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Volunteering Policy

The National Folk Festival Volunteering Policy is in line with Volunteering Australia’s best practice volunteer management guidlines.

The Festival recognises the important part volunteers play in the Festival and in the wider community.

Policy Statement

The National Folk Festival is a not-for-profit Organisation whose mission is to preserve, nurture and promote folk culture as an essential element in Australian life. The NFF values:

  • diverse traditions;
  • a welcoming community;
  • tradition bearers and the passing on of tradition;
  • participation;
  • volunteering and the community it generates;
  • sustainability;
  • a safe environment;
  • respect for self and others; and
  • contemporary expression of tradition.

Volunteers support the National Folk Festival’s infrastructure, fulfilling the majority of roles required to run the Event every Easter. Without its Volunteers the National Folk Festival would not be able to operate.

Volunteers benefit the Festival and the broader community by giving patrons, at a reasonable price, access to Australia’s and other countries’ folk traditions, and ensuring that the folk tradition remains alive and is enriched by a diversity of cultures.

Volunteering Principles

The National Folk Festival supports the principles of volunteering:

  • volunteering benefits the community and the volunteer;
  • volunteer work is unpaid;
  • volunteering is always a matter of choice;
  • volunteering is a legitimate way in which citizens can participate in the activities of their community;
  • volunteering is a vehicle for individuals or groups to address human, environmental and social needs;
  • volunteering is not a substitute for paid work;
  • volunteers do not replace paid workers nor constitute a threat to the job security of paid workers;
  • volunteering respects the rights, dignity and culture of others; and
  • volunteering promotes human rights and equality.

Volunteer Rights

The National Folk Festival protects the rights of volunteers. We:

  • interview and assess volunteer staff in accordance with anti- discrimination and equal opportunity legislation;
  • provide volunteers with orientation and training;
  • provide volunteers with a healthy and safe workplace;
  • provide appropriate and adequate insurance coverage for volunteers;
  • do not place volunteers in roles that were previously held by paid staff or have been or should be identified as paid jobs;
  • differentiate between paid and unpaid roles;
  • define volunteer roles and are developing clear job descriptions;
  • provide appropriate levels of support and management for volunteers;
  • provide volunteers with access to policies pertaining to their work; and
  • will make every effort to limit the commitment of volunteers who provide services on a regular basis in one role to no more than 16 hours weekly, unless they offer additional time to the Organisation.
  • In deciding whether a role should be a paid role or filled by a volunteer, management will have regard to the criteria in Volunteering Australia’s Volunteer Roles Toolkit, the Organisation’s budget and appropriate risk management principles.