Each year I write for the Day in Archaeology the difference is usually the volunteer/in employment ratio balance adjusts.

This time I am the Festival of Archaeology Coordinator for the Council for British Archaeology in employment but still am volunteer chair of Rutland Local History and Record Society (RLHRS) , a Leicestershire YAC leader, and secretary of Hallaton fieldwork group.

All have had their challenges, new digital skills have been gained, especially moderating zoom webinars and learning the protocols, Ask an Archaeologist Day on twitter moderation moved at a breakneck speed as well. Liaising with people in Barcelona, Portugal, Southampton, York, Chester, Kent, South Wales to name a few. In fact I think I have I met more people in the first 2 months of working for the CBA in this role than I have in about 4 years, all via various online meeting platforms.

The volunteering side has been at a much more sedate pace, but still productive.

One real problem we had with RHLRS was a parish council objecting to us including our self guided village walk within our public engagement offering, as well as putting it on the CBA's Festival of Archaeology resource page. We have about 20 village walks with information and photographs that are readily available in the public domain which we produce as part of a village visit, they are such a wonderful resource. This was a huge disappointment as the heritage group in that particular the village had recieved substantial National Heritage Lottery money for a history of buildings project, which had a book and various talks and guides as an output. The parish council, who had benefitted from the lottery, did not want any visitors to the village, they felt it opened up the village to a criminal fraternity and also outsiders were not welcome. We did not put the village visit on our website, but made the point that the village had made national press as being "best places to live" so not a secret!

This was the only negative feedback we had, the response from around the world about the walks has been incredible, especially those who are looking up family history they use Google earth/maps to virtually "walk" around the place where their ancestors lived.

Hallaton Group were nearly all shielding, and as 100% of their output is in the field the communication was via email to check up on people and signpost digital resources.

YAC was the same, but we took part in University of Leicester Archaeology Services' fieldschool at Castle Hill and we also benefitted from a £200 grant through the CBA which will help us buy equipment for individuals as well as offer a free membership fee to those whose income reduced significantly during the pandemic. We have about 30 on our waiting list and it grows every month, even if we had the leaders to deliver to such a large group (40 members) we would have to split delivery over a weekend. We are hoping another group will start in the area so we can split the numbers.

The "in employment" and "volunteering" have a real similarity this year, the appetite for archaeology and heritage is there, it is growing and not passive, the Festival stats are going to be amazing and the number of people who want to join the voluntary groups is growing. I can't wait to see what happens before my next Day in Archaeology post 2022!