Help Needed

SHARP can only function through the good will of its team of volunteers, many of whom are trustees or on the committee, but we also have a wider team who help during the season itself or via subgroups. We are always looking for SHARP volunteers who can perhaps give us a bit of time or share their own skill sets to ensure the smooth running of the charity.

Below is a list of roles and tasks that we are looking to find more help with. Some are larger roles that have traditionally been done by one person but could be split into smaller roles to be shared amongst two or more people. The roles are in no particular order.

Assistant Treasurer – One or two people to help with some of the tasks of the treasurer with the aim for one to start next year as Treasurer.

• Invoicing/ paying invoices, reimbursing costs

• Processing payments in and out using Quickbooks

• Scanning/photographing receipts (to input into Quickbooks for reconciling bank statements)

• Inputting payments from PayPal/Zettle into Quickbooks

• Purchasing items for SHARP, and processing receipts etc in Quickbooks

• Liaising with accountant for final year accounts

• Prepare/help the end of year annual return to Charity Commission

• Filing paper receipts by financial year

• Preparing reports for meetings, including a budget

• Processing Gift Aid

• Banking cash and cheques

We currently use Quickbooks for our accounting. Any special software required for this (or any other) role will be provided by SHARP as well as any training required to use it.

Festival Co-ordinator – In recent years this was a role taken on by team already on site, and shared between team members. There are several tasks here which can be done by a single person, or split into smaller chunks amongst a few people.

• Organise the activities for the day, talking to team and volunteers

• Be point of contact for external groups that attend

• Come up with new activities for the day

• Organise the prizes for the tombola/raffle, works best if a local person to drop in and ask for prizes, but could be done in run up to day during the season

• Co-ordinate preparation activities in the week before the festival (making poo, baking/decorating gingerbread skellies, attaching raffle tickets etc)

• Publicity going up to the festival (hopefully working with other team)

Newsletter – In the past we have produced newsletter or annual reports. This was renewed with the SHARP Trowelling Times, but lack of time has meant that it was not possible to continue with this. Are there any team members, or volunteers, who would be interested in co-ordinating a newsletter or annual report?

• Collect report pieces from sites and teams

• Layout and collect images

• Edit and typeset

Social Media - Do you use TikTok, Instagram or Facebook or other social media systems regularly? Could you do publicity (creating and sharing posts) on these systems to help advertise SHARP? We also have a YouTube channel, but we could do with someone to create more content to make better use of it.

• Create and post adverts/content on social media channels

• Share blogs and information about SHARP

• Oversee comments and feedback from public, removing unwanted comments

Publicity/Media – One area we need to improve is the publicity locally, we do leaflet and poster drops. But we could do with someone to publicise the charity with media outlets such as magazines, newspapers and tv/radio

• Assistance with local team who do leaflet and poster drops before the season

• Writing pieces for them to published with key dates and information

• Contacting media and arranging visits during the season

Schools – We currently have a schools co-ordinator but we are looking to find someone that may assist and potentially replace them in the next few years to give them a break. Do you like working with children, and would like to share your joy of archaeology with them?

• Help plan the timetable and activities

• Assist with the activities on the day

• Help come up with new activities or trails for SHARP

• You will likely require a DBS (or be willing for SHARP to get you one), although attending children for these visits have accompanying adults so you should never be alone with children.

Season Admin – During the season team who have key roles often find they don’t have time to do tasks they do out of season. We are therefore looking for volunteers to help us with some basic admin tasks during the season. This includes things like.

• Creating and printing posters and information sheets

• Printing certificates for courses

• Stock checking and ordering supplies

• Finding and ordering items for site/kitchen etc

• Printing and distributing bookings lists to team

If you think you can help us with any of these roles please contact us using the bookings@sharp.org.uk email. We should be able to then provide more details, including an indication of times. In some cases we may suggest you join the committee as a sitting member to see what we do, but in other cases we can work via sub groups.

Thank you!