Volunteers have a huge sense of pride associated with their volunteering and involvement with the National Trust. 94 per cent would recommend volunteering with the Trust and many would like to contribute more.

© Sean Malyon

However, there are five key areas where further improvements can still be made to the volunteering experience: communication; support and management; induction and training; utilisation of skills and the breadth of the Trust’s appeal.

These were the key findings of three conferences held for National Trust Volunteers and members of Supporter Groups at the end of 2008.

Kath Oakley – Sheffield delegate; Working Holiday Leader and volunteer at several East Midlands properties.

Detailed within the final report are actions to be taken to build on what the Trust does well and to make improvements where they are needed. The Trust is keen to involve volunteers in this work whenever possible so do get in touch if you’d like to get involved.

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A copy of the final report can be found here as can a range of additional documentation:

• Final report
• Questions and answers - this document details all the questions submitted for the panel session at the end of each event along with answers to every question.
• Postcards - you may remember completing a postcard during the conference. We had planned to mail this back to you but, due to concerns expressed about the financial implications of this approach, we have typed out your responses instead.
• Agenda - a combined agenda reflecting each of the three days.
• Evaluation forms - a summary of the evaluation forms completed by volunteers and members of staff.
• PM workshop -a summary of findings from the afternoon workshop considering your volunteering experience with the Trust.