In response to Katherine Jarrett of the Royal Society...
Going by the tasks undertaken by exhibition volunteers, it is clear that they provide the Royal Society with a tangible economic benefit, and can thus be regarded as casual staff. This is so even if the Royal Society provides volunteers with opportunities to gain experience and develop marketable skills. The same can be said about any job, at any level from cleaner to chief executive.
Given that the exhibition is the only Royal Society activity which involves the use of volunteers, this reinforces the argument that to pay them a living wage for the limited duration of their appointment would impose a relatively minor financial burden on the society.
Francis
On 23 Apr 13, at 19:55, "Tham, Camilla" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Posted on behalf of Katherine Jarrett, Head of Science Communication at the Royal Society.
>
> Thank you for your comments. We hold the Summer Science Exhibition once a year for a seven day period and the volunteer opportunities we offer are for this week only.
>
> The Royal Society has offered volunteering opportunities for the Summer Science Exhibition for the last 4 years, but we would like to be clear that whilst the additional capacity is welcome it is not essential to the delivery of the Exhibition. It is offered as an opportunity for the volunteers to get involved in an exciting week. We have a number of people volunteering to help us throughout the year but this is the only time we are able to offer the opportunity. The volunteers are not temporary or casual staff or interns, we do not hold them to producing work and if they need to drop out it does not affect the running of the Exhibition.
>
> Volunteering is a highly valued activity in the UK and here at the Royal Society. That is why we try to make this experience as useful to the volunteers as possible and aim to place them in roles that satisfy their desires. The Exhibition is a busy event but it is also very enjoyable and rewarding to work on and we hope our volunteers will enjoy their time with us as much as those who have volunteered with us in the past.
>
> We ensure that all volunteers are aware of health & safety regulations and fire procedures. We also accept liability for all volunteers through an adequate insurance policy. We have a written Volunteer Policy that states what the Royal Society requires of the volunteers and also what the volunteers should expect from the Society.
>
> On the separate issue of internships the Royal Society does believe in treating people fairly and that is why we now have a paid internship scheme as previously highlighted on psci-com.
--
Dr Francis Sedgemore
journalist, writer and physicist
telephone: +44 7840 191336
website: sedgemore.com
**********************************************************************
Commands - send an email (any subject) to [log in to unmask] with one of the following messages (ignoring text in brackets)
• set psci-com nomail (to stop receiving messages while on holiday)
• set psci-com mail (to resume getting messages)
• signoff psci-com (to leave the list)
• Subscribe here https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=psci-com
Contact list owner at [log in to unmask]
Small print and JISCMail acceptable use policy https://sites.google.com/site/pscicomjiscmail/the-small-print
**********************************************************************
|