Annual Review and Accounts - 2008 - 2009

Foreword

It's been two years since AVM launched. It seems almost yesterday! The landscape of volunteer management seems to have changed a great deal in that time. There is greater interest in volunteering from Government. More organisations are beginning to see the benefits of employee supported volunteering beyond the tokenistic ‘2 days volunteer per year team building model.' The ‘Credit Crunch' is also having an effect on the sector with redundancies hitting many charities which include scaling back on volunteer management.

We've had a productive year as you can see from the annual report. The Association of Volunteer Managers is continuing to establish itself as the voice of Volunteer Managers, sitting on various committees, developing our relationship with Volunteering England and the Office of the Third Sector too for example. We've also developed our membership services by improving our website, having our own Facebook group and Twitter Page.

The success of AVM rests with our membership. For us to continue to grow, to represent the views and interests of Volunteer Managers we need active members. I would like to thank the members of the board for their work over the past year and especially to John Ramsey, our out-going Chair for the time, dedication and the passion he has shown in developing AVM into the Association it is today. I would also like to thank the board for their faith in accepting me as their Chair. I hope over the next year I can prove worthy of that faith.

I would also especially like to thank you, our members, for your support this year and for your participation in the blogs and the Wiki pages. We are an Association set up by volunteer managers for volunteer managers. We could not exist with out you. Thank you.

Sean Cobley, Chair

Association of Volunteer Managers

September 2009

About the Association of Volunteer Managers

AVM is an independent body that aims to support, represent and champion people who manage volunteers in England regardless of field, discipline or sector. It has been set up by and for people who manage volunteers.

We aim to:

• facilitate and support effective peer-to-peer networking of those involved in volunteer management locally, regionally and nationally
• campaign and speak out on issues that are key to people who manage volunteers
• develop information and good practice resources on volunteer management

We define volunteer managers as:

‘People who, directly or indirectly, oversee, manage, co-ordinate or administer volunteers or volunteering programmes. Volunteer managers operate in all sectors and at all levels.

We recognise that other terms can and are used to describe volunteer managers, that volunteer management may only be part of a volunteer manager's role and that volunteer managers are both paid and unpaid.'

Directors Report

Looking back on the year

In many ways it has been a very positive year for volunteer managers as their profile and recognition has continued to grow.

Three key issues have dominated the agenda:

• the Volunteer Management funding programme, details of which were finally announced this year;
• the Commission on the Future of Volunteering's Action Group on volunteer management; and
• the recognition of volunteer management as a key role in developing effective volunteering, particularly with Baroness Neuberger's report Volunteering across the criminal justice system which, like her previous report into health and social care, highlighted the critical role volunteer managers play.

This growing acceptance of volunteer managers and the need to support them effectively, across all sectors and within Government, is welcome news and could not have been envisaged even just five years ago.

However, whilst the seeds are there, we are still a long way from seeing them blossom. In the midst of a recession and with widespread political acknowledgement that public sector cuts are imminent, volunteer management remains fragile and, anecdotally, we are hearing that volunteer managers and even their whole teams are one of the first areas being made redundant.

It is interesting that at a time when volunteering enquiries are up, when the demand for voluntary services are increasing and when the evidence is building up on the necessity for skilled and supported volunteer managers, volunteer management is on the frontline for organisational cuts.

Internally, one of the crucial issues we recognised last year was that our website needed to improve to meet the needs of both our members and registered users. With thanks to the Red Foundation we launched our new website earlier this year, which is both easier to navigate and faster to use. Our new website means that we can concentrate on improving and developing our services to our members.

Membership Services

One of the key developments this year has been the re-development of our website - www.volunteermanagers.org.uk - to make it both quicker and more user-friendly. As a result we now have 954 registered users on it.

We have also set up and AVM facebook group and an AVM Twitter page. All users can also keep up-to-date with our work through RSS, Delicious and email updates.

Our Volunteer Managers' wiki - www.wiki.volunteermanagers.org.uk - continues to go from strength to strength, as both number of articles and number of contributors increases.

Using the website, we now have a number of services that are exclusive to our members:

• Job section - the most comprehensive collection of vacancies for volunteer managers in this country. This year 158 vacancies have been posted;
• Ask a question - a facility that members can use to ask any question about volunteer management; and
• AVM members email group - a recent service designed to facilitate ongoing discussion and dialogue between members.

In addition we are currently working on

• a members' handbook;
• setting up a buddying system for members; and
• developing a volunteer managers' retreat to give members the opportunity and space to discuss how we want to develop the profession

Policy Development

A key feature of our work is to raise awareness of the volunteer management and volunteer managers play in developing safe, effective and sustainable volunteering.

We have responded to

• the Conservatives' Green Paper A stronger society: Voluntary Action in the 21st Century
• the Third sector Action Plan

We have:

• been an active member of the Commission on the Future of Volunteering's Action Group on volunteer management
• worked with CapacityBuilders and Volunteering England on the Volunteer Management funding programme
• contributed to the Department of Health Volunteering strategy through the reference group
• worked with the NCVO Workforce Hub to develop a user-friendly booklet to accompany the revised National Occupational Standards

We contacted all the MPs who signed up to the Early Day Motion that erroneously asserted that the 16 hour rule for volunteers on benefits was still in force, to advise them of the correct regulations.

