Getting involved
Acting on feedback from members and employers for more information and detail on volunteering generally, we are seeking to take small steps to raise the profile of volunteering and to enhance the information that is currently available.
If you would like to offer your support and to get involved, or if you would like to find out more, please contact Debbie Atkins, our Head of Volunteer Engagement.
What we have planned
Working together, key volunteers and members of the executive staff are looking at the kind of changes we could undertake that would make a difference; avoiding "volunteering overload" for some members; and creating a sustainable resource for the future.
Our volunteers are the lifeblood of our profession and we want to build on what is good and enhance the opportunities that are available. We are keen to expand those opportunities to highlight the benefits to employers and to include more ways in which we can involve our international members, our students and members who are at a distance from London or central Scotland.
Our aim is to make the experience for our volunteers more rewarding and enjoyable and to look at ways of enhancing the relationship between volunteers and the executive staff working with them.
As part of this process, we:
- Have created a directory of all the volunteer opportunities that are fulfilled throughout the year - view the Directory of Opportunities
- Seek at all times to give clarity to task and time commitment
- Promote ways in which members can get involved
- Thank all our active volunteers for their support.
We want to ensure our volunteer recruitment process is open and transparent and to build up a "bank" of volunteers who are interested in being notified when a particular type of opportunity arises.
We are looking for members who:
- Want to find a way of getting involved
- Want to make a difference
- Are willing to share their knowledge and/or their skills either on a short term project based task, or in a longer term appointment to a committee
- Recognise and respect the viewpoints, skills and expertise of other volunteers and members of the Executive
- Meet deadlines which they agree to take on
- Prepare thoroughly for meetings and participate constructively in decisions
- Support all decisions made by proper process
- Recognise the constraints imposed by finite resources and the overall priorities of the profession
- Want the profession to be successful and want to work in partnership with the Executive to achieve this aim.
If you would like to find out more, to request a talk to be delivered in your office, or to add your name to our "bank" of volunteers, please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement for the IFoA.