Summary of volunteer and internship opportunities with FTP

  Flagstaff Tea Party has an immediate need for volunteers and interns. Volunteers and interns may choose how they would like to work with Flagstaff Tea Party.

Volunteers need not make an ongoing commitment. Volunteers can make a one-time commitment to assist with a specific task or can commit to as little an hour or two a month.

Formal and informal internships are available to college students as well as students in high school and junior high. Homeschoolers are also welcome to participate in our internship program. Internships are tailored to meet the individual needs of the student. Students must be at least 12 years old to be an intern. 

Below is a partial list of tasks for which volunteer and interns are needed.

Please contact us if you are interested in any of these opportunities.

Web design and maintenance:

We have a Web site but we could use help maintaining, improving and expanding it. Prior Web design experience is preferred. Familiarity with Front Page is a plus.

Computer maintenance and consulting:

If you are good with computer troubleshooting, we could use your help in figuring out glitches in our computers running Windows. Assistance is also needed in doing routine preventative maintenance and occasional equipment upgrades.

Transcribing interviews:

We can provide a tape recorder, foot pedal and word processor to anyone willing and able to transcribe interviews. An ability to work quickly, with a turnaround of a few days or less is extremely helpful.

Calendar editor:

If you have access to e-mail, we can forward information to you and you can distill it into little nuggets of info for publication. If you are ambitious, you can seek out relevant info by calling various organizations and visiting various Web sites to compile calendar items.

Indexing:

We need someone to create an index of our first year’s newspapers so that we can try to sell back issues. Basically, this is just a list of the stories that ran in each issue, along with a brief description of each story.

Parade assistant:

We are usually in the Labor Day and Fourth of July parades. We could use some volunteers to help us pass out copies of the newspaper to people along the parade route.

Advertising sales:

Sell advertising for Flagstaff Tea Party. Contact potential advertisers and ask them if they would like to buy an ad in Flagstaff Tea Party. It’s not hard. But it takes time.

Web Links seeker:

We would like to create a links page for our web site with links to other like-minded organizations, both in the community and around the country. You don’t have to be able to build a web page, just create the links list.

Taking photographs:

If you are handy with a camera, we could use your help to take photos to illustrate specific stories or to take pictures of writers to go with their stories. We take most photographs during the second and third weeks of the month. We would pay for film and processing.

Distributing the newspaper:

In keeping with the spirit of protecting the environment, we are delivering the newspaper to Flagstaff businesses by bicycle. If you would like to get a little exercise, (or a lot) you could help us deliver. All you need is a bicycle and a helmet. We’ll supply the newspapers and a Burley trailer to carry the papers. Minimum commitment: 3 hours.

Monitoring racks:

Periodically check selected Flagstaff Tea Party newspaper racks in your neighborhood (or daily travels), and let us know when racks are low, or refill them with papers we supply to you. You can monitor only one rack, or several. We especially need help monitoring racks on the east side and in the Milton and Woodland’s Village areas, as well as at NAU. This involves a minimum commitment of 10 minutes a week.

Researcher:

Interview individuals on specific topics and record the interviews. Investigate issues on the Web or at the library and make photocopies or print-outs of relevant information. 

Stuffing envelopes, mailing, etc.:

Our busy time for mailings is typically around the first of the month. It is a big job, and getting bigger all the time. But if we can get three or four people involved, we can get it taken care of in two or three hours.

  Compiling a list of big names in journalism / ecology / sustainable economics / etc. – people who would make appropriate guest speakers for Flagstaff Tea Party fund-raisers. Ideally, we would like not just names, but brief biographical sketches, and contact information.

  Contact big names in journalism / ecology / sustainable economics / etc. Find out who is willing to be a guest speaker at a Flagstaff Tea Party fund-raiser, and at what cost.

  Representing Flagstaff Tea Party at community events (tabling)

You sit at a table with a pile of Flagstaff Tea Party newspapers on it. People walk by. You give them newspapers and other literature. We’ve done this a few times at special events. But we would like to try it sometime in front of a locally owned business that gets a reasonable amount of foot traffic. Try it some afternoon. See if you like it. We’ll supply the table and the newspapers. Minimum commitment: 3 hours

Assist with fundraising efforts:

 If you have any experience organizing fundraising events — or even if you don’t, we could use some help organizing fundraising events. We have talked about holding quarterly dinners — or quarterly teas, possibly at Tea and Sympathy. We have also talked about bringing guest speakers to town. But we just don’t have the manpower (or womanpower) to do some of these kinds of things.

Be a liaison to other community groups:

We would like to find someone who is able to attend the monthly meetings of the Flagstaff Communicators and/or the Flagstaff Community Foundation on behalf of FTP. We would hope that this person could also attend our board meetings and share with us any relevant knowledge that may be gleaned from involvement with these other groups.