We spoke at the Volunteer Managers' Conference organised by Volunteering England, the Henry Stewart Conference on volunteering and Derbyshire Volunteer Centres' Conference.

We continue to meet regularly with Volunteering England and Workers in Student Community Volunteering to ensure we work more effectively. We are also in regular contact with the Office of Third Sector and have met with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games for initial discussions as to how the 70,000 volunteers are going to be managed.

Raising our Profile

We have been featured in The Guardian, Third Sector Magazine Charity Times and on Radio 4.

This covered topics including:

• DWP Volunteering brokerage scheme
• Volunteer Management funding programme
• Independent Safeguarding Authority
• Volunteers' Ombudsman
• Benefit rules for volunteers
• Value of volunteering

We have also contributed a regular column in Volunteering England's Volunteering magazine.

Looking forward... the challenges ahead

What challenges lie ahead? Many!

Understanding the Volunteer Management Profession

With an ever increasing interest in volunteering, the call for a more professional profession rises. But what does this mean? Do we actually know what our profession looks like? I am not sure that we do. When I think of a fundraiser I have a pretty clear idea of their career progression. I don't think I could say the same of a volunteer manager.

One of the things AVM will be doing this year is to start a process of mapping out our profession. If we can better understand the structure of our profession we can campaign and raise the profile of our profession more effectively.

Raising Morale

It seems to me that our profession has a low self-esteem. Perhaps this is understandable given the chronic underfunding and support our profession by and large suffers from! AVM will be looking at ways in which we can raise the moral of our profession. We play a vital role in our organisations and we should be rightly proud of what we contribute.

Collaboration

There are many associations and bodies that support volunteer managers in various fields of our sector. AVM will be looking to forge closer links with these organisations. We recognise that working together we can create a louder voice for volunteer managers.

Sean Cobley
Chair, Association of Volunteer Managers

Financial Statement for the year ended 23rd April 2008

Balance Sheet as at 23rd April 2009

Assets £

Fixed Assets  Nil
Current Assets
Accounts Receivable  5116.3
Cash   366.86

Total Assets    5483.16

Liabilities £

Current Liabilities
Accounts Payable     243.82
Long-term Liabilities     Nil
Total Liabilities    243.82
Equity    Nil

Total assets less total liabilities   5239.34

We are grateful for the time contributed by volunteers to the Association of Volunteer Managers.

This includes:

• designing and updating the website;
• contributing to consultations;
• writing and designing publications;
• carrying out research; and
• carrying out the duties of directors.

At the national average salary this is equivalent to £17,416

For the year ended 23rd April 2009 the Association of Volunteer Managers was entitled to exemption under section 249A(1) of the Companies Act 1985.

Members have not required the company to obtain an audit in accordance with section 249B(2) of the Companies Act 1985;

The directors acknowledge their responsibility for:

• ensuring the company keeps accounting records which comply with section 221; and
• preparing accounts which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company as at the end of the financial year, and of its profit or loss for the financial year, in accordance with the requirements of section 226, and which otherwise comply with the requirements of the Companies Act relating to accounts, so far as applicable to the company.

The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the special provisions in Part VII of the Companies Act 1985 relating to small companies.

Signed

Sean Cobley                John Ramsey
Chair Company            Secretary

21st September 2009   21st September 2009

Reference and Administrative Information

Company number: 6224866
Registered office: 9 Stamford Road, Watford, Hertfordshire WD17 4QS
Website: www.volunteermanagers.org.uk
Email: info@volunteermanagers.org.uk
Bankers: The Co-operative Bank Plc, PO Box 101,1 Balloon Street, Manchester, M60 4EP

Chair: Sean Cobley
Vice-chair: Debbie Usiskin
Company Secretary: John Ramsey

Directors:

• Rachael Bayley (appointed June 2009)
• Kate Bowgett
• Sean Cobley
• Patrick Daniels
• Steve Gee
• Steven Howlett
• Caroline Loden (stepped down September 2008)
• Tracey Mealing (elected September 2008)
• Alan Murray (elected September 2008)
• John Ramsey
• Nikki Squelch
• Debbie Usiskin (elected September 2008)
• Carola Vorlop

Structure, governance and management:

The Association of Volunteer Managers is a company limited by guarantee, governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association.

The company is governed by a Board of Directors. The Board makes decisions on the annual budget, formulates policy considers strategic issues which affect the organisation and manages the organisation.

In the first year all directors were appointed. From 2008, each year three directors are elected from the membership and one director appointed by the board.

Thank you to our supporters

We would like to thank the following for their support during 2008/09:

• Age Concern and Help the Aged
• Breakthrough Breast Cancer
• Business in the Community
• Cancer Research UK
• CSV
• London Museums Hub
• National Support Services Partnership
• Red Foundation
• Roehampton University
• RSPB
• Sue Ryder Care
• YouthNet

Special thanks to Scope for hosting our AGM, and Justin Davis-Smith and John Knights for speaking at our 2008 AGM.