July 10, 2020
South Burnett Regional Council has put a call out for volunteers to help at the region’s Visitor Information Centres.
The Council is seeking expressions of interest from “friendly, motivated and passionate community members”.
The volunteers will work on the day-to-day operations of the centres, speak to customers and help visitors on their holidays.
They will provide residents and visitors with details of key tourist attractions in the region, local history and information about Council’s facilities and local tourist venues.
Information about volunteering, including an “Expression of Interest Volunteer Form”, position description and volunteer brochure can be obtained by visiting any of the SBRC’s Customer Service Centres.
Jobs like this should be paid positions. While there may be many good people willing to do jobs like this for free, perhaps they don’t realise that the more people who step up and do just that means fewer positions for people who are unemployed. And with the unemployment rate rising that’s the last thing society needs.
Is council going to extend this request for volunteers so it includes gardeners, receptionist, cleaners, librarians etc. And why stop there. I’m sure there are many community-minded citizens who would be willing to take on jobs like working at the council pools and tips. Think of the ratepayer money that could be saved. And of course if there was a referendum that proposed councillors be unpaid volunteers, I’m sure people would vote for that proposal.
I’m pretty certain that whoever made this suggestion is working full-time in a well-paid position.
Perhaps I’m wrong. Maybe information centre positions have always been unpaid volunteers. Has that been the case? If so, then I still feel those jobs should be paid.
Visitor Information Centre workers have always been volunteers, partly because it helps Council make use of the enthusiasm of residents to promote their town and probably because volunteers allow Council to sidestep the difficult issue that promoting tourism is, in fact, promoting one kind of business over everyone else.