Volunteering

Communications Officer

For Sussex Ornithological Society

Register your Interest

We are seeking a experienced, committed and capable Communications Officer to help strengthen and coordinate the Society’s messaging across traditional media, digital platforms, and internal channels.

This is an important volunteer role for someone who understands communications, enjoys working collaboratively, and ideally (although not essentially) has a good general knowledge of Sussex’s birds, habitats, and key wildlife sites.

Purpose of the Role The Communications Officer will help shape and deliver SOS communications at a time when we are actively improving our processes and approaches.

Working across the organisation, the postholder will ensure that our scientific work, conservation messages, events and membership activities are communicated clearly, consistently and effectively to a wide range of audiences including young people and those who are new to birding.

Key Responsibilities

Internal Communications

• Work closely with the Social Media Team to support timely, accurate and engaging content across SOS platforms.
• Liaise with the Editor of the quarterly Sussex Birds newsletter, which reaches around 2,000 members, to ensure alignment of messaging and contribute copy where needed.
• Support the Membership Secretary by providing or shaping content for the quarterly bulletin sent to new members during their first year.
• Collaborate with our Scientific Committee to identify and communicate outputs from surveys, research projects, and data analysis.
• Attend and contribute to the Membership and Publicity Committee, which meets five times a year (mostly online). 
• Work with the Conference Committee to support communications around the annual SOS Conference, attended by approximately 200 people.

External Communications

• Build and maintain positive relationships with media outlets across Sussex, including: Regional newspaper publishers in the county and their online platforms and County wide magazines such as Sussex Life and hyper local publications serving towns and villages
• Draft clear, accurate and engaging copy suitable for both long form and short form media.
• Support the promotion of SOS activities, events, surveys, and conservation messages to the wider public.

Skills

We are seeking an experienced individual with the following skills:

Essential

• Ability to write clearly and accurately for a range of audiences and formats.
• Experience in media relations, journalism, PR or digital communications.
• Understanding of communications principles and experience producing written content.
• Confidence using standard digital tools, including: Email applications (e.g. Outlook), Digital filing systems (e.g. SharePoint), Word processing software (e.g. Word), Online meeting platforms (e.g. Teams)
• Confidence working collaboratively with volunteers across different teams.

Desirable

General knowledge of Sussex birdlife, habitats and key sites. This is not essential as we have many experts willing and happy to provide guidance, outlines, check copy etc.

Familiarity with conservation organisations or wildlife NGOs.

About Sussex Ornithological Society

SOS is the county’s leading bird club and a major contributor to bird recording and conservation in Sussex. It is one of the UK’s largest bird clubs in terms of membership with over 2,000 individuals.
We are a registered charity that was formed in 1962.
We hold over eight million bird records, publish an annual report of sightings, contribute to British Trust for Ornithology surveys, and supply data to the Sussex Biodiversity Records Centre to help inform local authorities about the ecological impact of developments in their area.
We successfully lobby in certain instances where an inappropriate development is proposed. A recent example of this was against the construction of a Center Parc near Crawley, which was going to be adjacent to a Scheduled Ancient Woodland. The company withdrew their application as a result. If the development had proceeded it would have had devastating impacts on local wildlife.
For members, we run around 35 birdwatching trips each year, visiting some of the county’s finest wildlife locations. Our quarterly Sussex Birds newsletter keeps members informed about sightings in the preceding months, feedback on our outings and other news.
We publish an annual Sussex Bird Report, an award-winning publication of about 300 pages packed with information about species recorded in the county, maps of locations, photographs from members and conservation data, including trends.
Grants are distributed from our financial reserves to:
• Support community led initiatives that support bird conservation, this includes paying for Swift and House Martin boxes in cities, towns and villages in the county.
• Providing expert ornithologists with monitoring equipment to record populations of vulnerable species, such as passive acoustic monitoring kit that uses AI to make processing efficient.
• Helping young birders, typically aged 16-24 with some of the costs associated with their hobby. This can include providing binoculars, cameras and travel expenses.
• Underpinning works scheduled by other conservation charities operating in the county such as Sussex Wildlife Trust and the RSPB. These often obtain grants to finance part of their projects but must find local sources to make up the difference. SOS helps fill some of those gaps.
Sussex Birds has an active website which has recently been updated and has sightings uploaded on a daily basis by members and the wider public.
We hold an annual conference which is attended by over 200 people. This includes presentations from some of the country’s leading ornithologists to Sussex based students presenting their avian research in the county. An exhibition accompanies this event which this year was held at the University of Brighton.

Details

• No - DBS check required
• Yes - Equality and Diversity Policy
  We have a policy which is periodically reviewed.
• Yes - Expenses reimbursed
  Reasonable direct expenses can be claimed.
• Yes - Health and Safety Policy
  We have a policy which is periodically reviewed.
• Yes - Is it fully accessible
  Any Face to Face meetings take accessibility into account in terms of the building layout and public transport.
• Yes - Ongoing support
  Via meetings
• Yes - Suitable for physical or sensory impairment
  This would be taken on a case by case basis and it is possible to make reasonable adjustments.
• No - Suitable for Under 18's
• Yes - Training provided
  Whilst we are seeking an experienced person, we are happy to train in areas where there may be gaps.
• Yes - Volunteer induction
  Induction pack and training session.
• Yes - Volunteer Policy
  We have a policy which is periodically reviewed.
• Yes - Volunteers covered by insurance
• Yes - Written role description

Availability

There is real flexibility in terms of the times that you are able to work. We see the role mainly working from home, but there will be occasional meetings, mostly virtual via video conference, which tend to be midweek evenings and the occasional face to face meeting (which normally have hybrid attendance options). We anticipate that this role would require two to three hours a month time commitment.

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