#trustees week

[newsfromtherooftop]

Firms urged to back charity trustees

Firms urged to back charity trustees

Trustees Unlimited is calling on UK employers to embrace corporate trustee programmes to help develop their employees’ skills.  The announcement comes during  Trustees Week

Sophie Livingstone, Manging Director at Trustees Unlimited highlights that board-level volunteering programmes like ‘Step on Board’ which Trustees Unlimited runs in partnership with the National Council for Voluntary…

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Amazing Interest In Young Trustees- Articles from #Trusteesweek 2014

Amazing Interest In Young Trustees- Articles from #Trusteesweek 2014

            It’s been an incredible Trustees’ Week so far. One of the things I have been struck by is the interest that there has been in young people becoming Trustees.

I have seen so many tweets about young people as Trustees being discussed at conferences, seminars and meetings across the country.

There have been more articles written about young people as Trustees than I have ever seen…

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Trusteeship, a Chair’s view

Gill Webber, Chair of YMCA Swansea, highlights the rewarding nature of being a board member

I have been a Trustee with Swansea YMCA for the past six years, the Chair of the Board for the last three.  Although the decision to become a Trustee shouldn’t be taken lightly and by the faint-hearted, it is not something to be frightened of either as it gives immense personal satisfaction.  I have had so many opportunities to experience new things and to help people in ways I would not ordinarily be able to do in my everyday life. 

The experience has been a real rollercoaster - exciting, scary, fun, educational, bewildering, fulfilling and alarming (sometimes all at the same time) but nevertheless addictive. I have made wonderful new friends and acquaintances, helped to solve some incredible problems, enjoyed new experiences and importantly learnt so much from my colleagues (both on the board and staff team).  

Complementing this has been the opportunity to attend a wide variety of conferences with specialist speakers and workshops, undertake formal training (which has helped me to ensure I act knowledgeably and responsibly) and being mentored and supported in London by highly experienced global business people under the Pilotlight scheme to help the organisation achieve far greater things than I could ever have imagined.  

All have given me the confidence and tools to support the rest of the Board and staff team to embrace the issues that have faced the organisation, including:

major building refurbishment

health and safety issues including securing additional finance to cover large, unexpected costs

developing and strengthening systems and processes in order to secure and retain large contracts

achieving and managing lead body status for national projects

cash flow concerns

tenancy issues

new competitors

HR challenges and opportunities

reshaping services to meet changing community needs and wants

establishing new social enterprise schemes

core partners going into liquidation

legal and difficult partner matters.

The experience has certainly helped me to develop personally, but most importantly feel rewarded for making a difference and playing an essential part in helping to transform people’s lives for the better.

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A trustee’s lament

Today's Trustees' Week blog comes from David Jones, trustee of South Denbighshire Community Partnership (and Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council)

Smaller charities depend on their trustees to govern, fundraise and manage the day to day activities of their organisation. Life as a trustee in these troubled financial times is, therefore, largely focused on fundraising and ensuring future sustainability.

Our organisation, SDCP, emerged to meet a local need which came about as a consequence of a time-limited Healthy Living Project, funded by the Big Lottery. Strong local authority support in providing a suitable building, together with funding from Welsh Government and WEFO, enabled us to kick start the project and provided the necessary impetus to allow us to move forward.

We are, however, now in a position where our funding comes to an end in six months time, and this has definitely concentrated the mind of staff and trustees alike.

Our initial business case was financially underpinned by the project providing low cost accommodation for local voluntary groups, and ‘hot desk’ provision for national organisations who wished to provide services in a deeply rural area. This worked well initially, but the significant downturn in the economy has now had a major effect on our projected income streams.

Local voluntary groups have much greater difficulties in sourcing regular funding to meet our reasonably priced room charges, and the organisations which offer advice, guidance and support to vulnerable clients are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain services to rural areas when they are subject to major budgetary cuts. Understandably they have had to focus their efforts on centres of populations, but if this is coupled with a reduction in the provision and frequency of rural transport, life in the countryside becomes more and more challenging.

While our future funding is uncertain, my fellow trustees and I are remaining positive and doing all we can to ensure our services continue for some time. Being a trustee can definitely be challenging at times, but it is also very rewarding and I would encourage anyone considering such a role to get involved. 

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How To Become A Young Trustee

How To Become A Young Trustee

  The podcast above gives reasons for why young people should be Trustees and talks a little bit about my own Trustee Journey and why I set up Young Charity Trustees.

It includes 5 tips for young people who want to become trustees:

  1 Passion matters so much

2 Think outside the box when finding a role

3 Be as open-minded as you…

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Two Trustee Events In The Run Up To #trusteesweek

Two Trustee Events In The Run Up To #trusteesweek

In the run up to Trustees’ Week, I am speaking at two events on behalf of Young Charity Trustees.

First, on the 16th of October I am speaking at a ‘Becoming a Young Trustee’ Event, a collaboration between JCI and Getting on Board. As a JCI Award winner I look forward to sharing the importance of Trusteeship with some of their members. I will speaking alongside the brilliant Katherine Sparkes,…

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#nominateatrustee- The Getting On Board Trustees' Week campaign

#nominateatrustee- The Getting On Board Trustees’ Week campaign

Getting on Board has set up an excellent campaign in the run up to Trustees’ Week. There is more information here on the website, but essentially they want people to use the hashtag #nominateatrustee to nominate friends, family, colleagues and contacts to be Trustees. In my own experience, a lot of people don’t think they are ‘good enough’ to be Trustees until someone else recommends they…

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Amazing New Video Competition for #Trusteesweek

Amazing New Video Competition for #Trusteesweek

    I’ve been involved in the working group for Trustees’ Week for the past few years. I’m very happy to share an exciting new competition with you.

The ‘One In a Million’ video competition has now been launched (hashtag #1milliontrustees).

Basically it is a competition where Trustees have the chance to tell their story about why Trusteeship makes them tick. It’s a chance to win a great prize,…

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