Volunteer with Bristol Ideas

Thank you for your interest in becoming a volunteer for Bristol Ideas. Volunteering is a great way to support Bristol Ideas, gain practical experience and develop skills, and meet new people.

We believe our work will be stronger with greater diversity and welcome interest from people of all backgrounds, nationalities, ages, genders, abilities and experiences. We understand that each of us bring our experiences, our backgrounds and our own unique lens to what to do.

You may not have worked in a cultural organisation before, and if you would like to talk to us first about how your skills and experience might be useful to a volunteer role at Bristol Ideas, you can contact us here.

We have a range of volunteering opportunities available, from events volunteering to proof-reading our publications. You can help out as little or as much as you like. Please read through the information below which tells you a little more about our different volunteering roles and what each role involves.

Volunteer Roles

Meet and Greet volunteers

Our Meet and Greet volunteers are the first point of contact for our audiences at events, providing a helpful and friendly greeting. You will welcome and engage with members of the public and provide information about the event and organisation.

Our Meet and Greet volunteers help us in many ways, including:

• Greeting the audience and answering queries
• Checking tickets on venue doors
• Seating the audience when venue doors open
• Working the microphone during Q&A sessions
• Artist care

Most events last for an hour, often running between 7-8pm, and we usually ask Meet and Greet volunteers to arrive 45 minutes before an event is due to start. Meet and Greet volunteers get in free to the event they are supporting.

We occasionally hold guided walks, for which we also welcome volunteers. For these events, volunteers support the walk leader and help deal with any emergencies. You need to be happy to be outdoors in all weathers. These events can last up to two hours and you need to be able to walk throughout that time.

We provide a briefing to all Meet and Greet volunteers in advance of each event, covering a range of issues including Health and Safety and event procedures. All events will have an event manager, so you will never be left alone on an event.

Marketing volunteers

Would you like to gain hands-on marketing and copywriting experience, writing about Bristol Ideas events and creating live social media content at our talks, lectures, workshops and panel discussions? We’re looking for people to create engaging content about our events, reflecting the issues raised and discussed at them. Whether it’s writing an article for our website or live tweeting throughout the event, you’ll have your work published on a wide platform to share with friends, family or future employers. Marketing volunteers get in free to the event they are covering.

Proof-reading volunteers

We regularly produce short publications, from collections of essays and books of walks to poetry anthologies and comic books. Our Proof-reading volunteers help us check sections of the drafts for mistakes and offer comments and thoughts about the material.

Proof-reading is volunteering that can be done from home, in hours that suit you.

Volunteer Responsibilities

No previous experience is needed to become a Bristol Ideas volunteer. However, you must be over the age of 18, and we ask that you:

• Aim for high standards of efficiency, reliability and quality in your volunteering
• Support, respect, consider and protect Bristol Ideas’ good reputation in your actions and conduct
• Have the best possible experience by getting involved and enjoying your volunteering.

Next Steps

If you would like to become a Bristol Ideas volunteer, please follow the link below to our volunteering form. Please return the completed form to info@bristolideas.co.uk

If you would prefer to send us the information in a different way, e.g. a voice note or video message, please contact us and we can arrange this.

Once we have received your form, we will contact you with further information. Due to the nature of our work, not all volunteering roles are available at all times, but we still encourage you to complete the form so that we can get in touch with you as opportunities arise.

If you have any questions or queries about becoming a volunteer, please contact us.