Become a Volunteer
The Metropolitan Washington Unit,
located on Wisconsin Avenue in Friendship Heights (Metro Red
Line, Jenifer Street exit), is seeking detail-oriented volunteers
as new readers, recording session directors and bookmarkers.
If you have two hours a week to give, please join our dedicated
corps of studio volunteers.
We have a continuing need for volunteers
to record textbooks. Our most immediate needs are for specialists
in the fields of mathematics (elementary to advanced), finance,
computer use and programming, Italian and Spanish. Please
note that language readers must be expert in both the language
and English textbook grammar.
We continue to need readers in general subject
areas.
We are seeking dedicated volunteer bookmarkers
to create detailed penciled directions in textbooks for recording
volunteers to follow. This is a special task that requires
attention to detail, good analytical skills and the ability
to follow rules and conventions.
We are in need of checkers – volunteers
who provide quality control for our recordings. These volunteers
will be trained in digital audio editing.
Read more about our NIH
Volunteer Program - NIH Satellite Studio.
A Note to Volunteers
A commitment of two hours a week for at least one year is
required. Volunteers at the unit must be computer proficient.
Training on digital audio equipment is provided.
Daytime Volunteer Program - Friendship
Heights Studio
Monday – Thursday: Sessions start at 9:00 am, 11:00
am and 1:30 pm
Call 202-244-8990 (ext. 14) to schedule a daytime orientation,
or e-mail Courtney Arnold at carnold@rfbd.org.
Evening Volunteer Program - Friendship
Heights Studio
Monday – Thursday: Two-hour sessions from 4:00 pm to
7:00 pm
Call 202-244-8990 (ext. 11) to schedule an evening orientation,
or e-mail Laurel Marget at lmarget@rfbd.org.
Saturday Volunteer Program - Friendship
Heights Studio
Sessions start at 9:30 am and 11:30 am
Call 202-244-8990 (ext. 23) to inquire about volunteering
on Saturdays, or e-mail Chris Smith at ccsmith@rfbd.org.
Administrative Volunteers
The Friendship Heights Studio also needs administrative volunteers
to assist staff in preparing mailings for fundraising and
volunteer programs, data entry, answering phones and general
office work.
Words from Volunteer Brenda R. Hanning
An essential dimension of reading, for me, has always been
sound — the rhythm, the emphasis, the sequence of words
— and how the author’s meaning emerges from that.
It could be the dialogue between Nag and Nell, such as it
is in Samuel Beckett’s End Game, or interpreting
the dashes vocally in an Emily Dickinson poem. And then there’s
the challenge of the interminable sentences of a philosophic
work: how do you capture, for the listener, those endless
clauses as the argument builds to a suspenseful conclusion.
For one thing, you have to love semicolons, which I do.
I also love pronouncing any word that originated
around the Mediterranean; at least, the northern shores. If
there is Italian, or French, or Greek in a text, then I am
happy. It’s part of the challenge, not to mention responsibility,
of reading for someone else.
Final confession, the microphone: it’s
all about performance. And what a feeling of importance it
gives you, to be the messenger, to have your words recorded,
permanently (one hopes), as you speak them. And being able
to re-record, of course, if the sentence takes you by surprise
and you misinterpreted the author’s direction!
As someone who never felt a strong responsibility
to volunteer, other than the pints of blood that I donate
every three months or so, being able to do something I never
knew I would enjoy so much at RFB&D, and that has the
happy by-product of assisting another person along their way
— well, what better way to devote an evening every week.
— Brenda R. Hanning
|
