Plans for the Volunteer Managers Forum
- jenpaton5
- Aug 14
- 3 min read
Based on feedback received from Volunteer Managers, Jen and Emma have made a plan for future meetings that we hope will encourage more people to connect.
We’ve spent a bit of time over the last few months reviewing the way the Volunteer Managers Forum works and what attendees gain from attending. After all, a two-hour face to face meeting is a lot of time when you have the busy task of recruiting and supporting volunteers!
Through an online survey, conversations at the forum and one-to-one conversations in the community, we’ve listened to your thoughts and opinions and decided to create a structure for the Forum that gives protected space for networking and support, and then moves into themed conversations around current issues so that we can work as a collective to promote the value of volunteering across the Wirral.
Our first try for this new format will take place on Tuesday 9th September, 1pm -3pm at Make Hamilton, Argyle Street, Birkenhead. If you are not familiar with the building, it is a few doors down from Future Yard and has a pay and display car park within walking distance.
Theme for the next forum
The theme for this meeting will be Volunteer training needs, and there will be a few questions we’d like to go through with you:
What regular training sessions to you organise for your volunteers? (i.e. First Aid, Safeguarding, Food hygiene)
Do you facilitate these yourself or pay for them?
What training courses do your volunteers ask for that you currently don’t provide? Do you deliver any training for volunteers in other organisations - if so what is the charge?
We’d also like to discuss your training needs as a Volunteer Manager – what qualifications could help you in your role?
You might be wondering why we picked this topic out of all the ones suggested – and we do have a good reason for this! Wirral CVS has some funds put aside to deliver training courses for volunteers, so we would like to find out where there is a need and if we can help.
Please bring with you:
Any information you have from your volunteers about training courses they would like (if you have a course identified, please bring this information)
Any information you have about training courses that your organisation could deliver to other groups
Any suggested training courses you would like to see offered to volunteers
Any suggested training courses for Volunteer Managers across the Wirral
Future themes for meetings
We’ve also put together a plan for themes at future meetings so that you can plan ahead of time. We can discuss this at the Forum to check it works, and we will let everyone know if there are changes to the schedule with plenty of time.
Date, time and venue | Themed discussion |
9th September Make Hamilton Birkenhead | Volunteer training needs |
9th October Serpentine Road Family Church Wallasey | Inclusive Volunteer Recruitment |
18TH November Callister Garden Pavilion Birkenhead | The Volunteer Portal |
December Date and venue to be confirmed | Recap meeting |
January Date and venue to be confirmed | Volunteer induction process |
February Date and venue to be confirmed | sharing volunteers |
March Date and venue to be confirmed | Reward and recognition or volunteers (including Volunteers week) |
April Date and venue to be confirmed | Working with younger volunteers |
May Date and venue to be confirmed | Supporting volunteers and handling difficult conversations |
June Date and venue to be confirmed | Recap meeting |
July Date and venue to be confirmed | Volunteering policies |
Have we missed anything?
If you are looking through these themes and think there is something glaringly obvious missing, please let us know!
We want the themes to be useful for you all, and we are happy to change things around or add themes in if requested.
Are you coming to the Forum? Please register your attendance!
We would love to see as many of you as possible at the meetings - please register on the Wirral CVS website so we can make sure there are enough chairs and refreshments available.
If you can't attend a meeting and would like input on a particular theme, please contact us and we can arrange to talk with you separately to ensure your comments are fed into the wider discussion. As always, we'll post a blog after the meeting to let you know what was discussed and what the next steps are.
We will also be utilising the Volunteer Managers WhatsApp group to ask quick questions or give little updates in between meetings, so please let us know if you would like to be added to this.
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