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• Anyone can apply to be a Long Term Volunteer, but we are usually looking for people who have certain skills and experience to offer.
  
  
• All Long Term Volunteers are invited to come for a 'trial week' here before they can be accepted for a longer stay. Bring a flashlight (don't forget batteries!), sleeping bag and sturdy clothes and rain gear! You will be fed and housed for the week.
  
  
• Long Term Volunteers usually stay for a period of six months.
  
  
• All departments at BOI will take on Long Term Volunteers. There are Long Term Volunteers in Forestry, Engineering, Gardening, Building, Renewable Energy, Information and in Publications, Media and Publicity/Site Management, and many other fields (see our partial list here ... ). A Long Term Volunteer usually works within a specific department, but some flexibility is expected. Volunteering at the Bay of Islands Center is definitively a multi-disciplinary experience. Everybody is expected to take turns on various housekeeping tasks - mostly cleaning!
  
  
• Our working time is task (and weather) driven! We all have to be flexible about when we work as the Centre is in its formative stage and much activity is determined by the seasons, the weather and other deadlines.
  
  
• Accommodation is available on-site for up to 5 Long Term Volunteers. BOI provides free food, heating and accommodation, but no money, for these residential Long Term Volunteers.
  
  
• Site residents take turns to prepare meals and perform other kitchen duties, and on-site Long Term Volunteers are required to be part of this rotation.
  
  
• On-site Long Term Volunteers are sometimes asked to 'host' participants in our 'Short Term Volunteer Programme' (which runs during Spring, Summer and Fall each year).
  
  
• If there is no space on-site then Long Term Volunteers need to find accommodation locally. They need to be entirely self-funding. BOI provides a free lunch and hot drinks on each working day for off-site Long Term Volunteers. It is not usually too hard to find local short term accommodation - we can usually help point you in the right directions.
  
  
• All Long Term Volunteers are welcome to attend BOI courses for free during their stay, as long as a course is not over-subscribed (subject to permission of Gail Martin, Courses Co-ordinator). Where spaces are limited priority is given to Long Term Volunteers working in a department that is relevant to a particular course.
  
  
• See below for a list of departments and a Long Term Volunteer's possible role in each department.

A brief outline of Departments and an Long Term Volunteers role in each department:

Building: building maintenance as required on the site as well as involvement in any new building projects which may be ongoing.
Contact name: Jurgen Teuwen

Culture: helping with regular events at BOI, such as musical performances, studio recornings, transcription of oral storytelling. Helping with theater productions (props, costumes, stage design, directing, coaching, acting).
Contact name: Gail Martin

Engineering: engineering maintenance as required on the site as well as involvement in any new engineering projects which may be ongoing.
Contact name: Jurgen Teuwen

Forestry: restoration and remediation, selective thinning, selection cutting, road building. Firewood gathering, trail building and maintenance.
Contact name: Jurgen Teuwen

Gardening: organic gardening and landscaping on both the site's display and 'real' gardens, growing food for the restaurant and staff lunches.
Contact name: Patricia Moser

Information: Office based, helping answer the hundreds of written, telephoned and emailed enquiries about the technologies we display. An opportunity to learn about the different technologies.
Contact name: Gail Martin & Jurgen Teuwen

Media: Press relations, publicity and marketing. Helping the department with media campaigns and putting together the quarterly magazine.
Contact name: Gail Martin

Publicaions: BOI produces a unique range of books and information sheets. You would help with the research, desk top publishing and editing.
Contact name: Gail Martin

Site Management: involvement with all the day to day concerns of running our unique centre including maintenance of the site, displays, and various equipment and machinery.
Contact name: Jurgen Teuwen

Fill out the registration form to get things underway now.