Candidate Information Pack Dumfries & Galloway Membership & Tourism Officer The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales No. 207076 Scotland No. SC037654 A year in the life Spring & Summer In the spring and summer, much of your time will be spent attending external events across Dumfries and Galloway. You will be engaging with the general public about the work of the RSPB, driving footfall to our reserves, selling our pin badges and growing our support through signing people up as members. From music festivals to farmers markets, you will attend a wide variety of events and every day will be different. One day you may be making bird feeders with families at a holiday park, and another you could be talking about how to save hedgehogs at a local community gala day. As your base will be our Mersehead nature reserve you will spend one day per week there to carry out any administration work, manage your stock, and plan for the following week. You will also recruit and train volunteers to assist you at events both on and off reserve. April 2016 Autumn & Winter In the autumn and winter months there are far fewer external events in the area, and this is also the time of year when Mersehead nature reserve is at its most spectacular. To take advantage of this, the majority of your time will be spent on the reserve, assisting in the planning and delivery and promotion of events. From the awesome spectacle of the overwintering geese arriving from the Arctic Circle, to breath-taking starling murmurations, Mersehead really is the place to see nature at its finest. Along with the team on site, you will help to man the visitor centre, lead guided walks and generally enthuse visitors about the reserve and the RSPB in general. In your application please demonstrate your relevant experience under the following headings: 1. Experience of sales or fundraising/working to targets. 2. Ability to engage with a wide range of people face to face. 3. Experience of delivering and achieving targets. 4. An excellent verbal communicator. 5. Has the ability to motivate yourself and others around you. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales No. 207076 Scotland No. SC037654 Mersehead Reserve Team D&G Membership & Tourism Officer April 2016 RSPB in the South and West of Scotland The Community Fundraiser Post is based in RSPB Scotland’s South and West Regional Office in Glasgow. The map below shows the extent of the region in white with reserves as yellow triangles. The Community fundraiser post covers community fundraising in the West of the Region including Argyll and the Isles, through Glasgow and the west central belt and Dumfries and Galloway. In the South and West Scotland Region We manage around 15,000 hectares on 30 reserves We have over 53,000 RSPB members We have around 80 staff and over 900 volunteers The main sites for visitors currently are: Lochwinnoch, Mull of Galloway, Loch Gruinart and Mersehead An overview of the region’s Activities As the regions’ dedicated fundraiser you will support a huge range of vital work across the region. The South and West Scotland region is incredibly ecologically diverse. From the steep rocky Atlantic oak forest and mountainside of Inversnaid and the fen, bog and dynamic floodplain of RSPB Loch Lomond, only a few miles apart to the island reserves of Coll, Islay, Tiree and Oronsay. Here traditional farming methods protect the flower-strewn machair and encourage corncrake and chough, and huge skeins of geese arrive from their Arctic breeding grounds in the autumn. The Inner Hebrides aren’t the only island reserves that we have, the volcanic history of Scotland has bequeathed us plugs of hard basalt that have become island homes to important populations of seabirds close to the densely populated central belt. Ailsa Craig, a beautiful pyramid of rock, painted white with droppings, is home to a fifth of the UK’s gannets The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales No. 207076 Scotland No. SC037654 and the Forth islands like Fidra are home to guillemots, razorbills and kittiwakes. Mull of Galloway, the most southern point on the Scottish mainland, may not be an island, but it certainly feels like one when you are there, surrounded on all sides by cliffs, sea and crying seabirds. Islay has the biggest in-house farming operation in the RSPB, but in the lowlands, farming is also very important to managing our reserves. At Crook of Baldoon and Mersehead, cattle grazing and management of the hydrology are the key to maintaining the pasture and saltmarsh habitat so vital for wintering geese and breeding waders. The vast ancient woodland of the Wood of Cree is not far away but a world of difference in terms of wildlife and in 50 years the 200,000 trees we have planted there will be home to pied flycatchers, wood warblers and black grouse. Reserves are for people too and we have the second most visited reserve in Scotland in the region at Lochwinnoch, where we welcome serious birdwatchers, families and day-trippers with activities, a natural play area and a chance to relax and see what the ambitious new habitat works have brought close to the visitor centre. Barons’ Haugh is right on the edge of Motherwell with paths through beautiful parkland, wetland and woodland. The reserve is one of the few places along its length where the Clyde follows its natural course. And off our reserves we are just as active, working with farmers to help waders flourish in the Clyde valley, working with the planning system to get the best outcome for birds and wildlife when development is planned, and winning some significant battles, like halting the building of a new coal-fired power station on an important area of sand and mudflat at Hunterston. We are pioneering landscape scale conservation with our Futurescapes in the Garnock Valley and the Inner Forth where we are leading on a £4 million partnership project which will bring benefits to wildlife, people and the cultural heritage. The region holds 70% of the Scottish population and so people are an extremely important part of our work. Scotland’s densely populated central belt, entirely within our region, is within easy travel of some of the most stunning and important RSPB reserves in Britain but many people are unaware of the opportunities. To contact more people and to gather more support we have been working right in the middle of Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest city, for six years. We have grown this project from its base at the Kelvingrove museum and park, to impact on the whole city, connecting children with nature and delivering ambitions of creating a city-wide wildlife garden through individual and collective action. It is only through people’s support, as members, volunteers, decision makers and with the political support of the public, that we can achieve our aims for South and West Scotland and ensure that our reserve network, and wider work can flourish and grow. Will you help us do this by helping us raise the money we need? April 2016 RSPB: Who we are and what we do The RSPB exists to give nature a home. We help our birds, other wildlife and natural places survive and thrive. On our doorstep are woods and farmland, moors and marshes, cliffs and mountains. They are home to an astonishing array of precious but threatened wildlife. Every species is unique, but they are all connected to one another. And every one of them needs a home to survive. Sadly, many of our best loved and most iconic species can’t find a welcome home here any more. It’s our job to change this. A country that’s not home to skylarks and puffins, red squirrels and hedgehogs is not a country any of us want to live in. To protect our threatened birds and other wildlife, we need to protect the places where they live. If we are taking care of nature, we are taking care of ourselves and future generations. The RSPB in a nutshell The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB): Was formed in 1889 to counter the barbaric trade in bird plumes for women’s hats Has since grown into a world-leading wildlife conservation organization and now speak out for all birds and wildlife, tackling the problems which threaten our environment Has over a million members, including more than 200,000 youth members Has more than 2,000 active staff members and almost 18,000 volunteers, who donate more than a million hours of their time – that’s the equivalent of 600 full-time staff Has a NET income available for charitable purposes of £89.3 million Has more than 200 nature reserves covering 143,7800 hectares and home to 80% of our rarest or most threatened bird species Has a UK headquarters, three national offices and eight regional offices Has a network of over 150 local groups and more than 150 youth groups Has an impressive global reach, with active projects and capacity building programmes in 26 countries and 10 UK Overseas Territories Is the UK partner and leading player, in Birdlife International Has the largest charity mail order operation in the UK, and also has the UK’s most successful charity credit card Volunteers Volunteers founded the RSPB 125 years ago and remain a vitally important part of the organization today; there are approximately nine volunteers for every paid member of staff Our volunteers bring a unique range of skills and qualities to the RSPB, help stretch our scarce resources and keep us in touch with grass roots.