Volunteer Voices Meeting Notes 27Th August 2015

Volunteer Voices Meeting Notes – 27 th August 2015

Attendees - Kerry Davies Denise Clark Lorraine Joseph Julia McClellan Greg Southerd Ali Bunting Jenny Pape Liz Barlow Richard Hummerston

Note Taker – Anabelle Herbert

National Updates – The update was emailed out to all volunteers. The ‘Big 5’ campaign is getting good responses. An access card is being sent out to all GDO’s which sets out their rights; there is a PDF version of this on the website. Richard wrote to his local MP to see if he would support our pavement parking campaign, the MP wrote back to say he would not support this campaign as it is the local authority that Richard should be in touch with, We’ve had good success with MyGuide. We are now thinking about Dial- a-Guide, where people can phone for a guide just for a one off trip. This is not to replace a GDMI on training GDO’s with new routes; this is just a one off.

The October minutes have been put on online.

Guide Dogs week - £737,000 was raised last year. This year we are aiming for £1 Million. There are 3 schemes running during Guide Dogs week. Donate an hour – People can apply online to donate an hour and help out at a local event for an hour, hopefully after this they will want to come back and volunteer again. Let’s glow for Guide Dogs – we’re hoping that schools, colleges and companies will be a part of this, wearing neon colours on Friday 9th and donating money. Thames Valley branch will be holding a quiz night in Wokingham which is usually a success. Pin badges and cook books are available. Branches will be provided with resources. The recommended donation for cook books is £3. This should be banked under ‘fundraise for us’ Below is a list of all of Reading Mobility Teams events taking place in Guide Dogs Week 2015. As this is one of our busiest weeks in the calendar year, any support you can give to these events is much appreciated.

Saturday 3rd October - Collection at the Meadows, Camberley - support needed for this event - please contact Denise Clark for more information - Lead CF Denise Clark

Saturday 3rd October - Collection on Broad Street, Reading - support welcome - Lead CF Robert Macleay Tuesday 6th October - Collection on Northbrook Street, Newbury - support welcome - Lead CF Robert Macleay

Tuesday 6th October - Collection at Epsom Racecourse - Lead CF Phillipa Jan

Saturday 10th October - Collection on Broad Street Reading - support welcome - Lead CF Robert Macleay

Saturday 10th October - Collection on Guildford High Street - support welcome - Lead CF Phillipa Jan

Saturday 10th October - Guide Dogs Pub Quiz - Emmbrook Village Hall, RG41 1JN- Held by the Thames Valley fundraising group - Lead CF Denise Clark

Record attempt – The Guinness world record attempt for most coins collected in 24 hours will not be going ahead. We would have had to raise £250,000 and it was decided this would not be achievable. Some branches hadn’t been told this wasn’t being done so they were still planning for it. To enter for a world record you must pay therefore Guide Dogs would have had to pay for potentially a record not met.

Dogs unite – Lorraine – started 2 years ago and works in a team with 2 other ladies. Dogs unite currently have 82 events happening around the country. A dog called Barney recently walked from Lands’ end to John O’Groats and 1000 people matched his miles. Lorraine has left resource packs for everyone to look at. Any new ideas are welcome. A sponsored walk isn’t necessarily with a dog; some people have walked stuffed dogs or dressed up as dogs to walk. The minimum donation is £35 but people are encouraged to raise more. Ali did look to do a dogs unite event however she wasn’t sure about health and safety. If there are any questions Lorraine and her team can help with these. There are risk assessments on the website but it all depends on where the walk is. Lorraine feels doing a dog unite walk will be a nice introduction for anyone wanting to volunteer or fundraise for Guide Dogs. Liz Barlow asked if maybe we could show how much more than £35 would get. For example £35 pays for a Guide Dog partnership for 1 week, why don’t we show what we would do with more money. Maybe add a Guide Dogs shopping list into the info pack so people can see how much things do cost for us. Where people find their volunteers to walk with them? They usually do it through Facebook or Dogs Unite can do some local advertising however it is usually a small group of friends. Maybe putting something in the local school and church newsletters may help? For Guide Dogs week, Dogs Unite is doing ‘glow walks’ where neon accessories can be purchased, flashing leads did well last time. Sponsored dog walks should do well as most of our supporters are dog owners. There will be a GDO walking 40 miles soon as she has been a Guide Dog Owner for 40 years now. Dogs Unite are always looking for volunteers to organise events or research the best places for walks.

Next event – Was Puppy Palooza a success? It was a good event however could have been improved; this was mainly on Wellington’s part. It is a bit out of the way and hard to get to for some people. We are currently looking for places for the next big event and Microsoft may be one, Guide Dogs used this last time. Does Microsoft have their own bus service?

