Who are we?

The Association of Volunteer Managers is a company limited by guarantee governed by a board of directors:

John Ramsey (Chair)

John originally practised as a solicitor before turning his back on the law and spending three months in Uganda volunteering for an environmental NGO. He went on to work for them for four years managing volunteers in both the UK and Tanzania before joining Student Volunteering England as Head of Information. He subsequently became Chief Executive, where he led the strategic review of its aims and objectives, before moving to Citizens Advice as their Head of Volunteering Development. He is currently Head of Volunteering at Age Concern England.

John is a former trustee of the National Centre for Volunteering (now Volunteering England) and chaired their Equal Opportunities and Diversity Working Group. He currently sits on the England Volunteering Development Council, is a moderator of the UK Volunteer Programme Managers e-forum and a member of the National Volunteer Database Advisory Group. He is the author of 'The benefits barrier: What impact do welfare benefits have on volunteering?'

Kate has been working in volunteer management for the last ten years. Her first job was managing London Nightline where she was the only paid member of staff, working with 100 volunteers. Since then she has worked in a variety of different volunteer management roles including National Volunteer Manager at Terrence Higgins Trust and Information Officer at Volunteering England.

She currently works at Off the Streets and Into Work, managing a project to make volunteering more accessible to homeless people. Through this she spearheaded the campaign to allow volunteers on benefits to receive lunch expenses, and created the first ever set of good practice resources around involving service users as volunteers.

She has had several books on volunteering published including the 'Good Practice Guide', 'Deciding Whether to Involve Volunteers' and 'Selecting Volunteers' for Volunteering England, and 'Working With Volunteers: a Good Practice Guide for Refugee Community Organisations' for the Evelyn Oldfield Unit. She is also on the board of Volunteer Centre Southwark, and Streets Alive, a theatre company working with young homeless people.

Sean served in the Army for 7 years and then worked for 3 years as part of an HR team in the business sector. Sean joined Breakthrough Breast Cancer in 1998. In his dual role of Volunteer & Office Coordinator, Sean developed the volunteer function at Breakthrough increasing the number of volunteers from under 10 to over 140 per year who support Breakthrough through volunteering at the Charity's Head Office. Promoted to Head Office Volunteers Manager in September 2006 he is continuing the development of volunteering at Breakthrough, identifying new and innovative ways in which volunteers can support the charity.

Away from his 'day job' Sean is also a volunteer counsellor at his local hospice and the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Patrick Daniels

After studying politics and international relations, Patrick got the volunteering bug working for six months in New Delhi, India, with an Indian disaster management NGO. After this experience, Patrick worked as a full time volunteer for ATD Fourth World, a French anti-poverty NGO, in a number of different projects in London, Paris, Brussels and Guatemala City. During seven years of involvement, Patrick worked on a range of educational initiatives with children and young people.

In the UK, Patrick has worked in a number of volunteer management roles, in particular with the Octopus Community Network, a partnership of nine community organisations in Islington, London. He currently works for YouthNet, an online information and advice charity, managing and training volunteers who provide relationships support via TheSite.org. For the last four years, Patrick has been co-chair of the Guatemala Solidarity Network which recruits volunteer international accompaniers, and sits on the editorial committee of Central America Report.

Steve Gee

Steve was a store manager, area manager and then buyer in mainstream retail before joining the Imperial Cancer Research Fund as Area Manager. After the merger with Cancer Research Campaign, he joined the Volunteering Department of Cancer Research UK as Volunteer Development Manager. Steve has also acted as Head of Volunteering at Cancer Research UK covering a secondment.

Steve has managed a series of recruitment campaigns that have attracted over 7000 new volunteers to Cancer Research UK over the last three years. He has also introduced a series of new training systems, ensuring that volunteers and their managers are given induction training and development opportunities. Steve represents Cancer Research UK at the England Volunteering Development Council and the Heads of Volunteering Peer Group. He volunteers in youth and community work via his local church where they have also successfully raised funds for aid charities.

Steven Howlett

Steven Howlett is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Volunteering Research, where he has carried out a number of studies on different aspects of volunteering, and is Programme Convenor of the Voluntary Action Management course at Roehampton University. He is currently editor of Voluntary Action, the journal of the Institute for Volunteering Research, and editor of the research to practice section of e-volunteerism.com Steven is also chair of ARVAC and a trustee of REACH.

