Volunteering in the North Lakes

Volunteering Convestival 2012

Jessie Binns, Visitor Experience OfficerAlistair Starling, General Manager

Two Years Ago…

64%The recognition you receive from staff for the volunteering you do

64%Staff are accessible and approachable

64%People (staff and volunteers) work together as one team

64%I feel I am trusted by managers to get on with the volunteering I do

73%I would recommend volunteering with the Trust

73%I enjoy the volunteering I do

StronglyAgree %Highest Scoring Questions

9%The training and development that is available to support you in your volunteering

9%The level of involvement you have in the way things are done at your property / location

18%There are opportunities to do new things and take on new responsibilities

18%I understand my role in the property's / location's plans

18%I understand how plans for my property / location fit with the Trust's 'Going Local' strategy

18%I am kept well informed about my property's / location's top priorities

StronglyAgree %Lowest Scoring Questions

What are our challenges?

What we’re doing to fix it!

Volunteer Support TeamRecruitment fairsRole descriptionsRegistrationInductionsAdmin – e.g. expenses, name badgesNewsletter

Social get togethersNorth Lakes Volunteer Web HubVolunteer Blog

What we’re doing to fix it, have fun and innovate!

What are our future plans - and what’s stopping us?!!

Option C:Options A+B + Volunteer-led Lake District Roadshow to bring good practice examples from NT and external to

Properties, using myVolunteering as the delivery platform, building interaction via Roadshow Blog

1. Won't managing volunteers take up more time than it's worth?2. A volunteer can't help me with that kind of thing can they?3. We already do brilliant volunteering here don't we?

Volunteer wishlistMigrating from Hub to MyVolunteering

The future…Not falling but flying

Volunteering Convestival 2012

Jessie Binns, Visitor Experience OfficerAlistair Starling, General Manager

Where to start?

• Property business plan

• Volunteer survey results

• Meeting – GM, Portfolio Team, VCI consultant

• GROW model to frame discussionsGoalsRealityOpportunitiesWay forward

Moving Forward…

• Developed a brief

• Put short term solutions in place, responding to volunteer survey

- newsletter- staff & volunteer forums- training- PDRs- new format start of season meetings- consulted volunteers around survey

issues

What next?

• January - Recruit intern to focus on audit, gathering evidence

• End February 2012 – Intern starts

• May 2012 - Complete report & recommendations

• July 2012 – develop action plan

Volunteer Vision Internship

•What do I do?- The audit: interviews, surveys and data

analysis- What is it like to be a volunteer?

•How am I doing it?- Audit interviews with volunteer managers- Qualitative surveys with volunteer managers- Interviews with volunteers- Volunteering

Results so far

Negative Points•Not yet at level one for all standards•Inconsistency in levels achieved•Discrepancy between what is believed to be in place and what is actually happening•Lack of consistency in processes used across departments

Positive Points•Great potential for sharing good volunteer management practice•Many of the processes are already being done, just informally.•Level one practices will not be hard to achieve – the potential for putting these systems in place is already there.

Issues and Problems Faced

•The audit interviews:- Original interview took almost four hours- Audit questions – can need clarifying to get

accurate answers- Audit structure – opt in level three practices

can skew results- Usefulness of audit interview results – best to use it as a basic insight- Finding interview times for managers and

volunteers – can take much longer than expected

- Physical evidence – impractical to ask for this

Thank you for listening!