Dear Valued Members, Supporters and Friends,

Welcome to the September issue of The Voice of Volunteering.

Nominate NFP Organisations, Employee (Corporate) Volunteers, and the Employee (Corporate) Volunteer Teams before COB, Thursday, 31 October 2013.

Nominate online, download and print a copy of the form or phone 02 9261 3600 for a hard copy.
Don't forget you can now complete your nomination in multiple sittings online.

Remember EVERY volunteer nominated is recognised at the regional ceremonies with a certificate and celebration.

The regional judging process was completed on Wednesday 18 September  and invitations are now on their way to nominators and nominees for the regional ceremonies which will be held from October 10.

We'd like to thank the judges of the Awards for their time and effort in assessing each and every nomination.

The winners of the regional awards will be invited to Sydney for the state awards in December.

Welcome to all our new and renewing members for the 2013-2014 membership period. We look forward to working closely together with you to harness the power of volunteering in your organisations.

If you are yet to renew your membership or would like to discuss membership further, please email Membership Services at membership@volunteering.com.au with your query.

Why does The Centre for Volunteering require our members to provide us with up to date insurance details?

As our member organisations know, one of the conditions for the use of our Volunteer Referral Service, is that we require confirmation, in writing, of current Volunteer Accident Insurance and Public Liability Insurance.  Insurance protects everyone.  They protect organisations against any claims from volunteers for injuries suffered at work and they protect volunteers from these same injuries in case of accidents in the workplace.
No doubt our member organisations will all agree that these insurances are the basis of providing a safe and fair environment for both staff and volunteers and provide everyone with a level of security and protection should something unexpected occur.
Thank you for providing this information to us on a timely basis so that we can continue to reassure all those volunteers we refer to you that they are fully protected.

The Centre, in conjunction with Youth Action is holding an event at 2pm, 9 October 2013 on Engaging Youth volunteers.
Eamon Waterford is the Director of Policy & Advocacy at Youth Action. He will focus on how to recruit young people to your volunteering program, what young people want out of volunteering, and how to ensure you as an organisation get value out of young people. He will also be presenting on his experiences running an internship program for young people through Youth Action.

Register Now

Our September Networking event: How to get a Corporate Partner: A Toolkit was well attended. Video from this session is now available on our YouTube channel for viewing.

We'd like to thank Dr Chris Roffey for his time and expertise in this area. The Toolkit is available for download (PDF)

If you have a suggestion for a topic please don't hesitate to get in touch with us.

Are you getting the most out of Microsoft Office?

Do you know the difference between saving a file versus a template and/or saving a copy?
Do you know what shortcuts you can use and in which software they are available in?

Most of us have Microsoft products which we use to conduct our business. But do we really maximise the benefits of Word and Excel. You  can assess your own ability by answering the questions below:

Document Formatting

Do you know how to format text with:

• Bold
• Italics
• Underlining
• Setting Tabs
• Bullet points or Numbered Lists
• Changing Fonts
• Adding Symbols
• Changing Margins
• Cut and Paste
• Adding Clip Art
• Wrapping Text
• Creating your own Style Sheet
• Create a Protected form or Section
• Track Changes of multiple editors
• Review, Compare and Combine Changes by multiple editors

Multi-Page Documents

Can you:

• Use Headers and Footers?
• Use Print Preview?
• Insert Page numbers into documents?
• Add a Title to your Cover Page?
• Create a Table of Contents?
• Insert a Page Break?
• Add Section Break or Columns?
• Alternate Headers and Footers?
• Move text from one styled area to another and apply new formatting while pasting?

Mail Merge, Tables and Spreadsheets

• Do you know how to create a form document with merge fields?
• Can you create a table, insert cells and columns or add an external table?
• Are you able to discern when it is better to use a Spreadsheet?

Do you know how to:

• Edit text in a multiple cells?
• Change colours of a cell?
• Change the type of data is stored in a cell?
• Merge or Split Cells?
• Use calculations and simple formulas?
• Create charts?
• Use logic formulas and IF statements?
• Share information across data sheets?

If you feel there are gaps which need addressing we are considering offering training in Microsoft products at a very affordable cost. A half-day session in beginners, intermediate or advanced level will cost $60 for members and $90 for non-members. If you feel you could benefit from such training please send an email expressing your interest to info@volunteering.com.au

The Centre for Volunteering would like thank the organisations involved in our school and university based Introduction to Volunteering seminars. These seminars, organised by The Centre are a great way to get young people engaged with and thinking about volunteering.

On Friday, the 20th of September, we held an Intro to Volunteering seminar at Roseville College in Sydney’s North. The seminar created a great opportunity for students to be informed about youth volunteering and be inspired to be involved. Students were also able to gain a great insight into the work of various not-for-profits within their community.
Preliminary feedback shows that most of the Year 10 students felt as though they learnt a lot from the seminar and found the information presented useful. They also enjoyed the variety of organisations involved on the day, including ARV, Community Connect Gardening and Cerebral Palsy Alliance.