Steven was previously Research Fellow at the Centre for Institutional Studies at the University of East London where he worked on a project to evaluate urban regeneration programmes in East London. Before that Steven worked in local government as an Economic Development Officer at Durham County Council where he was involved in developing and implementing projects to regenerate the East Durham coal field area.

Caroline Loden

Caroline became involved in volunteering from a young age with a small charity supporting adults and children with disabilities. After living and volunteering in Tanzania with a youth developmental charity, she joined Help the Aged in the Grant fundraising team.

After three years at Help the Aged, during which she moved to be Volunteer Programme Manager - setting up volunteer projects to support older people, she moved to The Children's Society where she continues to work. Caroline was responsible for pulling together the organisational volunteer policy for The Children's Society and managing the volunteering team before moving into the Church Partnerships team.

Caroline is a moderator of the UK Volunteer Programme Managers e-forum and a member of the England Volunteering Development Council.

Alan Murray

Alan is Head of Volunteering Development at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which has over 12,000 volunteers and a network of 160 volunteer run local groups. He is responsible for developing, encouraging and maximising the impact of volunteering in the RSPB.

Alan has spent his working life working in the conservation/environmental sector with both local authorities and voluntary organisations. He started out as a full time volunteer with the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers in 1989 and still volunteers for a number of organisations today. He has also been the Community Opportunities Co-ordinator for BTCV in Sheffield, Country Park Ranger for Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire and Head Ranger for Derbyshire Countryside Service (NE).

Alan has presented at regional, national and international conferences on many aspects of volunteering and delivered training for people on working with and managing volunteers. He currently sits on the England Volunteering Development Council and is a member of the Volunteer Management and Leadership Advisory Group of Volunteering England.

Nikki Squelch

Nikki Squelch is the Head of Volunteering Strategy for Scope, a national disabilities charity. Nikki originates from Australia where she gained a Bachelor of Social Work specialising in Community Development. Moving to the UK in 1995, Nikki initially worked in the NHS, where she established volunteering programmes in Renal Services, before moving to the voluntary sector to develop an Intergenerational programme that received local and national acclaim. She then moved to the Volunteer Centre networks providing a range of training, support and advice in the best practice of volunteer management. Nikki then went on to work at Age Concern England as the National Volunteering Development Manager. She has presented at national, regional and international conferences on many aspects of volunteering.

Nikki is currently a member of the England Volunteering Development Council Scrutiny Committee and the National Network of Volunteer Involving Agencies. Her volunteering experience includes, volunteer trainer, driver and former trustee of the Domestic Violence Intervention Service and Greater London Volunteering.

Debbie Usiskin

Debbie started volunteering regularly at the age of 14 and is still an active volunteer as a trustee in a local housing organisation as well as counselling on a telephone crisis line.

Working in residential care while a student lead eventually to a career in social work, with older people and people with learnign disabilities before moving into training and development, first at the London Borough of Hackney and then at Victim Support London.

At VSL Debbie was responsible for design and delivery of training to volunteers working with victims of serious crime, as well as being the lead officer in all aspects of training around volunteer management.

Leaving Victim Support London Debbie went on to establish a volunteer programme at Nightingale - Europe's largest home for older people - and then on to become Head of Volunteering at Norwood, an organisation providing social care for children and adults with learning disabilities. After 10 years of volunteer specific work Debbie has recently started freelancing as a consultant on volunteer issues.

Carola Vorlop

Carola has been working in the voluntary sector for 15 years and is currently the Community Development Manager for Business in the Community. Previously she worked as Volunteering Development Manager at the Eden Project and was the Volunteering Manager at Bristol Zoo.

Carola has presented at regional, national and international conferences on many aspects of volunteering and delivered training for people on working with and managing volunteers. She currently sits on the England Volunteering Development Council (South-West), is the chair of the Bristol AVM Peer Group and a Learning Loop Advisor on the Excellence in Volunteer Management Programme for Volunteering England. She has written a handbook for volunteer managers entitled 'Working with Volunteers in Zoos: a Good Practice Guide'. Carola was presented with the 'Manager of the Year' award during the UN International Year of the Volunteer in 2001.