Latest News

Another successful year for Borders Talking Newspaper

At the recent AGM, Convenor Tim Usher gave a report on the events of the past year. These included Tim’s appointment as Convenor, the start and development of the Talking Hawick News using innovative technology and the end of cassette tapes. All listeners now get their talking newspaper on memory sticks and BTN has loaned them players for these.

Both the original talking newspaper and the Talking Hawick News have again been produced every week and Tim made special mention of Manager Wendy Moss and the volunteers who kept production going through the worst of the winter weather. As well as the routine newspaper, a quarterly magazine was produced by volunteers.

Financially, BTN virtually broke even during the year. After the heavy expenditure on technology the year before, costs were contained at historic levels and income was almost identical to the year before. While maintaining equipment will always have a cost, there are no plans at present for further major investment.

Through individual donations from listeners, fundraising efforts by the committee (including Talking Prizes) and individual volunteers, BTN Enterprises (BTNE) and Gift Aid, they raise up to 75% of our normal needs. The rest is found from external donors to whom they are eternally grateful.

A popular feature of the Talking Hawick News is the ‘Westender’ which is a written in Hawick dialect. One of the readers of this is Andrew Suddon who gave an amusing talk to the meeting on dialects and accents.

Borders Talking Newspaper is a charity (SC020192) and its only employee is the manager. There are always opportunities for new volunteers to edit, read, record or carry out any of the other roles in the organisation. A recent vacancy is for a bookkeeper to work with the manager to maintain BTN’s financial records. This is not a difficult task and will take only a few hours each week, with attendance at a committee meeting every 2 months. Please contact Wendy for more information (see contacts page)

New annual prizes have been added to our usual monthly draw. Enter Talking Prizes for the chance to win £100.00 or £50.00 at our 2011 AGM! Visit the donations page for more information and an application form.

Borders Talking Newspaper Association
Registered Scottish Charity No. SC020192