Positive Feedback After Voluntary Sector Free Conference

Published on: 11 Apr, 2013
Updated on: 11 Apr, 2013

Voluntary and community groups were tasked to think about where they are heading in these challenging times at a free conference this week.

Some of the team from Voluntary Action South West Surrey on its own stand at the conference.

Surrender, Survive or Succeed was the title of the event hosted by Voluntary Action South West Surrey and Voluntary Support North Surrey, and held at St Saviour’s Church in Guildford on Wednesday, April 10.

More than 100 delegates from a wide range of voluntary and community groups, organisations and charities had a choice of workshops they could attend. These all gave good sound advice on a range of topics – from tips on good practices of working between groups and organisations, benefits for charities engaging in business, getting the best out of the latest in IT, to making the best of change.

The conference was held at Guildford’s St Saviour’s Church.

The conference opened with a thought-provoking keynote speech by the chief executive of The Samaratans, Catherine Johnson.

During the afternoon three leaders from local charities spoke about their own organisation’s successes. The chief executive of the Guildford-based Oakleaf Enterprise, Clive Stone, explained how its is now using ‘cloud-based’ computing technology.

Clive Stone of Oakleaf Enterprise gives his talk at the conference.

Guildford YMCA’s CEO, Pete Brayne, spoke about his role as founding board director and company secretary of The Youth Consortium (Surrey and borders), and how the consortium works.

The third speaker was Kamal Gurung from the Nepalese group Thamundhee UK. He recalled how it was set up and raised £110,000 for a community building in Mytchett. The story was all the more remarkable as the total was raised in one single evening!

The final part of the event was a funding fair at which delegates had the opportunity to talk one-to-one about their own projects to funders who are active locally.

Andrew Hazard from 4Get Me Nots, a group based in Park Barn, gets some funding advice from Becky Willson of Travel SMART.

There was also a marketplace at which about 20 businesses and organisations were on hand to give help and advice about the services they offer.

Voluntary Action South West Surrey’s chief officer, Carol Dunnett, was delighted with the conference and the positve feedback from those who attended. Afterwards she said: “We were very pleased to be able to put on this free event for the voluntary sector and it was fantastic how many people were able to attend the event.

“Voluntary and community organisations often have very little budget to spend on training, so by providing this free event we were aiming to help them with some of the issues that are frequently encountered when running a charity.

“Feedback from delegates was excellent. I’d also like to thank all our volunteer and staff team that helped the day run so smoothly and the speakers and workshop presenters who gave up their time for the event.”

Click here to visit Voluntary Action South West Surrey’s website, where you can find full details of rewarding volunteering opportunities within Guildford and Waverley.