Volunteer

Do you have a passion for Billings history, architecture, fundraising, or museums in general?

The Moss Mansion is an historic house museum in the heart of Billings, Montana. This landmark home features original furnishings and fixtures throughout and is preserved in nearly its original form. It is a classroom, a meeting place, and a beautiful venue for public and private events. The Moss Mansion Museum is a wonderful place to explore a wide variety of interests.

Volunteers are crucial to the operation of the museum. A small part-time staff and an executive director organize the daily activity at the mansion with the help of dozens of volunteers from the community. Below are some of the ways you can become an important part of the preservation of this historic place.

Become a volunteer!

  • Ask our friendly Volunteer Coordinator to contact you about volunteering at the Moss Mansion.
  • Print out our Ten-Week Student Volunteer Application for high school students interested in front desk and tour guide work at the Moss Mansion during summer vacation. Visit with our Volunteer Coordinator to find out more!
  • Print out and submit our Billings Youth Volunteer Application for students grades 4 to 8. This program in partnership with Western Heritage Center.
  • Apply today and begin training for one of our important volunteer positions.

Docents and Site Historians

The Moss Mansion recruits volunteers to help share the history of the mansion and the Moss family to visitors of all ages and from around the world. Trained in the history of the family and the home, docents and hosts are a vital link between the history of the Moss Mansion and its visitors.

Docents lead one-hour guided tours through each room on three floors. Docents should be able to easily manage three flights of stairs and should be very comfortable giving presentations and answering questions. Docents are needed for scheduled daily tours and special group tours.

Site Historians welcome guests to the first or second floors for self-guided tours of the museum and are required to use several flights of stairs. Site Historians are expected to greet guests, direct them on an appropriate path through the rooms, and provide descriptions of the rooms and background of the family in a less structured environment than docents. They will be expected to monitor all guests on a particular floor during their three-hour shift.

School tour docents are trained specifically to lead groups of students on an educational tour of the museum. Educational programming is continually being developed and improved, and teachers bring approximately 1500 students for field trips each year.


Visitor Service Volunteers

Another vital link between the history of the Moss and its visitors are the visitor service volunteers. These volunteers greet visitors as they arrive, take admission fees, work in the gift shop, operate multiple digital devices, share the history of the artifacts displayed around the entrance while visitors wait for their tour, and assist in answering the phones. They may also be called upon to perform cleaning duties, opening and closing tasks, and to field a wide variety of questions about the museum, Billings, and the surrounding area.


Archives and Special Projects

Research and curation volunteers are needed to work with curatorial and education staff to delve into topics related to the Moss Mansion. Possible topics include former occupants of the home, objects in collections, archival material for preservation, and history of the property. Duties include filing, sorting, cleaning, data entry and various other research and information management tasks.


Behind-the-Scenes

Maintenance, facilities, and hospitality support volunteers are very important in the preservation and presentation of the mansion. They assist staff with set up and take down for a variety of events, ticket sales, serving, and entertainment at special fundraisers and public events, clean-up of the house and grounds, and weatherizing the home in various forms during certain seasons.


Garden Volunteers

Garden Volunteers help to maintain the lush gardens and grounds of the Moss Mansion. They work alongside the museum’s groundskeeper and other Master Gardener volunteers to ensure that the grounds are pristine in their appearance. Garden tasks are seasonal and are based on garden needs.