If I were to consider becoming a volunteer, would I have to commit to certain amounts of time?
The team has agreed a Volunteer Charter. Top of the list of items is that you work on your own terms choosing the extent and duration of your volunteering and how much regular time you commit. All the other terms have been agreed by the whole team and apply equally to everybody.
Do you have any vacancies?
We are looking for new volunteers to complete our team, in all areas of our work. This includes content-creation and editing, administration and accounts, production, co-ordination and distribution management. With a bigger team, we will be able to deliver on our plans:
Get the community writing. We would like a substantial proportion of our content to be written by ‘ordinary’ people in the community. In reality, nobody is ordinary, but most have a story to tell or a voice that needs to be heard. We need more people who can write to a very high standard and follow our style guide for consistency. Our ideal recruits would be able to help community authors who have less developed writing skills to get their content ready for the page.
Become a multi-media communications hub. The print edition is the anchor for everything we do. In the future, we would like to use it as a gateway, signposting the way to a safe and convenient online hub that protects local people from unsuitable, irrelevant and dangerous content. We might also include video. Why stop there?
Live events? We need people with tech knowledge who have vision as well as knowledge. Online editors, creators and content producers will be needed too.
Provide excellent work placement opportunities. People hit career dead-ends for many reasons – time off raising a family or staying at home being a carer, loss of confidence or illness. Some young people need work experience before they can even think about a career. Wendover News will fulfil a valuable role in connecting people to the world of work, or maybe just getting them used to socialising again. But we can only do that if we have enough people to work alongside them, coaching, mentoring and helping them expand their mental ‘safe zones’.
If you would like to meet up with some of the existing team to explore the possibilities, please email us at getinvolved@wendovernews.org.