How to Volunteer with the EETN

Photograph of the volunteers on a stall in the Ashley centre.
Volunteers in the Ashley Centre

We are currently seeking to recruit the following volunteers to join our invaluable charity. Recordings for our listeners are made fortnightly on Thursday mornings from our Studio in Swail House in Epsom. The EETN is run entirely by volunteers.

We need volunteers for the following roles:

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

We have a vacancy for a Website and Social Media Manager volunteer role requiring a few hours every fortnight with some additional tasks when the need arises. This role requires a blend of creativity and technical proficiency to manage the website and advertise our talking newspaper service.

Depending on your experience, the role includes responsibility for managing and enhancing our online presence across various platforms, including our WordPress website and social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, and X.

Key responsibilities:

  • Publish the fortnightly audio news with a written summary of the articles.
  • Develop and publish social media content.
  • Update and maintain the EETN’s WordPress website.
  • Implement SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to increase site visibility.

Skills needed:

  • Experience with WordPress or a similar CMS, including theme customization, plugin management, and basic HTML/CSS.
  • Experience in using social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, X).

Full training and handover will be provided by our website manager.

Contact details


MAGAZINE EDITOR

If you have some spare time, would you like to become a magazine editor, choosing articles from your favourite magazines and journals, then preparing them for recording for the local visually impaired community?

The role involves:

  • The collation and ordering of magazine articles sourced from a wide variety of literature to be read and recorded by our volunteer readers.
  • Reading the opening and closing sections of the magazine articles in our studio on recording days.
  • With a team of four magazine editors, each editor is on duty once every couple of months with flexibility in the rota to allow for holidays.

Skills needed:

  • Proficient writing and proof-reading skills.
  • A clear and confident speaking voice.
  • A degree of computer literacy to enable sourcing and editing online articles.

No experience is necessary. The successful candidate will be fully trained, supported and mentored by their colleagues.

Contact details


EVENT ORGANISER

The EETN is currently seeking an enthusiastic individual to be responsible for seeking promotional opportunities to recruit more Listeners and when necessary specific Volunteers in addition to organise our talking newspaper events. 

These currently are a stall at the Banstead Summer Fair and a Christmas party for the 36 Volunteers. We have historically had an Awareness Day in the Ashley Centre and when required, an event to present Long Service certificates to Volunteers.

The role would suit someone with initiative, limited spare time, but a wish to help an invaluable, long established local Charity.

The role involves:

  • Communicating with the organisers of events, including booking and liaising with venues.
  • Promoting the EETN at new events organised by other outside bodies.
  • Coordinating the EETN volunteers’ rota to run the stalls, organise activities and catering if required. Ensuring stalls are correctly set up, cleared away and all equipment returned to storage after an event.
  • Managing the budget and monitoring expenses, including liaising with the EETN treasurer.

Skills needed:

  • Effective communication and people skills for liaising with the volunteers, the committee and event organisers
  • Good organisational skills for planning, controlling and coordinating events.
  • Time management skills to ensure events run smoothly.
  • An ability to keep costs within budgets.

Full training and support will be provided by our friendly team.

Contact details


READER – MALE VOICE ONLY

To enhance the listener experience we need a variety of voices and we are currently looking for more male readers.

The role involves:

  • Reading out the local news and magazine articles collated by the news and magazine editors. The readings are recorded by our sound recordists and downloaded on to a memory stick which is then posted to the listeners.
  • Recording takes place fortnightly on Thursday mornings in our studio at Swail House in Epsom between 9.45am and midday. Readers volunteer on a rota basis with three readers recording in the studio for each issue.
  • As the issues are recorded fortnightly, readers can expect to visit the studio once every six to eight weeks.

Skills needed:

  • The ability to read print clearly and expressively at a pace suitable for our partially sighted and blind listeners.
  • A voice sound check is required for new volunteer readers to check voice quality for the recording equipment. This will take place in our studio at Swail House in Epsom.

Full training and support will be provided by our friendly team.


Contact details

To volunteer please either email tricialadd@eetn.org.uk or telephone us on 01372 721519 and leave your contact details as well as details of the best time to contact you on our answering machine and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

You can also visit our Facebook page and leave a message.

Richard Wheeler explains how to subscribe to the EETN