cartoon image of hands up to volunteer
Volunteer Roles

Anyone interested in volunteering will be invited to visit the STN premises to see what we do and decide in which area they would most like to help. All volunteers are required to complete a registration form and will receive a letter of welcome. Necessary training will be given. Roles include the following:

Readers

Recordings take place at between 6:30pm and 8pm every Monday except bank holidays. Each team of 4 readers is scheduled to record roughly once every 4 weeks. At the start of the evening each reader is given a set of newspaper clippings prepared by the editor and the team members read their peices in turn until enough material has been recorded. New readers are asked to take a voice test to ascertain the suitability of their skills. 

Editors

Editors prepare the material for the readers to record. They must select an interesting variety of articles from The Sheffield Star, The Yorkshire Post, and the Sheffield Telegraph and assemble them into 4 packages which will take approximately 80 minutes for the reading team to complete.

Recording Technicians

As well as operating the recording equipment to ensure that good quality results are captured, the recording technician manages the recording session. This includes ensuring that the readers have their scripts and know when to begin reading. When all the reading is done, the technician remains to tidy up the recording ready for duplication and publication on Tuesday morning.
Some technicians also make one-off recordings for organisations on their home equipment.

Duplication and Distribution

On Tuesday mornings volunteers use specialist equipment to write the recording to several hundred USB sticks which are then placed in reusable wallets for distribution by the Royal Mail to our registered subscribers.The recordings are also published on this website.

Returns

On Mondays a team process the wallets which have been returned by subscribers so that they and the USB sticks can be re-used.


Managers and administrators

As with any organisation there is a need for volunteers to manage and administer the activities, resources and personnel. STN is run by a management committee with various officers responsible for particular areas of the operation.