Volunteering

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Volunteering at the Palm Beach County Studio

Thank you for your interest in the Palm Beach County Studio (PBCS) volunteer program. With the help of our community we improve lives one page at a time. As a volunteer driven organization, we are always looking for enthusiastic people to help us create audio textbooks for students in need.
The first step in becoming an RFB&D volunteer is to attend a volunteer orientation. The processes takes roughly an hour. Volunteer orientation are scheduled at various times throughout the month. Please call 561-297-4443 to find out when the next orientation will be held.

The recording processes is digitally (computer) based. After completing orientation, the new volunteer trains with an experienced volunteer and first learns how to direct. In short, directing involves starting and stopping the recording equipment, marking pages (a technique best seen to understand) and catching the reader's mistakes. After directing for about 15 hours, volunteers are eligible to become readers. Because we read textbooks, there are a number of conventions (rules) that we follow to assure continuity of presentation. We provide reader coaching sessions to make sure new readers are well-acquainted with the prescribed delivery techniques.

Once trained, volunteers schedule themselves to record at their convenience. Although we are delighted to see our volunteers more often, we ask a minimum of 2 - 2 hour visits per month for six months. . The studio offers 3 volunteer recording shifts a day, Tuesday through Saturday. They are 9 AM -11 AM; 11:30- 1 PM; 1:30-3:30 PM. We also offer evening shifts from 6-8 PM on Tuesday andWednesday evenings.

We encourage our volunteers to participate in every phase of the production process. Please read about of Volunteer Leadership Team (VLT) to learn more about ways in which you can share your time and talent.

Volunteer Leadership Team: "Realizing Success through Cooperation!"

Purpose & Participants
The staff of the Palm Beach County Studio (PBCS) believes in empowering our volunteers to grow with our organization. Surrounded by a wealth of talent, intelligence and skills of all types, we feel that our studio will reach its full potential as our volunteers take ownership of the various processes that make up production. We encourage our volunteers to embrace leadership roles and we are committed to supporting our volunteers' creativity and enthusiastic efforts. To facilitate this initiative, we have invited volunteers to help form our Volunteer Leadership Team (VLT).

Members of the VLT take an active role in establishing procedures, setting goals, spearheading events and fundraising efforts, developing workshops and training programs, overseeing quality assurance and mentoring volunteers new to our organization.

Action Groups & Their Point Persons
After analyzing the processes inherent to the production experience, the VLT organized them and their associated tasks into "Action Groups". Volunteers stepped forward to assume the role of "point persons." The point person is responsible for overseeing, training and building participation in their particular Action Group.

Director Training: Jerry Schwartz

Pre-Production: Debi Incandela

Record-A-Thon: Joy Binkovitz

Quality Assurance: Bob Smith

Volunteer Support: Lynn King

Workshop Presentation & Coordination: Debi Incandela

Reader Coaching & Evaluation: Renee Ingrassia Miki Edlman

Volunteer Leadership Team General Members:

• Bob Smith
• Debi Incandela
• Fran Schoenfeld
• Joy Binkovitz
• Sandy Decklebaum
• Stuart Goldstein
• Ralph Emer
• Lynn King
• Janice Horowitz
• Florence Leavitt
• Judy Torres
• Jerry Schwartz

Comments from the Our VLT

Quality Assurance: "I think of our team as the last line of defense against lapses in quality. We work diligently to find and correct all errors so that our users never encounter one." - Bob Smith

Director Training: "Director Training is the first real exposure a new volunteer has to RFB&D and it is therefore critical that a "newbie" understand from Day One how seriously we view our role as "leveler of the playing field" for the visually-challenged. The attitudes they develop in Director Training permeate everything else they may do with our mostly-volunteer run organization. We try to strike the balance between producing professional recordings and having an enjoyable and usually educational experience in the process." - Jerry Schwartz

Pre-production:"Our Action Group supports the recording process by preparing the textbooks for recording. After carefully reviewing the book, we determine how it should be read and give instruction Our goal is to enable the reader and director to have as smooth a narration as possible. We do this by marking the book in a clear and concise fashion and providing a tip sheet of instructions particular to the book. We also assist the students by providing recorded instructions on how to navigate the book." - Debi Incandela

Volunteer Support: "Our team is the PBC studio's version of the "Welcome Wagon." Our goal is to make new volunteers feel welcome, follow up on their progress as they train and address any questions or concerns they may have." - Lynn King

Record-A-Thon Committee: "Of all the volunteer projects I have been involved, RFB&D has been the most rewarding. When I read I know that this book will be used, because, someone has requested it for a class. Talk about fruits of one's labor!" - Joy Binkovitz, Chairperson