the community radio toolkit

Volunteer sound/broadcast engineers, programme editors, programme makers, interviewers and presenters, wanted for new Catholic Internet Radio

If you’ve a bit of time and would like to contribute to something worthwhile in the community, we’d be delighted to hear from you – we’re a lively bunch and want people to enjoy their time helping us produce an interesting mix of programmes to broadcast to our Catholic audience.

We go live on 16th September and still have opportunities to contribute to new projects. See our attached schedule and visit hguh.co.uk to learn more about us. Our studio is at Wonersh, near Guildford, and much of our material will be pre-recorded. Many of our projects such as programme making, audio file editing or admin can be done via the internet, but to broadcast you would need to be able to get to Wonersh.

We are particularly interested in sound/editing and broadcasting engineers. We’d also love to hear from you if you are:

* An experienced or keen in-experienced presenter
* Don’t want to present but want to do something else
* Want to do something for the Catholic community but not sure what

You don’t have to be Catholic to join the team, but you should have sympathy with Christianity. More details here – http://www.hguh.co.uk/volunteers.htm or get in touch with us at hguh.info@hguh.co.uk .

Looking Forward to hearing from you!
Jillie
Heart Gives Unto Heart Catholic Internet Radio
www.hguh.co.uk

This post was submitted by jilliebb.

Comments Off | In: Community Submitted News | tags: admin, broadcast, DJ, editing, engineers, presenters, programme makers, sound, volunteers. | #

Wire FM’s new breakfast presenter Roy Basnett was joined by Halton Access to Media’s patron Roger Phillips at an awards ceremony celebrating the achievements of Halton’s young people last month. Each of the 30 youngsters aged between 12 and 18 had graduated from Halton Community Radio’s radio course.

The course lasts for 6 weeks, two hours each week. It is free and funded by BBC Children In Need.

Roger said:

‘I was delighted to hand out the certificates of achievement to the young people who have passed through the React course at Halton Community Radio. It was obvious that each of them have worked very hard in order to pass the course and deserve all our congratulations.’

All presenters at Halton Community Radio are volunteers, giving up their time to help run the station and supervise the young peoples’ radio shows.

Roy Basnett was compere for the evening, and told the room how impressed he was with the graduates and stressed the importance of voluntary work in the local community and at HCR.

HAM Chair Rob Green commented ‘It’s great that radio professionals like Roger Philips and Roy Basnett take the time to support our young people. They stayed behind after the ceremony to answer questions about how to get into the business.’

1 Comment | In: Community Submitted News | tags: halton community radio, ract course, training, volunteers. | #

Community Radio Toolkit co-writer and ALL FM associate Ally Fogg has just published an analysis of the big society initiative after its first six months.

On the concept of ‘big society’ he points out what we all know within the charitable and voluntary sector, that:

the new government’s aspirations seemed far from fanciful. We spend every day supporting Britain’s millions of volunteers as they work to improve the lives of those around them, helping those in need, strengthening communities, cleaning up neighbourhoods, perhaps taking opportunities to learn new skills and improve their own prospects in the process. Our reaction to the “big society” was not disbelief or mockery, but a slightly exasperated cry: “But that’s what we’ve been doing for years!”

Though much of the article centres on the decreasing funding of publicly funded and supported charities, the article shows the potential ripple out effect of such structural changes. This encroaches on community radio funding as we all know.

Of course, many charities and voluntary projects are not funded from taxpayers’ cash, but that is little comfort. As statutory funding dries up, all projects chase the same ever-decreasing pots of charitable funds, trusts and private donations, significantly reducing the chances of securing new funds.

You can read the full article and the comments at the Guardian website.

We welcome all perspectives on topics like this due to the importance with community radio funding and the volunteers we work with daily. If you have an article to share, email us.

1 Comment | In: News | tags: all fm, ally fogg, big society, charity, Funding, grants, volunteers. | #

Lastly, we bring the ‘Prove It’ feature together by looking at the research done at Preston FM. They take a multidisciplinary approach and build in different methods and measures depending on the work they are carrying out and want to track.

