Museums Partnership Reading (The MERL & Reading Museum)

Digi Shop Reel Volunteer

Role Description

Location: Reading Museum

Do you love museum shops? Social media plays an important part in helping maximise Reading Museum’s retail sales – raising funding to support the museum’s activities.

Why we want you:

• You will help bring our social media retail portfolio to life by creating vivid and engaging digital content that showcases the key stories in the Museum shop, the history of the Museum, its collections, and Reading itself. Key themes reflecting our collections include Britain’s copy of the Bayeux Tapestry and Romans. We also stock items relating to seasonal holidays
• You already enjoy making reels, have some experience filming and editing, and are familiar with the current social media landscape
• You are approachable, self-motivated and creative with an eye for detail 
• You can suggest ideas, whilst also implementing feedback from supervisors  
• You have access to a smartphone and an editing app (fine to use free ones)

What you will be doing: 

We suggest you aim to produce one to two reels per month, up to 30 seconds in length.

The team members supporting this role include the Visitor Services Officer, Deputy Visitor Services Officer, Receptionist, and Digital Content Producer (Video).  You will receive a full induction.

Guidance will be provided through a combination of monthly in-person catch-ups and ad hoc support via email in response to your contributions and ideas.

You will assist with the following tasks:

• Suggest content ideas for social media reels, sharing your awareness of social video
• Support staff by planning, filming and editing reels for the social media posts Reading Museum’s shop
• We’d also like you to capture some photos of the scenes you use to film the reel content, so that images can be posted on platforms where we don’t post reels, as part of a particular campaign
• You are welcome to talk to customers and collect/ analyse data so that we can understand more about our customers and what they are looking for
• You may sometimes film staff or visitors interacting with shop stock

What you will gain in return:

• Build on your videomaking skills
• Build on your knowledge of social media campaigns
• An opportunity to volunteer in a heritage environment 
• The opportunity to learn from experienced museum staff
• Being part of a team and developing new contacts 

How much time will it take up? 
This volunteering opportunity is initially for 12 weeks.

When you can film:

• Mondays: shop is much quieter as the Museum is closed to the public; the shop and Town Hall reception remain open to customers.
• Tuesdays-Saturdays: opportunities to film visitors, busier shop (depending on activities)

When you can edit and research: in your own time

To apply

Please complete your volunteer registration form on our volunteering platform by 9am on Tuesday 20^th October 2026.  *Please ensure you tick ‘Digi Shop Reel Volunteer’ in your ‘Interests’ section under My profile, when registering. 

If you are using a mobile or tablet, once you click ‘Fill in an Application’, look out for the suggestion ‘It looks like you are on a mobile device. For a better experience on smart phones, go to Mobile Application Form’ and click on the link it suggests.

When you are happy with your application, please don’t forget to click SUBMIT – otherwise we will never receive your form! 

We sometimes find that more volunteers apply for the role than we have vacancies. You are welcome to attach your CV if you wish, but please include key relevant  

information when answering the application form questions, as this may be used if we need to shortlist from a larger group of applicants. 

Existing volunteers - If you are already registered to volunteer with Museums Partnership Reading, please log in to the volunteering platform, click on My Profile, select the ‘Interests’ section, and ensure you tick the box next to ‘Digi Shop Reel Volunteer’ by 9am on Tuesday 20^th October 2026. 

Matching to the role

If you are shortlisted for this role, we will invite you to a 30-minute informal interview with a member of the Reading Museum team and Sheila Fisher (Museum Partnership Reading Volunteer Coordinator), ideally in person, where you can have an opportunity to tell us about your interests and experience, and ask us some questions.