ABSTRACT
Rushing from paid work in order to make a meeting of the school governing body, it would be easy to understand someone asking themselves ‘why do I do this?’ Could this role, performed in spare time, be seen as a leisure activity? The person who relaxes by singing in a choir is probably thought of as engaging in leisure and not as volunteering; but when the choir sings carols at Christmas in the local hospital, is that person now a volunteer? Being a room steward in a museum seems like it is a volunteer role. Is it leisure too? What if the person is doing it to gain experience for a future paid job? What if it is being done because the person is interested and enthusiastic about the museum collection, about which they too want to learn more? And because the steward’s role helps facilitate others to visit the museum, should we then call this leisure volunteering? You have helped restore a beautiful steam engine because of your passion for steam railways. Now your work will be on display to the public with visitors able to pay for a ride on the train along a section of restored track. Your group has asked you to help draw up rotas to tend the engine, but also to organise people to take the money and open the gift shop and the café; oh, and you need to check that the organisation has complied with health and safety, has the right insurance for volunteers and visitors and so on. Has your hobby extended to something beyond? Has your group of fellow enthusiasts mutated into a different form of volunteering? Are people who will volunteer in the café leisure volunteers too? And has the need to manage a variety of elements over and above your initial commitment pulled the rug from beneath the enjoyment you have thus far experienced? When is somebody volunteering in leisure and for leisure? Does this distinction imply that it is possible to volunteer in say, sport, but not be seeking a leisure experience? Or to be volunteering in a charity, but be doing it as a leisure activity?
