Announcements
The next meeting of the Thrive Trustee Network on 6 December has been cancelled. The weather has proved too unpredictable this week so we shall be rescheduling. Apologies.
Trustees’ skills and experience vital to sector’s future
This article from Guardian Professional Voluntary Sector Network makes interesting reading.
It is just another reminder of just how important Trusteeship is at this cruical time for the Voluntary Sector.
Are you really necessary?
Here’s a question for you?
What if you (you personally as a trustee) never attended your board meetings?
What if your board never met at all?
What would the impact be on your charity/organisation? Would things carry on as always? Would things get worse? Might they get better???
So how much impact do you actually have? What value (true, added value) do you bring to the board or does the board bring to the charity?
Sometimes stepping back and asking the difficult questions – do I actually make a difference? – allows a chance to re-engage and actually make that difference.
Go on – ask yourself the difficult question.
Then go and actually make a difference.
Trusteeship by numbers
Statistics often paint an interesting picture. Take a look at our handout from our “Join Us and Make a Difference” event back on 25 Oct – it shows some key 2010 trusteeship related statistics. The pdf is here.
By numbers…
Estimated 1million trustees in the UK supporting 181000 charities which control around £53gn of income.
Around 50% of these charities have an unfilled space on their board.
39% of boards report difficulties in recruiting trustees.
81% of boards use word of mouth to recruit
Only 5% of the population are aware of trusteeship as an oppotunity to support a voluntary organisation
66% of trustees are aged over 50, 20% are over 70 and the average age is 57
only 0.5% of trustees are aged under 24years (despite 12% of the population being in this age group)
(and apparently only 300 (three hundred) trustees in the UK are known to be under 18)
So what do these stats tell us? Are these issues, problems, challenges or opportunities?
How do these map onto the facts and figures for your own board?
Trustee Opportunities
If you’re an individual looking for an opportunity to become a Trustee, then this is a good place to start looking.
If you represent a charity or organisation looking to recruit into a space on your board or committee, then this is the place to start advertising that opportunity.
The “opportunities” board on the Thrive Trustee Network website will allow member organisations to post their vacancies for promotion to all those browsing this website. For individuals it’s a useful place to start looking.
Looking for an opportunity to “make a difference”?
Keep checking our “opportunities” category in the blog.
Do you need to promote an opportunity?
Organisational Members of the Network can promote their opportunities here. Contact us to find out more.
Feedback from the NCVO Trustees Conference
The NCVO Annual Trustee Conference took place in London on Mon 18th October 2010 in the run up to National Trustees’ Week.
450 people attended for a range of presentations, workshops, information sharing and networking. The key themes of the day formed part of our feedback at our own recent “Join Us and Make a Difference” event in Grimsby on Mond 25th.
Lots of information from the National Conference is now available on their website here.
Included are each of the keynote speeches, all the workshop presentations and a few images.
Become a charity trustee
Encouraging individuals to become trustees is an ongoing challenge. NCVO have just released a Prezi presentation (see below and here) outlining some of the reasons to become a charity trustee. Something to refer people to when they ask about trusteeship?
25-31 Oct is National Trustees’ Week
We’re in National Trustee’s Week (www.trusteesweek.org.uk). Running from 25-31 October 2010 this is the first national celebration of trusteeship.
VANEL got involved on Mon 25th with our “Join Us and Make a Difference” event (website here), and this week we’re cascading some information sharing about the latest trusteeship thinking and resources. Keep watching this space.
In the meantime, visit the Trustees’s Week website for lots of interesting case studies and information.
Reminder – “Join Us and Make a Difference” 25 Oct
The next meeting for the Trustee Network is on Monday 25 October at Grimsby Neighbourhood Centre.
The meeting takes the form of a Trustee event – “Join Us and Make a Difference” and is open from 2pm-7pm.
The event has a dedicated website here, the programme for the day is here and a flyer can be downloaded from here.
Guidance for Trustees with Learning Difficulties
In a diverse and representative board it is important that all Trustees understand their role. For an individual with learning difficulties some of the literature available to date is difficult to understand.
The Charity Commission in association with Mencap has produced a new, simple to follow guidance document for such indivduals.
Find it online here.
The original version of this guide is still available here.
Charity Commission Newsletter Summer 2010
The Summer 2010 issue of “Charity Commission News” has just been published. Should be read by all charity Trustees.
Can be read online here or downloaded from the Charity Commission website here.
Don’t forget to keep a regular eye on the Charity Commission website news here.