Richard Lace tells us more

“Preston FM is a community radio station serving Preston and South Ribble. The station currently works with over 300 active volunteers, and regularly needs to be able to demonstrate its impact on direct beneficiaries as well as the community it serves. Evaluation activity informs the way that the station chooses to operate and develop its work, using information related to both direct beneficiaries and the wider community.

The impact on beneficiaries – the station’s volunteer base – is measured using a mixture of methods. The station uses the Soft Outcomes Measurement System (http://bit.ly/bFjdJL) to track volunteers’ progress in 10 soft-skill areas including communication, team-work and self-confidence. The system uses computer-based questionnaires, completed by volunteers at the beginning of their involvement with the station and again at regular intervals, to provide a raw quantitative measurement of volunteers’ progress.

This quantitative measurement is supplemented by twice-yearly “catch-ups” with all of the project’s volunteers. These one-to-one sessions last around an hour and involve talking about volunteers’ on-and off-air involvement in the station, as well as evaluating volunteers’ achievements; identifying any areas of interest for future development; looking at skills gaps and how they might be filled; helping to identify any new support needs; offering signposting to progression opportunities outside the project; and providing space for volunteers to feed in to plans for the development of the project overall. Group evaluation sessions are also held around 2-3 times each year, offering volunteers the chance to reflect on the station’s overall progress and direction, as opposed to their own development.

Sometimes, project-specific evaluation is appropriate. A current project based on using radio to raise awareness of International Development issues, for example, is partnering with a local university to evaluate the impact of the project on participants and on listeners.

The impact on listeners is also important to the station. An annual street survey, undertaken in partnership with a local market research organisation, provides an estimate of reach and, importantly, provides feedback from listeners on the quality of output. On-line feedback is encouraged – both generally and using specific calls related to particular projects (for example, a recent drama project focussing on religious extremism used an on-line survey to gauge how the series had affected listeners’ understanding of the issues explored). A sample of interviewees and contributors are regularly contacted (by phone or e-mail) a few weeks following their appearance on-air, to determine whether the station has assisted them with increased visitor numbers at an event; improved response to a campaign; a spike in calls or website
hits; or recruitment of new volunteers of beneficiaries.

All evaluation data collected – along with “pure numbers” demographic monitoring information measuring people through the door, people attending events and workshops, etc – are fed into the project steering group, which uses the information to identify areas where the project needs to improve its practice or develop new approaches. An annual impact assessment is produced, based loosely on the Achieving Better Community Development framework, summarising the evaluation information collected over the course of the year.”

Further reading

To find out more about the types of qualitative and quantitative research and how to analyse your findings, refer to Analyse This, a guide for new academics and practitioners, written by Cerlim (Centre for Research in Library and Information Management) at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Comments Off | In: Prove It | tags: audience research, feedback, impact, preston fm, qualitative, quantitative, research methods, richard lace, soft outcomes, south ribble, volunteers. | #

Nominations for the vinspired national Awards are now open! If you know an outstanding young volunteer why not give them the recognition they deserve and nominate them for a vinspired National Award.

The vinspired National Awards are about recognising the extraordinary work of young volunteers aged 16 to 25. Anyone can nominate (although you can’t nominate yourself) and anyone aged 16 to 25 and living in England can be nominated.

Nominees can be involved in any kind of volunteering activity with any organisation but must have made a difference between August 2009 and July 2010. There is also an award for the best youth worker, so third sector workers in the industry also have an opportunity to get involved.

An awards ceremony will be held at a secret location in March 2011 where the fantastic achievements of young volunteers throughout 2010 will be rewarded.

Nominations close on 30th September 2010. Click here to nominate an exceptional volunteer:

http://vinspired.com/rewards/nationalawards

Promote this on your station

Richard Berry at Spark FM has kindly made available the audio produced by John Scott to encourage nominations for the Vinspired National Awards.  You can listen to and download the audio here:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

1 Comment | In: News | tags: 16-25, Competition, vinspired, volunteering, volunteers. | #

The story appears in this week’s Herald Scotland and can be read in its original context by clicking on the Herald logo.

