June- Trustee Meeting Point: Presentation on ‘Keeping up with Employment Law'. This was presented by Sandy Adirondack who has been a freelance trainer and consultant in the voluntary sector since 1980, specialising in governance and law. Again a very high proportion of delegates found the activity useful and of those delegates that completed an evaluation form all stated that it would enhance their organisation's practices.

Sandy sign posted groups to a wealth of resources and information on employment law and anyone can register, for FREE, to receive her ‘legal update' email circular which will assist all trustees to keep up to date with recent legal changes and changes on the horizon www.sandy-a.co.uk/legal.htm

June- New VAC booklet resource called ‘Thinking of being a trustee?' this is a 16 page booklet providing some essential information about what being a trustee is all about. We have produced this booklet as a resource for groups to assist them with explaining the role of trustees to prospective and new trustees. We have sent a copy out to all VAC members and a number of groups have requested more copies in order to forward to existing trustees and/or incorporate into their induction and training for new trustees.

A PDF version of the booklet can be accessed by clicking here however if you would like to have more hard copies please contact Kate (NB subject to availability)

June- Trustee ‘Speed Matching' Event. This evening event took place in early June and was an opportunity for groups to be introduced to volunteers who potentially were suitable for the role of a trustee/committee member. The event was well attended by Groups but attendance by Trustee volunteers was disappointing despite a number of focused activities to encourage volunteers with the relevant skills and competences to be there. The event was however well received by the majority of people who participated with groups citing a number of benefits and most were very positive about this method of meeting potentially new volunteers and promoting their organisation.

The project coordinator together with the volunteer centre in Coventry will be working on further activities to support groups to recruit volunteers to vacancies on their boards since it is recognised that many Coventry groups have vacancies and struggle to recruit to these volunteering opportunities.