Student volunteering is on the rise. The Intro to Volunteering seminar offers a great opportunity for organisations to connect with young people and to show young people the variety of volunteering opportunities available.  In particular, we can raise young people’s awareness about the community and the immediate and ongoing positive impact they can have through volunteering, whilst providing them with the tools necessary to take social action. For the not-for-profit sector, this provides a great way to increase our workplace and create a diverse workforce.
Intro to Volunteering seminars  are a great way to encourage community involvement and can tie in well with community involvement programs run in NSW high schools.

For more information about the Intro to Volunteering seminar and how they are run in schools and universities, please contact Jacinthe Brosseau on (02) 9261 3600 or email youth@volunteering.com.au

The Dragon Charity walk is held each year. This year the aim is to raise funds for the construction of the Chinese Australian Services Society's residential aged care facility in Campsie.

The Centre's General Manager & Research Development and Policy Manager, Tony Frew will be undertaking the walk this year on 29 September.

To sponsor Tony on his walk, please contact him directly: tfrew@volunteering.com.au

The outspoken CEO of the UK’s Directory of Social Change has urged the Australian Not for Profit sector to avoid the mistakes of charities in the UK at the National Conference on Volunteering in Adelaide.

Debra Allcock Tyler, described by conference MC Amanda Blair as ‘a Duracell bunny with a potty mouth,’ held the crowd spellbound during her keynote address as she passionately encouraged charities to stand up for themselves and avoid compromising their mission to serve others for the sake of money.  

See more at ProBono Australia

The Southern Sydney Volunteer Expo will be held on Thursday 10 October 2013 11.00am-4.00pm, Marana Auditorium, Hurstville Entertainment Centre, 16 Macmahon St, Hurstville

The Volunteer Expo held in 2012 was a huge success, with over 55 community organisations from the St George and Sutherland Shire areas taking the opportunity to promote their organisation to more than 400 potential volunteers who attended on the day.

Almost all of the stallholders said that they would gain between 2 and 25 new volunteers through their exposure at the Expo, and 90% of them expressed interest in participating again.

More Information

Harmony Walk brings together Australians from diverse national, ethnic and religious backgrounds to help build an inclusive society, and to acknowledge and celebrate the enduring principles of fairness, harmony and respect.

The walk is FREE and is suitable for people of all ages and abilities. At the conclusion of the walk, participants will enjoy a multicultural food stall, entertainment, and a number of activities designed to promote inclusion and harmony.

Join the Walk at 2pm on Sunday, 27 October, 2013

More Information

Five charities. Five developer teams. Five apps to change our world.

Vodafone Foundation’s App Aid 2013 will help up to five charities see their organisation through fresh eyes and find new and innovative ways to assist the communities they serve. To help them, we’re pairing these courageous charities with some of Australia’s most talented digital agencies and developers.

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The Good Hood is an initiative by the City of Sydney's Green Villages program to highlight the "good" things in the city.

This is a great opportunity for those organisations located within City of Sydney to highlight the "good" activities in their community as well as promoting volunteer opportunities. If your organisation is located within the City of Sydney, engages volunteers and has a focus on environmental sustainability, take this opportunity to "pin" your program or project...

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AAMoV is committed to promoting and celebrating best practice in the field of volunteer management and annually recognises a manager of volunteers for his or her outstanding contribution to the profession.

Nominations opened for the Volunteer Manager Award of Excellence on 1 September each year.

Every year across Australian and New Zealand millions of volunteers, involved across all sectors of society, give their time so freely sharing their time, energy and passion to make a very real difference in their communities.

As is often the case the role of those who manage or coordinate the volunteers sits behind the scenes, largely unrecognised. The AAMoV Volunteer Manager Award of Excellence is a tremendous opportunity to recognise these people. No matter whether the volunteer manager has been on the front line putting their lives at risk for the sake of their community or working in the community for sporting groups, the arts, local government, hospitals, environmental or community welfare organisations and the like, these people are ensuring the true value of volunteer contributions are felt.

For the first time, this year you are able to nominate outstanding volunteer managers for two categories:
• An individual award, and
• A team award which recognises a team or group of volunteer managers who have worked together on a programme or special project

Think about those managers of volunteers that you know who do an outstanding job to inspire, encourage and lead volunteers to be the best that they can be and to make a real difference in their communities and nominate them for these awards.

Check out the nomination form for more information on the AAMoV website - http://www.aava.asn.au/

Nominees do not need to be members of AAMoV.

Applications open 1 September and close 30 September with the winner announced on International Volunteer Managers Day, November 5 each year.

So get your nominations in and let’s publicly recognise and celebrate the fantastic job these managers of volunteers do!

The Westpac Community Leaders Awards are an opportunity for you to give your local hero a chance to be really recognised. The awards are dedicated to inspirational leaders who make a significant contribution to our social fabric through their service to Not for Profit organisations in Australia.
Nominate a leader in your community today and their organisation could win an award of $5,000 and $5,000 worth of Westpac Davidson Institute financial education training. The winning leaders themselves will also receive a Westpac MasterCard® Gift card to the value of $500 as a personal reward.
Nominations are open from 19 August 2013 and close on 30 September 2013. Winners will be notified by 1 November 2013.

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