Comments Off | In: News | tags: bute fm, disagreements, have your say, herald scotland, management, scotland, volunteers. | #

Dear Q&A

We run a small but well supported station in the South of England. Thanks to some imaginative and diverse programming we are pleased not to be short of volunteers but there’s a problem. We only have funds for me (station manager) and a very part time finance officer who also deals with grants. This means there’s no one to answer the non studio phone, answer letters, look after the running of the office etc apart from me and I’m doing everthing else aside from a little volunteer training.

I feel like I’m being pulled in several directions and know we really need some volunteers to help with back office duties.  We’re very good at attracting people who want to produce a show, be a DJ or write some news but no one comes forward to help with adminstration. I am skilled enough to train someone and know at the moment these are valuable new skills for a volunteer to have…but how canI attract a suitible volunteer or two? Is there anything else I should consider?

Thanks

A very tired manager

3 Comments | In: Q&A | tags: administrator, adminstration, back office, training, volunteering, volunteers. | #

Dear Q&A

We’ve been troubled by some questions recently; perhaps other members can share their thoughts.

• When we do not know how many people listen to a station, how can we say it is serving the community?
• The danger is shortage of volunteers leaving a few people to be the stars of the show. How right is this?
• In these days of credit crunch etc and shortage of money for community projects,  should money be wasted?

Thanks in advance

M.O.

6 Comments | In: Q&A | tags: community projects, credit crunch, justification, listener statistics, volunteers. | #

A short guide to working with volunteers at a community radio station

Volunteers are central to the successful running of community radio stations. This short guide provides some basic information on roles of staff and volunteers, recruitment, policies and good practice and suggestions for good communication – the essence of positive working relationships in any organisation.

• Other useful information on our website on working with volunteers:
• The Community Radio Toolkit chapter on Volunteer Support providing advice on working with and supporting volunteers without shying away from some of the difficulties you may encounter. There’s also guidance on the role of staff vis-à-vis volunteers, Dos and Don’ts, appraisal and supervision information.
• You will also find some useful information on working with volunteers in the chapter on Managing Your Station
• Links to resources on other websites

Roles – Paid Staff and Volunteers

Most community radio stations are run by a mix of volunteers and paid staff. A licensed station may typically have around three to five paid staff members taking some of these roles:- station/project management

• administration and finance
• community outreach
• training
• business development
• volunteer support worker

Volunteers can be involved in any variety of areas, most commonly:- presentation

• programme making
• technical support
• news gathering
• research
• fundraising
• and many other jobs including answering the phone, reception, joining the management committee

The Student Radio Association has a wiki on running student radio that offers a useful list of station management roles. Take a look on their website at http://www.studentradio.org.uk/wiki/index.php/Station_management

Comments Off | In: resources | tags: volunteers. | #

Resources for anyone who works with or manages volunteers
http://www.volunteering.org.uk/

Training: Excellence in Volunteer Management course
http://www.volunteering.org.uk/managingvolunteers/EVM/

Free good practice guides:
http://www.volunteering.org.uk/managingvolunteers/publications/freeguides.htm

Recruiting volunteers in England using the brokerage of a volunteer centre
http://www.volunteering.org.uk/Local+and+Regional/

Volunteer Development Scotland
http://www.vds.org.uk

Wales Council for Voluntary Action
http://www.wcva.org.uk

Volunteer Development Agency Northern Ireland
http://www.volunteering-ni.org/

Consulting Staff and volunteers: developing a policy
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/?id=236

Recruitment: finding and recruiting volunteers
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/?id=226

Managing volunteers: a short check-list
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/?id=224

VolResource site. Volunteer Management; a list of resources
http://www.volresource.org.uk/briefing/volunteer.htm

Comments Off | In: resources | tags: volunteers. | #