Volunteer Survey – The Reading MT has 631 volunteers who were sent the survey, of which 71 replied. The top answer for why our volunteers volunteered for Guide Dogs was because they ‘wanted to give back’; the second highest answer was because they ‘wanted to help blind and partially sighted people’. It was found that our volunteers are very selfless and don’t want “trophies”. 74% of dog related volunteers felt they received clear instructions on their role. Only 37% of volunteers said they received a timely response, however this question wasn’t very clear. We need to thank volunteers more. Jenny Pape mentioned the ‘pat on the back scheme’, where anyone can nominate a volunteer/member of staff by emailing Kerry with their name, the volunteer then gets sent a thank you letter and pin badge. Many volunteers have not heard of this scheme. Kerry will put an article in the next forward magazine. The questions in the survey could have been worded better and would have got a better response. There is a lot of tension with head office. Many volunteers feel they don’t get a timely response from them. They are slow however Guide Dogs are a big organisation so things will take time. It would be beneficial if Richard Leaman could attend the next VV meeting. Kerry will look into this.

Richard’s letter – The letter sent by Richard was not aimed at anyone from our team. There were 2 versions of this sent out. The letter was different (and worded better) than the email. The email seemed very personal and made the person reading it feel like it was aimed at them. Volunteers feel like they never hear a ‘thank you’ from Richard, they only hear from him when there’s bad news. Many didn’t receive the email version even though their email addresses are registered with us. Richard should take time to thank volunteers. The policy for all correspondence – letters and emails - sent to the CEO is the same.

All post is logged, Richard sees it and decides whether he would wish to reply personally or ask one of his Directors / senior managers to reply on his behalf.

Correspondence is acknowledged if it is likely to take more than a week to despatch a full reply, although with emails we will usually send a quick email back to confirm safe receipt.

There have been occasions where people have chased us for replies but their letter has not arrived, which is frustrating for everyone, but anything that comes into us is logged, passed to Richard and does get a reply.

Sharing information on supermarkets and their policies on charity collections – Do supermarkets have policies for when we can/cannot fundraise? Volunteers need to be kept informed so they know to choose the best place. As far as Denise knows, Tesco’s is the only supermarket that give us days we can attend (these are set by their head office). Sainsburys is more laid back, it’s up to each store.

I.D Cards – At the moment, ID cards are taking a while to arrive. The system has a few quirks however the machine to print them is now running. Gavin Dean is responsible for printing the new cards off. They are being done as quickly as possible; Kerry will chase up any outstanding cards. The plan is ID cards in future will hopefully be sent directly to volunteers rather than being passed to Kerry to give to volunteers – no date yet as to when that will occur.

Equipment/Items with old logo – No one should be using the old logo. However, if the equipment is usable things such as marquees can be used for big 1 off events. Guide Dogs will not be replacing any branch stock. An audit will be done on stock at the end of the fundraising year and new stock will be ordered if necessary. We only have a few items with the new logo. The order forms don’t match the equipment we have; Support workers will look into this. Can support workers please tell the person that ordered the equipment if anything changes or they can’t have something?

Puppy walkers + volunteers – Joined up approach – Puppy walkers and all others volunteers are still very separate. They need to be more joined. Puppy walkers should know when there are local fundraising events they can attend, having more dogs/puppies at events may bring in more money. A letter was sent out to puppy walkers in the area, however contact between PW’s and fundraisers cannot be forced. Kerry can pass on the name of the PW Sup in the area but cannot do much else. A message can be put on our Facebook page but we cannot call PW’s to let them know of events. Kerry will put a message in the insert of Forward Magazine.

Volunteer numbers/recruitment – We do not have enough volunteers. The Wokingham branch have struggled this year as they do not have enough people. Any suggestions on how we can recruit new volunteers are welcome. Some people may be put off as some branches only have 3/4 events a year, many people want regular activities. Kerry is in the process of getting the volunteers job descriptions changed to show also, what they can learn and gain from the role. So far this year we have gained 136 new volunteers, Fundraising has really taken a hit this year. Why don’t Guide Dogs have charity shops? We do have occasional pop up shops; however we don’t have a regular flow of goods to sell. We may not also make enough money back on them. Rob has mentioned before about branches having pop up banners. Can Rob please look into this again, banners explaining events and job roles that fundraisers can take to their events?

Suggestions for Christmas celebrations – Could we look at any potential new locations? It was very crowded last year when it was held here at the office as there were so many people in such a small space. The format and layout was good last year. The raffle was a good idea. Maybe we could get a local choir in for the event?