Front Desk Hosting
We are looking for volunteers to help host the front desk of our gallery. The front desk volunteer's main job is to meet and greet patrons who come in to look at our gallery spaces. Staff is always around in the office to assist the front desk host in any way they need, and all volunteers will receive a full training.
Days and times that are needed are: Tuesdays 1pm-4pm; Wednesdays 1pm-4pm; or filling in when there are openings other days.
Even taking just one of these shifts a month helps us out enormously!
Committee Members
It takes a lot of passionate people to run a place like the Ames Historical Society, and our small three person staff cannot do it all alone. We rely heavily on our volunteer committees to help us out. We are looking for community members who are interested in getting involved in some of our committees. We have many different committees including: Membership Committee (helping to increase and retain membership), Collections Committee (assisting with our physical collections), Hoggatt Committee (help us plan programs and events for our one room schoolhouse), Finance Committee (help us plan the budget), Development Committee (help us plan fundraising events and ideas to support the museum in the long term), Programs & Events Committee (an ad hoc committee that helps plan the year's programs and events).
Artifact Inventory
We are looking for volunteers to help us with a large inventory of all of our historic artifact collections. Volunteers will assist the Collections Manager in inventory, photo taking, organizing, and light paperwork. Volunteers will be fully trained on proper museum handling and procedures.
This is a fun and interesting opportunity for all ages, but would be great for individuals or students interested in museum work. Volunteers can work on this project anytime from 9am-5pm Tuesdays thru Saturdays.
Scanning
An important goal that we’re striving towards is the digital preservation of much of our collection. We is are looking for volunteers to assist us with this by scanning photos and resources. We have a few different scanning projects going at any given time. These projects are always changing, but usually include:
Scanning Ames city directories
Scanning Ames & Story County maps
Scanning Ames Tribune negatives
Scanning photograph donations in our collection
No experience necessary, but familiarity with a computer is a plus.
Help us preserve Ames history!
Volunteer opportunities are usually any time Tuesday-Saturday 10-4. Possible other arrangements can be made if those times do not work.
Historical Research
Assist us in doing some research! We are looking for volunteers to help us with a few different research projects. We have two longer-term ongoing projects and a couple projects that are more of an as-need basis.
Both of the ongoing projects will require volunteers to search through digital Ames newspapers to find either information about Main Street businesses or look for specific articles to match newspaper photos we have in the collections
The as needed projects included assisting us with exhibit research and other miscellaneous research that often comes up.
No prior experience necessary, we will show you how to do everything.
Volunteer opportunities are usually any time Tuesday-Saturday 10-4. Possible other arrangements can be made if those times do not work.
Transcribing
We have a couple different transcribing projects we are currently working on. One is transcribing an older Ames history book that is out of print. The other is transcribing an 1893 Ames census.
No prior experience necessary and this project will involve a lot of typing.
Volunteer opportunities are usually any time Tuesday-Saturday 10-4. Possible other arrangements can be made if those times do not work.
Cataloging & data entry
We are looking for assistance entering artifact data into our collections management software program. The process will consist of transcribing information from hand written forms into the appropriate fields in our program.
This project will require some knowledge of computers and some typing skill. Great way to practice both.
No prior experience necessary, we will train you on everything you need to know.
Volunteer opportunities are usually any time Tuesday-Saturday 10-4. Possible other arrangements can be made if those times do not work.
Exhibition Assistance
We are looking for people to help us with exhibit installation as needed. Usually duties consist of helping us with painting, light construction, and cleaning.
Our next exhibit will be going up soon so if you could help us out we would love to hear from you.
No prior experience necessary.
Volunteer opportunities are usually any time Tuesday-Saturday 10-4. Possible other arrangements can be made if those times do not work.