Since beginning at The Centre for Volunteering in March I’ve been gathering feedback from our members, volunteers and others who engage with The Centre, reviewing what we offer and how we might enhance our services. To consolidate the findings so far, in September we are planning to launch the first of our twice yearly Member Surveys. These surveys will help us understand what our members want from The Centre and give people the opportunity to comment on our services. In the meantime, members and other stakeholders are always welcome to provide feedback or suggestions via email or by calling The Centre on 02 9261 3600.

For those who have not received recent correspondence, it is my great pleasure to introduce our new Director: Communications and Business Development, Kylie Yates. Kylie comes to us from a senior executive background in the Public Sector and State Owned Corporations. She has extensive knowledge and expertise in communications and will be a great asset to The Centre and to you, our members and loyal supporters. I look forward to being able to introduce you to her in person.

Internships Versus Volunteering
The issue of Internships is very topical at the moment. I commend you to the information provided by our Volunteer Referral Service Manager, Avril Samuels, later in The Voice. It is important we are all aware of our responsibilities in this area.

Days left to nominate for the 2014 NSW Volunteer of the Year Awards

There are only a few more days left to nominate volunteers for the Volunteer of the Year Awards. Don’t miss out, nominate now.

IAVE 2014 Scholarships

We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2014 IAVE Scholarships.

Carolyn Frischling from Lane Cove & North Side Community Services

Amitha Pathirana from Northern Rivers Community Gateway

We want to thank all members who submitted applications for the scholarships, and look forward to hearing from Amitha and Carolyn about their experiences at the conference.

 Visit the Conference website

This month the Centre took part in a half-day Australian Government consultation workshop on the design of its proposed Civil Society National Centre for Excellence (NCE).

The workshop run by the Centre for Social Impact (CSI) on behalf of the Australian Government, and followed the release of the CSI’s draft models report based on the phase 1 survey results (see draft models report here)

Our Director Communications and Business Development Kylie Yates attended the workshop and represented our members’ views.

In particular, even though the ACNC was out of scope for this workshop, we noted the similarities between the NCE proposal and  the same work already being done effectively by the ACNC.  The Centre confirmed its support of the retention of the ACNC.

We also presented our view that none of the draft models in the report were suitable because they were not based on outcomes. The outcomes of the NCE have not been defined by Government, including whether it will assume some of the important reporting functions of the ACNC.

The CSI is presenting a final report to Government and the Centre for Volunteering will be kept updated. We will continue to update our members.

One of the most common questions we’re asked by our member organisations with a role to fill is if there is a difference between internships and volunteer roles.

The answer is a resounding yes.

The Centre’s Volunteer Referral Service Manager, Avril Samuels, said it is important for member organisations to know the difference between an internship and a volunteer placement because there can be legal consequences if a role as incorrectly advertised as an internship.

“The area of internships is a complex, often grey area,  but it is important to take time to ask yourself five key questions about the role will help you define it,” Avril said.

Read more about Internships

The Member Benefit – previously known as FIDO is now called Skilled Volunteering Weekly Alert.  The service was renamed to better refelect the service it actually provides.  The FIDO website has been morphed into the Centre's main website. Our Members are now requested to fill out our online Job Description form to list their skilled roles and are asked to specify that they wish this role to appear in The Alert.
 

Read more about the changes

The week of 4-10 August 2014 saw The Centre for Volunteering celebrating the second annual National Student Volunteer Week (NSVW2014), an initiative of Volunteering Queensland. On this occasion, The Centre for Volunteering was fortunate to attend some great events in recognition, celebration and support of student volunteering.

Read More about the events we attended as part of #NSVW2014

Maximum impact is certainly what was experienced when attending a Max Potential Showcase.  The Showcases are the finale of 22 weeks of hard work by young adults who have been developing their leadership skills and designing and implementing a community based project through the Max Potential program.  The Showcases allows the young adults to creatively represent and celebrate their project with their peers, coaches, families and community leaders.

Read more about the Max Potential Showcases

• Keen to know more about social media?
• Is it something you really need?
• How do you figure out if you need it?
• And then, how do you choose what platforms to use?
• Then what?

All these questions and more will be answered with Corrie McLeod.

When: Tuesday 16 September, 2pm -4pm

Where: The Centre for Volunteering, Level 3, 40 Gloucester St, The Rocks

REGISTER NOW!