Want to get Involved in Bristol Indymedia then come to our new volunteers meeting on Weds 7th May: 7pm @ Hydra

Bristol Indymedia New Volunteers Meeting, 7th May, 7pm-9pm, at Hydra Books, 34 Old Market, Bristol. Map here.

After a bit of a hiatus to redesign the website, Bristol Indymedia is now back and we are looking for new volunteers who are committed to positive social change to help us run Bristol’s progressive community news project.

Want to help run film nights, curate the Indymedia site, write opinion pieces, connect with local groups, write articles, help with tech stuff, be an editor or help develop Bristol Indymedia, then now is your chance and no we don’t expect you to do all of this 

Volunteering for Indymedia is like volunteering for all the groups doing good stuff in Bristol at the same time, as Indymedia provides a platform for them to publish news, publicise their events, promote their blogs and publicise their group. It also provides a space for anyone to publish their news of what is happening in their community.

So what is it that you can do to help run Indymedia, well there is now a range of roles that you can get involved in to suit a range of skills and time commitments. Volunteers are expected to come to monthly action meetings, meet with others to plan stuff and most importantly to do what they have agreed to do, it’s pretty simple really. This is a great time to get involved to shape the future of Indymedia.

Film Nights & Events:

Role: To programme and promote monthly film/talk nights in conjunction with Bristol radical film festival that show the films that would not be seen and to provide a space to discuss the issues of the day.

• To programme and publicise film nights
• To be responsible for running the film nights at the Cube (this is not a hard task, Cube and Bristol Radical Film Festival help out)
• To help organise and run Bristol Radical Film Festival
• To arrange and put on fundraising events for Indymedia

Curation role:

Role: To keep Indymedia full of interesting news and content and to promote exciting events and groups based in Bristol.

• To curate content for the site.
• To promote blog posts to feature section
• To promote events from the calendar to the feature section
• To promote a group of the week for people to get involved in
• To produce opinion pieces or curate articles on relevant topics
• Would need to understand wordpress and how to use it on a basic level, but we can easily train people to do this

Opinion Pieces:

Role: To write opinion pieces of relevance to Bristol on current affairs, topics of relevance, with a Bristol slant.

Indymedia Editor:

Role: To keep Indymedia running smoothly, an essential role.

• Managing newswire, calendar, groups sections, resources and blogs
• Making feature articles for front page
• Managing comments and open publishing
• Act as a contact point for enquiries to the site, i.e. responding to emails
• Would need to understand wordpress and how to use it on a basic level, but we can easily train people to do this
• This role can be combined with the Curation role

Social media:

Role: To manage Indymedia social media, through promoting news stories, running facebook page and managing Twitter account.

• Manage social media presences (much of this can be automated), i.e. twitter and facebook

Outreach, Events & Fundraising:

Role: To promote Indymedia to local people and local progressive groups in order to increase people viewing the site, groups and people posting to the site.

• To publicise Indymedia to the wider community, through visiting groups, emailing groups and going to meetings.
• To produce publicity materials
• To promote a sustainer/membership scheme on Indymedia

Tech:

Role: To manage the technical side of the new website, making sure it runs smoothly and to develop new website structures, website is based on wordpress.

• To keep website updated and working.
• To implement new developments on the site.
• To ensure website is backed up.
• To implement new website developments.

Skills wanted: Experience in WordPress, Linux, Apache, Mysql or PHP would be great.

Strategic coordination and development:

Role: To develop Bristol Indymedia and help maintain the smoothing running of the organisation.

• Organising meetings, keeping minutes, recording actions
• Having a strategic overview of what Bristol Indymedia is doing and develop new projects
• Recruit and induct new volunteers
• Manage new developments for Indymedia
• Manage finances

New ideas for Indymedia:

Got any other ideas of what Indymedia could be doing then come along to the meeting on the 7th May and tell us what you could do.

Hope to see you on the 7th of May.