Local Centre/Region/Divisions AGMs

Sorry, but I would have to disagree with you regarding NT and EH. We have seen a lot more younger volunteers lately, as it’s a good way for younger people to gain work experience and enhance their CV’s. I was the youngest volunteer at our EH property for a couple of years, but then a few younger people came along, and gained experience of doing a different career. 

Club is a somewhat unique model, it has a still doing well element reliant upon a lot of volunteers within a multi million pound business. I can’t think of anything other than C&CC that might be similar......

Probably the easiest way is to point anyone who is I interested in the function of various committees and councils if to point you in the direction of the following pages:  https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/about-us/

Here there is a document that can be downloaded with more details and various links.

Local councils are basically there to organise local rallies and events and they send representatives to the Regional Divisional Councils.

The divisional and regional councils are basically the same thing, but historically have been called either regional or divisional.  They are responsible for organising any regional events, such as 'Meet the members', whereby committee members go to sites on the network and encourage members to meet and get involved in the club.  'Question Time' events, where guests are invited to an open meetings with local trade representatives and Executive members and Directors of the Club to ask any questions.  They also organise the regional contribution and organisation connected with the National.  They organise other regional events and rallies.  These councils are basically made up of representatives from Local Councils.  Regional/Divisional Councils send representatives to the National Club Council, and and questions for Club Council can be passed on at Regional Meetings.

The Club Council advise the Executive committee who all come from the Club Council.  The Club Council discuss things which effect the Club as a whole. e.g. I have recently bought up the problem of parking with caravans on motorway service stations (this is ongoing).  It discusses matters relating to the Club as a whole e.g. Membership recruitment, development of sites etc

The Executive committee are the main committee for implementation, and have various sub- committees e.g. a sites committee, a finance committee.  The employed members of the Club (Directors, and others) are responsible to the Executive Committee and work with them (taking instructions from them when necessary).

This is about the best I can do in such a short, informal post on a forum.  Apologies if I have generalised too much on occasions - it is easy to give the wrong detailed impression.

P.S. there is currently a working party about to meet to discuss the function of Regions/ Divisions - they are looking to streamline things a little.

Hope this helps a little EasyT.

David

The decline in volunteers is widespread. There does not appear to be the commitment among the younger generation. I've noticed it at my local sailing club, church and other organisations. It is a matter of concern as to what will happen as we age and ultimately fall off our perches. Who will take on these tasks?

When I started as a volunteer, in my early/mid 40’s, I can recall a conversation about volunteering I had with one of the young members of staff we worked alongside, in this instance a gardener. He was astonished that folks would come along and do something for what he saw as nothing but a cup of tea and a few biscuits. Of course it was in fact a great deal more than that. It was the satisfaction element of doing something truly enjoyable, meeting like minded folks, of all ages, of taking a task and being trusted to work on it, research it, grow it and owning it, and being able to talk to interested visitors about what you might be doing. We created a great social atmosphere as well, some becoming very close friends and supporting each other during very dark times, such as loss of a partner, we met up and did other things. We were remunerated in a lot of other ways beyond petrol fees, we had free membership of EH for ourselves and partner, staff rates on items bought in shops, a couple of heavily discounted visits to other places of interest by coach, and a cracking Xmas lunch every year. And we all have very nice gardens, full of interesting plants!

If you come out of a work environment that has been seriously stressful, with responsibility for huge sums of money, lots of staff and all their problems, daily grind of H&S, endless meetings, etc... then doing something that has no stress attached, where and when you want, can be a great reviver, especially if you are learning new skills. It might not immediately pay the bills, but it can give lots of work related skills to change direction. Should not be abused to cut costs though, in any environment, that just demoralises both paid staff and unpaid volunteers.

There’s a huge army of volunteers out there actually getting little recognition. It’s called caring, be it for young children and grandparents, children caring for elderly relatives, spouses/partners looking after each other through serious illnesses. Most take on these roles with little or no financial help. Can be as hard as a full time job.

I agree CY. 

It's difficult to know the real cause, but personally, I would guess that its partly 'work related' and the whole ethos.  Do we 'live to work' or 'work to live'.  Perhaps in the past it has been the latter - perhaps now, there is more an element of the former.  Add this to more flexible working hours, therefore the inability of folk to be able to commit regularly.  Add to this the expansion of the entertainment industry (in its widest sense - expansion of TV - more channels/ choice etc), and the expansion of the internet/ phones (there's no need to go out to speak to your friends - text them/ facetime/ Facebook etc).  Society is much different.

Just guessing, of course....

David

The gardener is due on Wednesday for a few hours, the cleaning lady on Thursday - neither of them seem interested in voluntary work and I must pop round to the post office to draw some cash before they come. How can I persuade them that volunteering is really worthwhile? 

Luckily some are interested in voluntary work, I'm thinking of hospitals, schools, churches and a huge range of charities. Perhaps there's so much choice around that those who do it stick with what  they really enjoy? I would imagine that caravanning is a niche hobby and the supply of younger helpers and willing volunteers is thin on the ground. So maybe some streamlining, as mentioned, will help to reduce the task burden so that it's a more enjoyable pastime.

Some years ago the organisation I volunteered for had to remove the age limit of volunteers, this was partly down to age discrimination but the real truth was they were not able to replace the people who had reached 65.  

Big organisations as i said earlier like NT&EH are still struggling to find enough volunteers and that is with the quite good "incentives" to keep volunteers,it is smaller organisations without the finance to do the same where the lack of "interest" is most prevalent,and I can just IMHO think if the club went down the same road, how long the thread on here would be,although there are a few incentives from the club for volunteering

We are ralliers who over the years have given a lot to our centre short of being on committee. We have also attended AGMs because we felt we should support committee. Last year we didn’t go and won’t this year. The reason- unnecessarily long winded and the same voices dominating every discussion. Timing at 1200 midday means the whole day is spoiled. Flag, the closing meeting can be the same yet one centre we go with manage that meeting in 10 minutes.  Message is chairmen speed everything up, control the discussion and meet at a time that suits members.