Meet the staff - Jamie Warren

Emma Chaplin

Communications Officer

Jamie Warren has a key role in the Membership Team as Membership Services and Database Coordinator. He's now been working for the Trust for nine years. I caught up with him to find out more about him and the work he does to support our members 

Tell us a bit about yourself

I grew up in leafy Dorking. A lovely market town surrounded Box Hill, Leith Hill and Ranmore. I currently live in Crawley with my family. I have always been a big fan of music, particularly 60s and 70s rock and folk. I was inspired enough to teach myself guitar and bass, and I had drum lessons too. 

I have worked in the charity sector for 18 years and never looked back. There is a wonderful culture that exists in the charities I work for that is not often present elsewhere; you work with like-minded people who really care about the cause.

And your role with the Trust?

As the Membership and Database Manager, I manage a small team who create and maintain the memberships. We communicate directly with our members who wish to get in touch, and make changes to their membership. I also look after the database that we use to hold and manage our supporters' details.

Who do you work most closely with?

We are reliant on our supporters for all our work and membership donations is invaluable, so I work very closely with my colleagues in the Fundraising Team. We are a close-knit team and we work in an extremely collaborative way.

What do you most enjoy about you work?

I love working for an organisation that is passionate about the work that it does. It's about making a difference rather than making a profit.

What are the biggest challenges?

The biggest challenges for me can often be the most interesting. We don’t have limitless resources, so we have to think how can we achieve the best results with the resources that we have. It’s incredibly enjoyable being part of a team who will work together to create the best solution, with everyone contributing great ideas.

What are you most proud of, with your work?

When I started, Sussex Wildlife Trust was a much more a paper-based organisation; in my time here, I have helped move us to be much more digitally based, removing the need of much manual data-entry, saving lots of time and allowing us to concentrate our efforts on other areas of supporting members.

What would be an ideal Sunday afternoon?

Sitting in my garden on a warm day, cold drink in hand and reading a great book.

Tell us about your relationship with Elvis...

I was born less than a month after Elvis died, so I grew up knowing the music through my dad, who was a big fan. When my band decided to raise money for a local school, we thought it would be fun, seeing as that we all we were all fans, to play as an Elvis band for one night only. That was 12 years ago and we have done innumerable shows since. Sadly, my dad wasn’t around to ever see us play, but every night, at one particular point, I always quietly look up and nod to him.