Gloucestershire Family History Society (GFHS) is run entirely by volunteers. There are roles for people with a variety of skills and experience. Being a volunteer  gives you the opportunity to learn new skills, meet people with similar interests, contribute to a charity and feel a  sense of achievement.

Here are the main roles that keep GFHS running; providing support to our members in Gloucestershire and further afield. Those with stars (*) currently need support and we would welcome you to join in. If you are interested in roles without a star, opportunities to assist are available in those roles. Some of the activity would be in the Family History Centre but much can be done from home as well.

Roles and Opportunities

Running the Society

We always welcome volunteers to help direct and run the Society. Specific roles include:

• Chair

• Secretary*

• Minutes Secretary

• Membership Secretary

• Treasurer

• Committee Member* (this can be remote)

• Members’ Interests Coordinator

In the Family History Centre

• helping and supporting members and visitors* including:

  • guiding people through our wide range of resources;

  • assisting them in their genealogy research;

  • taking payments for printing, books and donations (not all need to do this)

• managing the Bookshop;

• managing the Library;

• Office Co-ordinator (refreshments, supplies)*.

Online

• responding to email queries about our resources and individual research

• Zoom host for online meetings*

• supporting projects and data gathering*

Projects

We are active in setting up projects to make available more genealogical information.

• oversee the programme of projects*

• Co-ordinate individual projects*

• transcribe documents* (ideal for doing at home!)

Publicity and promotion

• Journal Editor

• writing Journal articles*

• Newsletter Author and Editor*

• Publicity Officer

• social media coordinator (Facebook and Twitter etc)

• talks and events coordinator

• writing blog posts for the website*

• Family Search Wiki Coordinator*

• outreach to make the Centre better known and bring GFHS skills to local areas*

Technology Support

• Updating and trouble shooting the PCs, network and software in the Family History Centre

• Website: managing and developing the site, its technical features and its content (Assistant Webmaster*)

Becoming a Volunteer

If you are interested in getting involved, email secretary@gfhs.org.uk to let us know the roles you are interested in. For further information about the Gloucestershire Family History Society look around on this website.

You can see our policy on engaging and supporting volunteers.