VSSN steering group: call for nominations

It's the time of year again when we ask for your help.

As you know, VSSN relies on the voluntary commitment of its steering group members (trustees) to organise many of its ongoing functions. While our Executive Officer has enabled us to expand our activities by taking on responsibility in areas such as membership subscriptions and communications, the steering group continues to plan and deliver a bulk of the Network's activities. We are working on the development of a new journal, developing links with a number of key partners, continuing to build our membership base and looking at the development of our website.

We are always looking to renew and extend our steering group membership and there are a range of roles involved that require different skills and experiences. We encourage you to think about putting yourself forward as a steering group member, to play an active part in the development of the network. Given the changes to our constitution which were voted in by members in May 2008, we will be looking to elect up to nine steering group members this year. This year is the start of our new rolling programme of elections whereby Steering Group members will serve a three year term of office (with a possibility for serving for a maximum of two terms of office), with three members elected each year. As such, this year three members will be elected to serve one year, three for two years and three for three years.

The current members of the steering group are:

Pete Alcock - University of Birmingham - External relations officer
Angela Ellis Paine - Institute for Volunteering Research - secretary and new researcher link officer
Peter Halfpenny - University of Manchester - chair
Veronique Jochum - NCVO - web development officer
Jeremy Kendall - University of Kent - external relations officer
Rob Macmillan - Sheffield Hallam University - membership and marketing officer
Cathy Pharoah - CASS Business School - treasurer
Nick Plant - UWE - web development officer

Please note - given that we are a registered charity, becoming a steering group member means becoming a trustee of VSSN. Also, all steering group members need to be paid up members of VSSN.

This is a SELF-NOMINATION process and you are asked, please, to print a paper nomination form (attached). Please post or fax a signed copy back to the VSSN office at the address given on the form by 10 October. Full details are on the form.

All members will be notified of the nominations received and, if an election is necessary, ballot papers will be circulated on 15 October. Members will then be asked to return their ballot papers, by post, by 31 October, and those elected will formally join the steering group at the Annual General Meeting, which will take place at 12:30pm in Manchester, as part of the day conference on Wednesday 12 November.

If you have any questions, or problems downloading the nominations form, please do get back to our secretary Angela Ellis Paine.

Finally, if you are interested in getting involved but are unable to commit to being a steering group member, we will also be seeking help in a number of areas in the near future (e.g. for the journal, marketing, and web development). More about this later.

We look forward to receiving your nomination forms!