Copy and Dispatch Helper

Each week our blind and visually impaired listeners look forward to receiving their copy of The Mardler - Talking Newspaper. 

Early on Friday the week's Editor, Sound Engineer and a small team of readers gather in Aylsham to record the edition. This is completed by mid-day when a master recording is passed to the Copy and Dispatch (C&D) team.

Our friendly C&D teams are made up of a Team Leader and up to four helpers. Their first job is to empty a post office sack full of returned envelopes containing USB memory sticks.

The memory sticks are removed and the envelopes have their address labels reversed.

The listener address labels are scanned into a computer - a bit like returning books at the library.

The memory sticks are plugged into a special cleaning machine that clears their memory ready to take the new edition. Another machine takes the master recording and copies it onto the cleared memory sticks, eleven at a time.

The refreshed memory sticks are then tested in an MP3 player to ensure all is well. Once tested each one is placed in a return envelope and placed into a waiting post office sack.

There's a bit of tidying up and the post office sack is taken off to the local post office.

The whole C&D job is usually completed within one hour.

Full training for this role takes just a few minutes. Some manual dexterity and the ability to read a menu screen on our electronic equipment is required.