Museum Floor Ambassador

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BECOMING A VOLUNTEER

• The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a fully vaccinated workplace. All volunteers are required to be fully vaccinated for Covid-19 and provide proof of vaccination unless an exemption is granted as an accommodation.
• The minimum age to volunteer is 16.
• Fingerprinting and/or background check is required for all volunteers.
• Volunteers can only volunteer a maximum of 20 hours per week.

To apply to volunteer go to this webpage and click 'Fill out an application' in the top right corner: https://app.betterimpact.com/PublicOrganization/c4ba17aa-d53c-42ba-8eeb-7247b94e9429/2
Make sure to remember the username and password for Better Impact that you create when you apply. All museum volunteers use their Better Impact account to sign up for volunteer activities and record their volunteer hours.

Summary: The goal of the volunteer's role is to enhance and improve all Museum visitors’ experience. Volunteers will help visitors navigate the museum, help facilitate family-friendly activities, help with wayfinding, greet visitors, and help to shorten lines by scanning tickets when the Museum is busy.

Volunteers can volunteer every day the Museum is open to the public Tuesday- Sunday 10am-5pm. We especially need volunteers help during weekends, and breaks such as Winter break and Spring break, when the Museum welcomes many more visitors through its doors.

Responsibilities:

• Engage with families in a proactive way by welcoming them into the Museum and sharing what's happening today.
• Introduce an activity table such as the leaf rubbing cart and encouraging kids or adults to join.
• Offer wayfinding and problem solving
• Represent the Museum in a professional and friendly way at all times.
• Familiarize yourself with the Museum’s schedule of daily animal shows and other fun family friendly things to do to help answer visitors' questions.
• Volunteers can help with any of the below to enhance Museum visitors’ experience:
  • Wayfinding- Focused in a major intersection of the Museum to encourage attendance to live animal shows, direct visitors to restrooms, Discovery Center, offerings, and live animals living outdoors.
  • Floor Activity Facilitator - lead a fun activity with visitors.
  • Museum Greeter -greeting visitors upon arrival and helping them feel welcome. Sharing information about fun activities and help to orient them as they arrive and answer questions.
  • Ticket Scanner- Use iPods to scan visitors' tickets and verify documents qualifying visitors for discounts, shorten the admission line on busy days.

Volunteer opportunity times:

• Volunteer shifts are typically 2-4 hours long. We require all of our volunteers to use the Museum’ volunteer database system called Better Impact, to sign up for shifts and record their hours. Volunteers can sign up and log hours on the "My Impact’ phone app, the Museum iPad, or on their personal computers.
• We allow flexible scheduling for our volunteers, meaning you can sign up for dates you are able to volunteer and then not sign up on weeks and dates you are not available.

Requirements:

• A professional, friendly personality to engage Museum guests and help them have a great visit to the Museum.
• Enjoys working with children. While we don't require specific experience working with children all volunteers must be comfortable and enjoy working with children since a large part of the Museum's audience is school groups (grade school PreK-5) and families with young children.

• Communication:

Communication and comfort starting conversations and engaging with visitors is a must.

Able to engage in clear, concise and effective communication to varied audiences; able to empathize with others’ needs and respond sensitively; able to use good judgment when responding to objections successfully.

Exhibit enthusiasm for museum by providing a welcoming presence.

• Initiative:

Able to adapt old methods for new uses or seek continuous improvement in procedures.

• Professionalism:

Able to remain calm and professional through stressful or ambiguous circumstances; able to objectively and calmly interpret information and solve problems.

• Teamwork:

Able to show team spirit and treat team members with cooperation and respect; able to share useful information with team members; able to support and comply with decisions.

Physical Volunteering Conditions:

• Most activities can be done from a wheelchair or seated instead of standing to accommodate volunteers with differing abilities.