"So, why do you want to volunteer here?"
I'd expected this question. I spoke about the impromptu tour I'd recently given and how it had rekindled the joy I have in sharing what I love about the place with other people. I explained at length about my fourteen years of employment with this particular organisation, the last seven of which were spent living and working in the house and how much I'd loved it.
"What do you think volunteering in the house will entail?"
Was this a trick question? Maybe things had changed more in the time I'd been away than I had previously imagined. Perhaps volunteers no longer performed the same tasks as they had in my day, meeting and greeting visitors and providing information as required. Maybe they stage fully costumed historical re-enactments, complete with realistic battle scenes now or illustrate complicated timelines through the medium of dance. This could be possible, they may have successfully bid for an arts grant. In the end I decided to go with what I know.
I outlined the role of the house volunteer as I have always understood it and, unsurprisingly, this was entirely what the role entailed.
There were further questions (what's my favourite part of the house? If I could go back to any time in history where would I go and why?) and then I was asked to pick a time to come and do the first of my three "shadow sessions".
"Shadow session?"
"Yes, you shadow another volunteer for three sessions to learn all about the house, and then if everything goes ok we finalise the paperwork and make you official."
"You did hear me mention that I actually lived in the house, that one right there, for seven years, right?"
"Oh yes!"
"And that the reason I filled in the application form was that I was here, just a couple of weeks ago, giving a tour. A tour about the house. Because I know a lot about the house."
"Yes."
"But I still need to do three shadow sessions. To learn about the house."
"Yes."
"Ok."
"Any questions for me?"
"Do I seriously have to do three shadow sessions to learn about the house?"
"Yes."
"Ok. Where do the volunteers have their breaks now? I can't help noticing this office is in what used to be their room."
"Oh, we've made them a new room, at the end of the cattle sheds in the courtyard."
"The bit next to the toilets?"
"Yes."
I was surprised there hadn't been some sort of uprising. When I'd moved the volunteers from my office into their own purpose-built break room they been upset enough. I couldn't think moving them into the sheds would be well received. I supposed I'd find out soon enough.
"Well, I can't wait to begin! Let's get a date in the diary so I can start learning all about the house."
