Volunteer Coordinators' Forum
A friendly network open to anyone working with volunteers to share, learn and help one another. Covering a wide range of topics to share best practice for volunteer management. Hosted by organisations across the borough. At least 10 per year including socials. For more information email NatashaBlok@vcsutton.org.uk.
Our next event:
- February 2025 - Thursday 27th February 2025, 9.30am - 12pm including time for networking, Community photography workshop Manor Park Cafe.
Save the Date
- March 2025 - Tuesday 18th March 2025, 9.30am - 12pm including time for networking, Social Media by Hannah Wicks, council and Georgia Baum, MAPS, venue tbc
- April 2025 - Thursday 24th April 2025, 6pm - 9.30pm, Shinner and Sudtone and Sutton Soup Social at St Nicholas Church, Sutton.
What to expect?
To help organisations, we have monthly Volunteer Coordinators' Forums where ANYONE who works with volunteers (including volunteers themselves) is welcome to join.
We're a friendly group from a range of organisations who come together to share best practice and ideas, support one another, learn new tips and tricks and get out of the office visiting organisations across the borough for a fun morning out.
Previous session key topics have included:
- Volunteer Recruitment and Retention
- DBS and Vetting
- Crowdfunding
- Volunteer Conflict
- ...many with tours of exciting organisation sites including patting lambs and tasting local produce!
In person timings are generally:
To see what happened in our previous forums, click here.
Sutton Soup FAQs
6-7.30pm Shinner & Sudtone address: 67 High St, Sutton SM1 1DT (food available to buy)
7.30-9.30pm Sutton Soup address: St Nicholas Church, St Nicholas Way 34 Robin Hood Lane Sutton SM1 1ST
A fun and different evening out.
For a £5 donation you get a meal of soup and bread and the opportunity to help change our community.
- We meet
- We eat soup
- We listen to 4 people pitch for funding for a local community project
- We vote
Everyone who comes along gets to cast one vote for the pitch they like the best. The winning pitch gets to take away ALL the money donated on the night.
Please note that this is a cash-only event. You will need £5 for the entrance. And you'll need some more cash to pay for refreshments at the bar.
Training: Virtual/Online Introduction to Volunteer Centre Sutton for organisations
- Recommended for all organisations
- All the ways we can help you with volunteer recruitment and retention
- And top tips for using Simply Connect effectively
- Contact Natasha for latest dates.
Help us to help you
Remember you can repurpose your content, do you have a facebook post, a newsletter or a poster you have? Share it with us and we can share it with our 4000+ mailing list of residents to shine a light on volunteering with you. Read more here of how we can promote your roles.
3 quick pointers for writing a Simply Connect ad:
- You have a 40 minute time limit so open it to familiarise yourself with the sections, and then write in word and copy across to avoid being timed out and losing content.
- You're writing an advert not a job description to keep it short, snappy and attractive to scanning potential volunteers like a poster.
- Include your contact details at the end of the main description something like:
For futher training and resources, we recommend:
For futher training and resources, we highly recommend:
- NCVO training
- NAVCA website for information
- Community Action Sutton training and their newsletter