Volunteer Coordinators Forum Thursday 23Rd March 2017

Volunteer Coordinators Forum – Thursday 23rd March 2017

In attendance

Alison Thorp (Chair) – VAR, Kathryn Wild – Age UK Rotherham, Sue Butler – SY Fire & Rescue, Neil Leatherland –Rotherham District Scouts, Emma Vizor – Crisis SY, Mel Marshall – Crossroads Care,Jo Farey – Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust,Terry Lowell – Bluebell Wood,Carol Purvis – RMBC, David Woodward – Rotherham Hockey Club, Sarah Thompson - YHLCOSA

Apologies

Jane Kidd – SYCIL, Rachel Neale – VAB,Rachel Cooling – British Red Cross, Emma Scott – Yorkshire Ambulance Service, Mac McKenney – MCVC, Lisa Porter – SY Police, Kevin Quinton – Shiloh Rotherham, Emma Boswell – Feed our Communities, Julie Hodgkinson – Rush House, Sue Wakefield – Doncaster Children’s Services Trust, Annette Marshall – RMBC Independent Visitor Service, Kerry McGrath – VAR, Fiona Martin – Tassibee, Sandra Tanser – Dementia Action Alliance, Elaine McKenna – Home-Start SY, Debra West – Rotherham Parent’s Forum, Jodie Bridger – Yorkshire Sport, Ester Htoo – British Red Cross, Bethan Lacey – British Red Cross

Minutes

Allison Carr–VAR

Alison Thorp (AT) welcomed everyone to the meeting and accepted the apologies. The notes of the previous meeting were passed around the group.Discussions took place around:

The Duke of York (DOY) Community Initiative. Organisations can apply for this award and, after 1 year of the award, can apply for funding up to £5k. AT encouraged the group to attend the information event at VAR on the 7th of September for further information on how to apply.
The new meeting schedule which was handed around the group.
Group membership. AT appealed to the group for support with spreading the word about the group across the sector.
Employer supported volunteering and removing barriers to young people volunteering. Some members of the group have gained young volunteers through corporate volunteering. The group agreed this should be discussed in more detail. Jo Farey (JF) will try to establish a contact at TRFT for ESV.
There will be a Kitemark workshop on Wednesday 23rd August at VAR. Members of the group can contact Kerry McGrath () for further information about the Kitemark and the workshop.
AT appealed to the group to add in their volunteer case studies to the network facebook page. Social Media policies were also shared with the group and AT will email electronic copies of these to the group.

Big Walk 2017 Evaluation

A date has been set for next year which will be at the end of June to take into account the school holidays and Ramadan. It was thought that we could also use the time in June before the walk to build up to the event. The provisional date set is Tuesday 26th June 12noon – 3pm.

There is a session booked in at VAR on Thursday 14th September 10am – 12noon where volunteers are welcome to come along and give their feedback and get involved in the event next year.

The group thought the event was well organised and that the cakes were good. Other feedback was:

Some volunteers stayed behind at the Minster due to physical difficulties and the group thought that relevant orgs may need to spend time with those who stay behind in future.
Some of the volunteers wanted to help out on the day to free up staff so that they could spend time with their volunteers
It was difficult to get the message out to the public during the walk.
AT has already been thinking about how to get the word out in the town centre and maybe a change to different town centre venues for the working group to meet will help raise the profile. Posters could also be displayed in shop windows.

It was suggested that orgs could bring their own banners to make the event more noticeable and possibly use a mobile PA system on the day.
The radio and social media presence were good and the group discussed using the radio more for publicity leading up to the event
There was a discussion around volunteer surveys and whether groups carry out these with their volunteers. AT will circulate examples around the group.

Publications

Members of the group shared their publications which were an overview of their volunteering service over the last year. AC is currently working on a joint network publication for July 2016 – June 2017. Members of the group were asked to forward any material for this to AC (). AT also reminded the group about the Community Achievement Awards and encouraged them to make nominations.

Volunteer Expenses – Gift Aid

A discussion took place around volunteers who don’t claim their expenses and around encouraging them to claim then donate back to the org and give gift aid. AT shared with the group the information we use for this. Bluebell Wood use a volunteer handbook which includes an expenses policy to explain to volunteers about gift aid. Their expenses form also includes a box for their volunteers to tick if they would like to gift aid their expenses back. Terry Lowell (TL) will send details to AT for sending around the group. NeilLeatherland (NL) will also check the guidance they send out to parents and send this on to AT for sending to the group.

The group thought that it could be a lot of work the claim the gift aid from expenses but that it can be worth doing financially. It can also help to explain to volunteers who are reluctant to claim expenses about restricted funding and that, if this isn’t used for expenses it has to be returned to the funder. It may also help to add up over the months how much the expenses would be so that the volunteer understands that they are out of pocket.

Other Business

The 7th of November is International Volunteer Managers day and the November network meeting will be and extended meeting from 9am – 3pm at VAR. AT passed around the agenda and asked the group for suggestions of a guest speaker.

Topics for future meetings:

Removing barriers to volunteering for young people
Employer supported volunteering
Flexible volunteering
Training tracker

Date of Next meeting: Thursday 21st September2017,10am – 12noon, optional lunch 12noon – 1pm at South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Training and Development Centre, Room 5, Beaver Hill Road, Handsworth, Sheffield, S13 9QA