Friday, July 20th, 2007
The summary of the Building on Success workshop (20 June) led by the Research Team at Roehampton University is linked below. The aim of the workshop was to consult with network members on how best to develop a robust and adequately resourced volunteering infrastructure at the local level.
A fairly robust conversation was held and feedback on the workshop or overall project should be directed to Jurgen Grotz of the Research Team.
Summary Document (MSWord): building-on-success-summary.doc
Wednesday, July 18th, 2007
This entry is not a complete reprisal of the 2012 Culture & Community SubGroup that met in Brighton on 3 July. Instead it will flag the main issue that need concern the network - the development of the 2012 Volunteering Strategy - and ask network members how they wish to respond?
The brief version of the story is that LOCOG commissioned a group (including VE, the Home Office and the Commission on the Future of Volunteering) to draft a Volunteering Strategy for 2012. This was due to be launched around about now but due to reasons not yet made public it looks as if the overall strategy document will not be adopted. There has not been, to date, a public announcement as to whether this is true or not or, if it has been dropped, why the strategy was not retained. There are are whispers of issues about diversity & equality and/or an unclear remit re: who was obliged to agree take up the strategy.
Whatever the reasons it now seems that the official approach to developing volunteers will be led by an internal group within LOCOG with responsibilities for workforce development and that instead of a fully stated strategy this group will produce a set of action points.
Three main issues were raised with the Regional representative from LOCOG on this front:
- that grass roots volunteer agencies were being left in the dark as to how the original strategy was being developed and the fact that it was currently under threat;
- that many local VCs were unclear as to whether they would be asked to play an active role in the recruitment and development of 2012 volunteers or whether they woud find themselves in competition with a regional body who bypassed them to recruit directly in their area;
- that LOCOG should take a careful look at thier tendancy to say that they ‘have 70,000+ volunteers signed up’ as there is a notable difference between entering your email on a website five years before the event and actually showing up to volunteer!
No doubt the circumstances around the development and implementation of the 2012 approach to volunteering will change quickly over the next few weeks and we should take note of these developments. But members may wish to spend some time thinking about what we, as a group, need in order to properly assist with and benefit from what promises to be a once in a lifetime opportunity in our region.
Monday, July 16th, 2007
The VE webpage for the England Volunteering Development Council (EVDC) website describes its role as:
a high-level representative and advocacy mechanism for volunteering. It engages both with government and opposition parties in order to capture the collective intelligence of volunteer-involving organisations, volunteering infrastructure providers and of volunteers to provide a powerful, coordinated lobby to steer government policy and community action.
The South East EVDC is one of 9 regional bodies informing the work of the national council. It seems obvious that that much of the content discussed at the meeting will be of interest to our network members.
At our last meeting discussions with Simon Richards of VE the idea of sharing dates/venues with the EVDC was raised as possible means of conserving resources and to encourage the two groups towards a productive and mutual exchange of information. From the point of view of the SENVC it would be useful if a group of VCs (8 or 10-ish?) attended the EVDC in a morning session then those VCs could be joined by the other network members in the afternoon.
Having attended their last meeting I can report that this not likely to be practical. The EVDC were happy to work together and do want VCs to be represented but are not keen to invite the enough VCs to attend at any one time as to create any real benefit. And if you factor in the fact the afternoon session would then be moved to a less travel-friendly timetable (ie not 11-3 but perhaps 2-5?) for those attending the afternoon session only.
Like SENVC the EVDC are currently reviewing their role & aspirations as a group and planning a way forward. They now have an appointed Chair and the secretariat will firmly placed with VE. The most productive activity the network can pursue now is to build consistent and open communication links with them and watch this space.
A separate entry will be made regarding the general content of the EVDC meeting.