young people.