Volunteer Managers Conference 2010
2nd South East Regional Volunteer Managers Conference
Following the success of the 2008 Empowering Today’s Volunteer Manager Conference in Eastbourne, we are proud to announce the 2nd South East Regional Volunteer Managers Conference sponsored by vinvolved, taking place on:
Thursday 23 September 2010
at the Wellshurst Golf And Country Club in East Sussex
The economic downturn and the 2012 Olympics are contributing to an increasing number of people wanting to get involved in volunteering, so rewarding volunteering opportunities and effective volunteer management is not just important, it’s essential. This event is an unmissable training, support and networking event for anyone involved in supporting volunteers.
Unlike most conferences, the Volunteer Managers Conference contains no key note speeches, just a series of interactive workshops. You chose the workshops that will benefit you most.
BOOK NOW! places limited
The first workshop titles have been announced:
Volunteers and the law: Are you clear about the law and how it can apply to volunteering? Do you know what rights, protections and responsibilities the law places on volunteers? This interactive workshop introduces some of the basic legal principles relevant to working in the voluntary sector, including avoiding unwittingly creating a contract of employment with your volunteers, diversity and equality issues, criminal records checking and the data protection act.
Deciding to delegate to volunteers: Delegation is a key leadership skill in any sector, but when you are working with volunteers it is an essential tool that volunteer managers can use to motivate volunteers. Effective delegation can also increase the skills of your volunteers, but delegating badly can damage the motivation of your team. This short workshop will give you the opportunity to explore the pros and cons of delegation, the 7 key steps to effectively delegating and review your own organisation – including what you could delegate to your volunteers.
Volunteering Englands "Influencing Up": Gaining executive 'top down' support and investment for volunteering and volunteer management is crucial to ensuring the success and sustainability of any vibrant and effective volunteer programme. This session is all about sowing the seeds for delegates to develop their 'influencing up' strategy and really make a difference within their organisations. The key aims of this short workshop are to support people who manage volunteer based schemes in thinking about why it's important to have executive support, planning who to approach, deciding what are your key messages and how to convey them and working together to overcome any barriers and issues in gaining executive support.
Providing training for volunteers: Some people who get involved in volunteering do so as a means of developing their skills, for others training is simply needed to help them enjoy their volunteering fully. But training for volunteers doesn’t have to mean sending them on a course. Volunteer Managers are often responsible for delivering training to their volunteers. This workshop will give you a brief taster of a train the trainer course. You’ll get an understanding of how different people learn and how to develop a training session for your volunteers.
Building a supportive relationship with volunteers: Everyone benefits from feedback – and volunteers are not different. As a volunteer manager, you’ll have lots of opportunity to compliment your volunteers. But on occasions, you might also need to deliver negative feedback to maintain the quality and standards of your service. Developing a supportive relationship with your volunteers will help you to manage performance. This workshop will look at how to give (and receive) both positive and negative feedback and how, as a volunteer manager you can deal with challenging situations.
Safeguarding and your organisation: Safeguarding means keeping children, young people and vulnerable adults connected to your organisation safe by creating a culture of opennes and having processes in place that reflect good practice to promote the safety of everyone. This session will use your experiences and some scenario-based exercises to look at what we mean by abuse and how to recognise it, the challenges of preventing it in your organisations and what to do if you have concerns. We'll consider the 3 P's - principles, policies and procedures - and give you some time to action plan for safeguarding in your own organisation.
Hold the front pgae: Looking specifically at printed media (newspapers), 'Hold the front page' will help you identify what makes a news story, and what doesn't! We'll explore what you need to know about your local newspapers to help them to help you, as well as some tips for getting ongoing coverage. Finally, the all important news release; using the pyramid approach, we'll help you to construct an effective news release that appeals to journalists and increases your chances of seeing your name in print!
Hoodie, houdlums and hastle? The reality of working with young volunteers: The media often portrays a negative image of young people that might put organisations off working with young volunteers: "Young volunteers are too unreliable", "Young volunteers would need a lot more supervision", "Young people are only interested in volunteering for a short time", "Young volunteers wouldn't be interested in our organisation". The reality of working with young volunteers is often very different from the myths. They are perhaps an under-used volunteering resource and the type of organisations that young people have enjoyed volunteering with might just surprise you! This workshop you can find out why young people want to volunteer and what they look for in an opportunity. We'll help you make your organisation attractive to young volunteers to open up a whole new source of volunteers, as well as what support you can get for any young volunteers you are already working with.
The workshop programme is being up-dated regularly - so don't forget to check back often to see the most up to date information!
Who should attend?
Anyone, either paid or unpaid who manages volunteers, including those responsible for recruiting, co-ordinating, leading, supporting and organising volunteers across any sector.
Why attend?
Up-date your skills and knowledge, share experiences with other volunteer managers, find answers to your questions about recruiting, managing and supporting volunteers. What people said about the 2008 Conference:
"An excellent day, everyone was very friendly and informative" -
Tracey Morgan, BFVA
"One of the liveliest and most informative conferences I have attended" -
Amanda Eastaugh, Downland
"Exceeded my expectations" -
Sarah Hodgetts, 3VA
