Volunteering

Membership Database Officer

For Sussex Ornithological Society

Register your Interest

We are seeking a volunteer to support the accurate reporting and management of membership information held in our MemberPress database.

This role is ideal for someone with strong Microsoft Excel skills, is confident working with online data exports and has a clear understanding of GDPR and responsible data handling.

The postholder will play a key part in ensuring that SOS maintains accurate membership records, produces reliable reports, and provides essential information to colleagues involved in membership administration, financial reporting and member communications.

Purpose of the Role

• To extract, process and report on membership data from the MemberPress database.
• To generate accurate mailing lists, membership statistics and Gift Aid reports.
• To support the Membership Secretary, Treasurer and Newsletter Editor with timely and reliable data.
• To uphold SOS policy for all membership information being handled securely and in accordance with GDPR.
• To ensure data is clean for reporting efficiently and suggest changes where repeated consistency issues create problems.

Data Protection and Compliance focus

• Handle all personal data in strict accordance with GDPR and SOS data protection policies.
• Ensure secure storage, transfer and deletion of membership data where appropriate.
• Maintain confidentiality and uphold the Society’s commitment to responsible data stewardship.

Skills

Essential

• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including PivotTables and Lookup functions.
• Confidence downloading and importing data from online databases.
• Ability to produce accurate reports and mailing lists.
• Understanding of GDPR and secure data handling practices.
• Good organisational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to work independently and communicate clearly with colleagues.

Experience with Member Press or other membership database systems is desirable but not essential.

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

• Yes - DBS check required
  Some of our data relates to members aged U18
• 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
  All face to face meetings are accessible in terms of venues chosen and public transport.
• Yes - Ongoing support
  through 121 and team meetings
• Yes - Suitable for physical or sensory impairment
  This would be on a case by case basis
• No - Suitable for Under 18's
• Yes - Training provided
  through 121 and team meetings
• 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 with this. It would mainly involve work from home, but there would be occasional virtual (Video) team meetings and very occasional face to face ones. We anticipate commitment would require about an hour a month, perhaps a little more when certain deadlines are happening.

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