Building Guide

What’s involved?

Building guides help visitors to enjoy and learn more the Control Tower and play a central role in helping to ensure that visits are an educational and inspiring experience.

Building guides also help to protect the health and safety of visitors, and play a part in safeguarding the property and its collection.

This role will suit you if you are

• Full of enthusiasm and hoping to inspire visitors of all ages
• Someone who loves being around people
• Interested in one or more of the four themes around which the Control Tower project is focused:
  • nature conservation and wildlife;
  • the military and Cold War history of the Common;
  • the social history of the Common; and
  • the role of protest in society.

You don’t need to be an expert in any of these topics before you start, we will provide background information and briefing materials and will help you to tell the story of the Control Tower and its setting in your own way.

By getting involved you could

• Get to know the Control Tower by heart and learn its secrets
• Welcome and inspire visitors from all over the world
• Be part of a varied and enthusiastic team and make new friends
• Spend time in a unique building, packed with history, in a stunning location on Greenham Common.

Main Tasks

• Providing a friendly and informed welcome to all visitors
• Helping visitors to discover more about the control tower and its historical collections and displays by providing guided tours of the building, giving short talks, answering questions and selling guide books and pamphlets
• Helping to ensure security procedures are followed to help prevent theft and damage
• Getting to know health and safety and procedures including evacuation procedures and incident/accident reporting
• Being aware of provisions for visitors with disabilities or reduced mobility
• Attending training and workshop sessions relevant to the building guide role
• Learning and sharing ideas with other volunteers, particularly other building guides
• Developing your knowledge of the history and role of the control tower, the former air base and of Greenham Common as a whole
• There might occasionally be some other activities that are of interest to you with which you might like to assist

Volunteer registration form

Research & Museum Assistant

What’s involved?

The Control Tower project aims to educate, inform and entertain visitors regarding four main themes:

• nature conservation and wildlife;
• the military and Cold War history of the Common;
• the social history of the Common; and
• the role of protest in society.

Volunteer research and museum assistants will extend our existing knowledge in each of these areas by researching existing sources and writing articles for publication on our website and in media such as leaflets, guidebooks, news media (for which we will need short and interesting pieces to help promote the control tower). They will also assist with curating displays and exhibitions, when possible under the supervision of a professional museum curator.

This role will suit you if you are

• Interested in learning more about one of the four themes.
• Good at finding and validating primary sources and writing clear, concise and well written pieces about them.
• Happy to talk to and correspond with people – such as former employees at the Greenham Common Base and men and women who served there, former Peace Women, Ugandan Asians who were housed there after they were expelled from Uganda – who can add to our knowledge and understanding

By getting involved you could

• Help to educate and inform visitors to the Control Tower from the local area, other parts of the UK and internationally.
• Play a key role in developing and extending the scope of the Greenham Control Tower collection and helping it to achieve registered museum status.
• Help to develop our ‘virtual’ museum presence online, via articles on our website.

Main Tasks

• Developing an understanding of what is already known about the Control Tower, the former airbase and Greenham Common generally in relation to one or more of the four themes that interest you.
• Identifying printed, photographic and other material that is relevant to the Control Tower and which could be used in museum displays, videos or other interpretation material. Receiving these materials according to ethical, copyright and collections policies and cataloguing them in keeping with these policies.
• Writing articles which can be read on the website and promoted in other ways.
• Helping to assemble new exhibitions and displays.

Volunteer registration form

Cafe Team Member

What’s involved?

Working with a team of volunteers to run the cafe on daily basis and playing a key part in its continuing development.

This role will suit you if

• You like working with customers and have a friendly, positive outlook
• You enjoy practical work
• You like being involved with catering and preparing and serving food

By getting involved you could

• Make an important contribution to the success of this developing community asset
• Make new friends
• Add another job to your CV

Main tasks

• Greeting customers and taking orders
• Preparing simple snacks and food items
• Serving food and drinks
• Helping to keep the cafe and kitchens clean throughout the day
• Learning to operate the till
• Contributing ideas for the development of the cafe

Volunteer registration form

Fundraiser and Event Organiser

What’s involved?

This volunteer role combines helping to organise fundraising and promotional events at the Control Tower (these could include summer fetes, lectures and parties), helping to identify and develop new ideas for fundraising and writing applications to grant awarding bodies.

Help deliver a variety of events at Greenham Control Tower and the Common area. From preparation and setting up to running activities on the day, it’s all about offering our visitors fun and memorable experiences.

This role will suit you if

• You like organising events and enjoy both the creative and project management aspects of doing so.
• You like to work as part of a creative team to develop new ideas for fundraising.
• You like writing well-presented and persuasive cases for additional funds which are tailored to the specific remit of each grant awarding body.

By getting involved you could

• Become part of a friendly and dedicated team
• Meet people from all walks of life and make new friends
• Enjoy different experiences and learn something new
• Gain experience in planning and running public events

Main tasks

• Working with a team of volunteers and others to develop a programme of fundraising events.
• Working out the logistics of each event (who needs to do what, when and so on), scheduling and allocating tasks and then making them happen.
• Helping with on-the-day delivery of events.
• Writing funding applications.

Volunteer registration form

Grounds and Handy Person

What’s involved

Helping to maintain the Control Tower and its grounds in a good condition.

This role will suit you if

• You have knowledge or experience of trade or building work: painting, joinery and carpentry for example or if you have basic DIY or gardening skills
• You are prepared to undertake health and safety awareness training.
• You are fit and active.
• You want to share skills for the benefit of others
• Reliability and trustworthiness

By getting involved you could

• Make a valuable contribution to keeping the Control Tower and its grounds in the best possible condition.
• Work with a friendly team of like minded people.

Main tasks

These could include some or all of the following.

• Basic decorating
• Small repairs
• Clearing gutters and downpipes
• Carpentry
• Cleaning the grounds, building and windows
• Litter picking
• Simple everyday DIY tasks (like changing light bulbs, fixing a leaky tap)

Volunteer registration form

Publicity and Media

What’s involved?

It is vital that the tower speaks with one (public) voice to ensure consistency of information. The role involves being part of this public face while ensuring that the tower is publicised in the right way to attract visitors.

This role will suit you if

• You have knowledge or experience of publicity and advertising
• Experience of dealing with media (tv, radio or print)
• Experience with social media
• You want to share skills for the benefit of others
• Reliability and trustworthiness

They will also need to work within our media policy, and be willing to follow our other policies, including health and safety, equal opportunities, confidentiality and financial guidelines.

By getting involved you could

• Develop your existing media and public relations skills.
• Work with a small, friendly team to help make the Control Tower Project a success.
• Develop your contacts with local, regional and national media.
• Enhance your CV.

Main tasks

• Writing compelling press releases in collaboration with the Greenham Control Tower Ltd director responsible for media and public relations.
• Drafting short articles for publication on our website and Facebook pages and submission to local and national media.
• Writing Facebook and Twitter posts and adding material to our Instagram and other social media accounts. (Note that in line with our media policy all published material will need to be approved at director level.)
• Interviewing people who have a current or historical connection with the Control Tower to produce material for use in articles, social media posts and, potentially, podcasts and online videos.
• Contributing to our developing marketing, publicity and public relations strategy by identifying new target groups, promotional channels and key messages

Volunteer registration form