Hello

Hello all,

My apologies for clogging your in-boxes; but after 2 years in my role as Head of Learning and Volunteer development i have been a little tardy in joining this group.

Many (or at least some) of you wi will have met before. But i just thought I'd drop a line about me and Victim Support by way of introduction.

I have worked in the voluntary sector for about 12 or 13 years with the last 11 at Victim Support. I have held many roles from Chief Executive in Nottinghamshire (when we were a federated charity) through Regional Manager for SE England to my current role. The common denominator for all of these is getting results through good volunteer management.

I am also a trustee of Volunteering England and a board member for the Institute for Community Justice Professionals (my 2 volunteer roles)

The key challenges for me at VS are ensuring that we always deploy volunteers in the most effective way to benefit our clients, our organisation and the aspirations of the volunteers. Like many if you i am sure, we work very hard on issues of volunteer retention and are still seeking some of the answers.

Current areas of interest for me are the Big Society and what to about it, volunteer information systems, employer assisted learning, mentoring of and by volunteers, and the competencies of volunteer managers.

I am sure you are all working on some similar issues, s look forwrd to teh intellectual debates and idea sharing.

Best comrade type wishes

Chris