We always welcome new volunteers to help us provide this valuable service to our listeners. It is not an arduous commitment as we run a rota of volunteers with each undertaking a shift of 2 to 3 hours every 6 to 8 weeks. We would also welcome anyone who is willing to commit more time in one of the committee or more operational roles.
Apart from editing, all the other tasks happen on a Thursday, which is our ‘production’ day.
There are lots of different roles – here are some examples of things you could do. Volunteers can undertake more than one role. If you’re interested in joining us, please contact us.
Editor
You will select news stories from local newspapers during the week you are on duty, and paste them onto separate sheets of paper. This will form the script for the next edition. These should be a true representation of the week’s local news coverage. We normally record 40 articles, which means about 6 – 7 articles from each of the 6 newspaper editions in a week. An editor will usually only be on the rota for one week in eight.
Unpack and Sort
Each week the USB sticks, in zipped pouches, are returned by the Royal Mail in sacks. These pouches need to be emptied of the USB sticks, for them to be reused, and sorted with correct address labels ready for the next edition. Two volunteers will normally do this job on Thursday mornings.
Reader
Once the Editor has selected the stories, the reader’s role is now quite simply to read the articles. This may sound easy but variety is the spice of life, and different voices and accents make things interesting for the listeners. The quality of reading is one of our highest priorities – you will enjoy bringing the article to life. You will usually be given a voice test, but this is not scary as we are very relaxed.
We have a great bunch of readers, and there are breaks during the recordings for a good chat, so it’s a very sociable activity.
We do record a number of editions online. This was introduced during the Covid lockdowns, but has continued for a number of our readers who cannot come in to the studio. So this is another option.
Technician/Engineer
This role is responsible for the quality of the audio recording, editing out mistakes, ensuring no background noise, and getting the sound levels correct. You’ll record each edition onto master copies for duplication for the listeners. You do not need to be a sound or audio engineer as full training will be given.
It sounds much more complicated than it is. We have detailed notes to help, and only everyday computer skills are needed. The majority of the recordings are in our studio, but we do record some online with remote readers, and that is a little more technical.
Copy and Pack
After the master recording has been completed, using state of the art digital copying equipment, you’ll copy, check the process has been completed and put the finished product into the zipped pouches ready for posting.
Administrator
It’ll be your job to keep records of listeners and monitor recordings sent out and returned.
There are three main roles here:
1. Listener coordinator – to add new referrals to our database, and remove those leaving, and to update the postal address labels to match.
2. Volunteer coordinator – to keep the volunteer contact information up to date and provide updates and information to them.
3. Rota coordinator – to create and distribute the rotas for the various roles and shifts, covering a period of 2 months at a time.