Finance Trustee

Join the Calibre Audio board and help achieve their vision of an inclusive society where everyone with a print disability can enjoy accessible audiobooks and content.

Who we are

Imagine, for a moment, going to your local library and finding that just seven out of a hundred books are in the format you can read.

Imagine you are a child excited about an author’s new book about a schoolboy wizard, and it’s all the kids at school can talk about, but following an overnight queue, you find it isn’t published for people like you.

Imagine being one of Britain’s more than 10 million children and adults who cannot read printed books. This is a “print disability”, and we – Calibre Audio, exist to support and help by providing a much-loved audiobook service for the visually impaired, those with dyslexia and other print-disabled people.

Our services started with cassettes of just ten books for 12 members, and 50 years on, we now have in excess of 16,500 titles for our 12,000 members.

For five decades, we have been on a mission to unlock the world of stories and learning for those who find reading printed books challenging.

During the last few years, we have invested heavily in improving services and making our organisation more efficient. These investments include new streaming services via the web, through partner apps, developing an Alexa Skill, additional content such as podcasts and book reviews, and developing our staff and board to improve our diversity.

We are in an exciting period of growth and development as a charity, and our new Trustee will join us at a fantastic time.

Throughout 2024, we’re running an exciting programme of activities to reflect on our past achievements as we celebrate our 50th anniversary — and we will launch our new strategy for the future to ensure we reach even more people who can benefit from our service.

We want to engage with younger members of our community and make as many books as possible available on as many platforms as possible, including other partner apps and smart speakers.

This is your opportunity to support us with long-term strategic thinking and planning and bring expertise in finance to the board.

Who we are looking for

We seek a strategic and visionary financially qualified leader who can support and challenge us. In the summer of 2025, our new Trustee will take over chairing our Finance Committee when our current Treasurer ends his term.

We are excited to invite first-time Trustees to the board; you do not need trustee or non-executive experience. We are keen to ensure our board reflects the people we work with and our society.

We need skilled, motivated, and brilliant people who can help us achieve our vision of an inclusive society where everyone with a reading disability can enjoy accessible books.

Time commitment

You will attend four board meetings a year in Buckinghamshire with an option to attend virtually.

Initially, you will be a member of our Finance Committee, and when our current Treasurer ends their term in 2025, you will take over chairing our Finance Committee, which meets online for up to an hour every month.

We have an annual strategy away day once a year, and Trustees are invited to attend events throughout the year.

The overall time commitment, including reading board papers, preparation for board meetings and ad hoc advice and support to the executive team, is half a day a month (c.6 days per year), spread across the above commitments.

Please click 'Apply’ to be redirected to the Peridot Partners website, where you can find full details of the candidate profile and register your interest to apply.

Applications for this role close Monday 17th June.