Communications Officer (mainly a volunteering from home opportunity)

Communications Officer (mainly a volunteering from home opportunity)

The Sussex Ornithological Society is seeking an experienced, committed and capable Communications Officer to help strengthen and coordinate the Society’s messaging across traditional media, digital platforms, and internal channels. This is an important volunteer role for someone who understands communications, enjoys working collaboratively, and ideally (although not essentially) has a good general knowledge of Sussex’s birds, habitats, and key wildlife sites.

Purpose of the Role

The Communications Officer will help shape and deliver SOS communications at a time when we are actively improving our processes and approaches. Working across the organisation, the post holder will ensure that our scientific work, conservation messages, events and membership activities are communicated clearly, consistently and effectively to a wide range of audiences including young people and those who are new to birding.

Key Responsibilities

Internal Communications

• Work closely with the Social Media Team to support timely, accurate and engaging content across SOS platforms.
• Liaise with the Editor of the quarterly Sussex Birds newsletter, which reaches around 2,000 members, to ensure alignment of messaging and contribute copy where needed.
• Support the Membership Secretary by providing or shaping content for the quarterly bulletin sent to new members during their first year.
• Collaborate with our Scientific Committee to identify and communicate outputs from surveys, research projects, and data analysis.
• Attend and contribute to the Membership and Publicity Committee, which meets five times a year (mostly online).
• Work with the Conference Committee to support communications around the annual SOS Conference, attended by approximately 200 people.

External Communications

• Build and maintain positive relationships with media outlets across Sussex, including:
  • Regional newspaper publishers in the county and their online platforms
  • County wide magazines such as Sussex Life and hyper local publications serving towns and villages
• Draft clear, accurate and engaging copy suitable for both long form and short form media.
• Support the promotion of SOS activities, events, surveys, and conservation messages to the wider public.

Skills and Experience

Essential

• Ability to write clearly and accurately for a range of audiences and formats.
• Experience in media relations, journalism, PR or digital communications.
• Understanding of communications principles and experience producing written content.
• Confidence using standard digital tools, including:
  • Email applications (e.g. Outlook)
  • Digital filing systems (e.g. SharePoint)
  • Word processing software (e.g. Word)
  • Online meeting platforms (e.g. Teams)
• Confidence working collaboratively with volunteers across different teams.

Desirable

• General knowledge of Sussex birdlife, habitats and key sites.
• Familiarity with conservation organisations or wildlife NGOs.

About Sussex Birds/Sussex Ornithological Society (SOS)

SOS is the county’s leading bird club and a major contributor to bird recording and conservation in Sussex. It is one of the UK’s largest bird clubs in terms of membership with over 2,000 individuals.

We are a registered charity that was formed in 1962.

We hold over eight million bird records, publish an annual report of sightings, contribute to British Trust for Ornithology surveys, and supply data to the Sussex Biodiversity Records Centre to help inform local authorities about the ecological impact of developments in their area.

We successfully lobby in certain instances where an inappropriate development is proposed. A recent example of this was against the construction of a Center Parc near Crawley, which was going to be adjacent to a Scheduled Ancient Woodland. The company withdrew their application as a result. If the development had proceeded it would have had devastating impacts on local wildlife.

For members, we run around 35 birdwatching trips each year, visiting some of the county’s finest wildlife locations. Our quarterly Sussex Birds newsletter keeps members informed about sightings in the preceding months, feedback on our outings and other news.

The Sussex Ornithological Society