Trustee Week: Celebrating the work of the Trustee

27Oct10

The Charity Commission and partners are running the first ever Trustees’ Week from 25-31 October 2010, which aims to celebrate the fantastic work done by trustees and to increase awareness and understanding of the trustee role.

Often the ‘unsung heroes’ of the charitable world, trustees are vital to the work of many not for profit organisations, helping to make decisions about how the organisation is run and how it uses its resources.

At Community Links, we are proud to have an excellent Board of Trustees, who bring a diversity of skills and experience to benefit Community Links, so we are delighted to help to spread the word about Trustee Week and celebrate the work of Trustees.

Take a look at the interview with Gavin Rennie, our Chair of Trustees, by David Wilcox below.

Another organisation supporting Trustee Week is KnowHow NonProfit, who has recorded interviews with five very different types of trustee – from young to old, working to retired, from those looking to develop their career to those directly affected by the cause they are championing. The interviews shed light on trusteeship in ways that everyone can relate to.

“Every organisation needs a different mix of people”, says Edward Pickering, trustee for Relate in Richmond, Kingston and Hounslow. “If Relate had ten clinical psychologists as its trustees it would be missing out on so much. Everyone brings a different skill to the table and can take part in their own way.”

The aim is to inspire people from all walks of life (including students!) to think about trusteeship as an exciting, rewarding volunteering opportunity but also to highlight the importance of diversity on charity boards. The panel talk candidly about the motivation behind taking up a trustee role, the mix of skills and people that make up a board, the responsibilities that come with the job, and the rewards that make it worth their while, both professionally and personally. There is also advice on how to become a trustee and how to be good at it. Moreover, throughout Trustees’ Week 2010 the KnowHow NonProfit trustee panel will take questions about their trustee experience on the KnowHow comment boards.

KnowHow NonProfit is an organisation that enables an online community of individuals and organisations in the voluntary sector to share knowledge and expertise, and inspire effective practice. It aims to improve the efficiency of non profit organisations by increasing the knowledge and skills of people working in the sector-especially those new to training or from ‘hard to reach’

The stories of the five trustees are free to access on the website of KnowHow NonProfit at http://www.knowhownonprofit.org/leadership/governance/trustees-week

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Tags: charity commission, community links, cr09, david wilcox, edward pickering, gavin rennie, interview, KnowHow NonProfit, podcast, relate, trustee, trustee week, volunteering