Volunteering

We rely upon volunteers to run and manage the shop. You could be part of the team, make friends and take satisfaction from contributing to the village.

There are many things to be done and your experience and help might be just what we need. This could be serving customers or providing support and back-up including shelf stacking, maintenance, marketing, financial control, IT or helping to organise our social events. The amount of time you commit is entirely up to you. Above all, it’s rewarding and it’s fun!

Relevant experience is valued but not always necessary and training is provided.

If you are interested, either call in at the shop, telephone Nikki on 01395 708324 or email ottertoncommunityshop@gmail.com. Come and try it out!

These are the areas in which we are currently seeking additional help:

• Serving Customers

Serving and engaging with customers, assisting with shelf stacking, ordering and receiving deliveries. A couple of hours a week is all that is required. Full training is provided working alongside our shop manager Nikki.

If you might be more comfortable in a support role, there are other opportunities:

• Marketing

Promoting the shop and its products employing social media and more traditional forms of advertising including promotional offers.

• IT & Finance

Acting in support of our Treasurer. Some experience with accounting software would be helpful but is not essential as full training would be provided.

• Newspapers

If you are an early riser, you can be part of the ‘Newspaper Team’, opening up the shop each morning and laying out the newspapers for collection. Supporting roles include preparing the weekly return made to our supplier.

• Occasional Jobs

Not everything requires you to be in the shop or commit to regular hours. From time to time, we also need people to:

⚬ Make deliveries to housebound customers.
⚬ Collect stock from small local suppliers.
⚬ Undertake shop maintenance.
⚬ Posting to our Instagram and Facebook accounts.
⚬ Maintaining the greeting cards section.

• Cleaning

• Seeking out new product lines from local suppliers.

If you are at all interested, call the shop, speak to Nikki and without any commitment, arrange to come down to the shop, see at first-hand what we do and speak to other volunteers.

Work Experience

We are occasionally able to offer work experience in conjunction with programmes such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme. The minimum age is 14 and the minimum commitment is for 20 hours. This is subject to parental consent and that of a teacher evidenced by completion of a Consent Form. Note that supervising volunteers are not DBS checked but a Safeguarding policy is in place to govern the conduct of all who volunteer or work in the shop.