AIRS Volunteer Opportunities
AIRS-LA Volunteer Video on YouTube Check out this outstanding video, produced by AIRS Vice President Steve Heller, if you're thinking of helping us out or if you'd like to see short clips of some of our volunteers in action.
Volunteer Director
AIRS-LA badly needs a Volunteer Director to manage all those people involved in producing content for our web site. If you have the necessary people-handling and organizational skills we can guarantee that you'll derive a great deal of satisfaction in providing vital audio material for our network of sight-disadvantaged listeners. Duties of the Volunteer Director include:
- Establish and maintain an AIRS-LA presence at Volunteer search organizations.
- Interview and audition potential volunteers approaching AIRS-LA through the search organizations.
- Orient new volunteers to our organization and train them in selection of materials to read, podcast organization, recording and editing using the AIRS-standard tools.
- Coordinate the production of podcasts from home-studios.
- Schedule central studio time and personnel.
SDP Director
AIRS is looking for a volunteer to coordinate the efforts of the crew of Voiceover Professionals who produce our popular Short Daily Podcast (SDP) series. Sometimes known as "The Daily AIRS," the SDPs feature short readings of current topical interest on a twice daily schedule seven days a week, so a substantial number of people are involved. The volunteers are very dedicated and professional and don't really require much in the way of direction, only an occasional nudge to get them back on the track. Your duties would include:
- Keep in touch with each of the volunteers, indoctrinate new volunteers as needeed and maintain and distribute a list of current phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
- Encourage volunteers as necessary, and very occasionally nudge them into adherence with standards of format, documentation, content and schedule.
- When necessary, you would also be tasked with arranging for a new show to replace one which may stop due to volunteer resignation. There is a constant stream of new talent offering their services so this should not be much of a problem.
- Requires patience and tact!
Producing Your Own Podcast
Does anybody in LA actually like to commute? If you don't relish driving to our palatial Tarzana studio to read or engineer a podcast; if you have a computer, a quiet room and a USB microphone you have all you need to produce your own podcasts. Simply tell us of your availability by clicking the Volunteer link at the left, send us a sample recording, and choose a periodical from the list below. According to a schedule that we'll negotiate, you'll send us periodic recordings and we'll take care of the rest! You must make a commitment to a regular recording schedule and may wish to take advantage of in-studio training or our on-line video training course if you need it. If you live within comfortable commuting distance, you can also choose to record in our studio.
Here are some periodicals we'd like read:
- AARP Magazine
- Allure
- American Girl
- American Heritage
- Atlantic Monthly
- Byte
- Cat Fancy
- Cook's Illustrated
- Cosmopolitan
- Esquire
- Family Circle
- Forbes
- Fortune
- Gourmet
- Jack and Jill
- Mac World
- Martha Stewart Living
- Men's Health
- The Nation
- National Lampoon
- National Wildlife
- Newsweek
- PC Magazine
- Popular Mechanics
- SmartMoney
- Store Advertisements (check with us)
- Sunset
- Vanity Fair
- Vogue
- U.S. News & World Report
- The Weekly Standard
- Wired
- Woman's Day
Engineer/Board Operator
For those of us not caught up in the glamour of talking into a podcast microphone, we are always in need of in-studio help with engineering podcasts for our other volunteers. The job entails monitoring and controlling audio levels, marking the time of any recording mistakes, editing the recordings to remove errors, adding appropriate entry and exit music tracks, and publishing the finished podcasts using our own software. Familiarity with PC operation and punctuality are the only requirements. We will train you. Most in-studio recording sessions take about an hour to complete once you know the ropes and we'd like a commitment to at least one session per week.
