We are looking for a volunteer to help our county bird recorder, Richard Baatsen. Currently Richard (who is a volunteer) receives, collates and verifies over 100,000 bird records each year, so it’s not surprising he is looking for a bit of help! Many of the records arrive via email.
We are looking for someone who can manage the incoming emails within a shared email box and turn them into proper records (a line on a spreadsheet) to be fed into the database. You do not need to be an expert on birds. The person we are looking for should be organised and be able to help mould how emails are responded to and dealt with.
A little spreadsheet knowledge is required but help with this will be available. Grid references are used so that sightings can be mapped; these are easily looked up using a website so nothing to fear there. But you will have to find the location on the map. That is the tricky bit – and of course you may need to correspond with the person who sent in the record.
The role could expand into other areas if that is what you would like, and could include writing up work instructions and following up on rare and scarce sightings to get them fully documented and help writing a monthly round-up/summary.
Requirements:
You would need to commit to 3-4 hours a week, (or more if that’s what you would like)
Manage Email inbox on a shared email account (polite and encouraging responses)
Enter bird records on an Excel spreadsheet template (help given)
A little bird knowledge would be helpful
Be able to look up map grid references on a website (very simple).
If you think you might be interested, please contact Richard for a chat about the “job”… his email is Richard.Baatsen@gmail.com