Volunteers
HBTN is run by a team of fifty or more unpaid volunteers. The volunteers are mostly retired and willingly give up their time to assist in the different functions needed to produce the news and entertainment recordings.
An edition of Talking News is produced every fortnight. * The output is limited by the number of volunteers and the spread of skills that are available. Volunteers typically help for a couple of hours every two or three weeks. There is a training programme for volunteers to become producers, editors or recording engineers.
*currently once every four weeks until further producers are found.
How to Volunteer
Please complete an application form, available to download in Word or pdf format, and return it to the secretary or complete the contact form on the Get in Touch page. We ask for two references, which are always checked, as part of our safeguarding procedures.
Volunteering opportunities available
Editor
The editors are the ‘eyes’ of the listeners. For each edition a team of four editors scans local publications for news each fortnight, selecting and editing the items.
Researcher
Researchers provide more in- depth articles. They often cover local topics, or information about local services, or events. These are longer than the news articles, and are not usually time specific. They help to give our recordings more variety. Our researchers are a small, supportive group, who each produce one or two articles a month.
Producer
The producer is in overall control at the recording session and has gained experience as an editor before graduating onto this role.
Engineer
Engineers attend recording sessions about once in every four to six weeks. Some experience with recording equipment is preferred but full training is given.
Production and Distribution
We have two Production and Distribution teams, who alternate between Talking News issues. Returned memory sticks are checked in. Specialised recording machines are used to copy the master recording onto the required number of memory sticks. These are logged in the distribution register before being prepared for posting. This usually takes place on the Thursday immediately following a recording on Tuesday evenings.
Fundraising and Publicity
We would like to expand our client base and a volunteer with skills in fundraising and publicising the work of HBTN would be a valuable addition to our team.
Readers
For many of our listeners the only contact that they have with the Talking News is through the recordings that they receive. It is important that they receive a recording which is clear and presented in an interesting manner. In order to achieve this, a prospective newsreader will be asked to record an audition tape, which is sent to a panel of visually impaired listeners who decide if the reader’s voice is suitable. Training is given to a new reader.