Trustees wanted!

Fancy taking up a new challenge?

At Cumbria CVS we are very fortunate; we attract exceptionally good Trustees who stay with us for significant periods of time. This has been very important in building the knowledge, expertise and skills of our Trustees as a group; it’s this shared skills and knowledge base that helps to ensure that our organisation is consistently well managed and directed towards a strong, sustainable future.

We have entered a period now when we will need to regularly replace Trustees as the maximum number of consecutive years anyone can serve is 6, so it is likely that at each AGM from now on we will be seeking new nominations – meaning lots of opportunity for organisations to get themselves represented on the CVS Board and influence and help shape the work we do.

We have recently lost 2 of our trustees – Laura Davies and Daryl Ormerod have resigned. They brought valuable skills particularly around social media and business planning to the Board, and I am grateful to them for their time and their commitment – especially to Daryl who worked extremely hard to ensure a refreshed, inclusive Business Plan for CVS to take us up to 2018.

There’s no getting away from the fact that these are very challenging times for the third sector – our funding base is changing radically and, it seems, permanently and yet more is being asked of us and the organisations we support. So, we need people who aren’t afraid to work in a difficult environment in order to make a difference. We need innovators – people who enjoy trying new things to ensure that much needed services are able to survive and continue to make things better for local communities.

If you feel you have something to offer and that being part of the CVS Board would be valuable to you, please get in touch with me. I will be delighted to discuss this opportunity with you, and send a nomination pack if you wish to go ahead.

We offer thorough induction sessions to help new Board members settle in, and continuous training is available to support their work. New Trustees can sit back, observe and learn prior to taking on particular responsibilities, and as a new Trustee you will feel welcomed and supported.

Please bear in mind that the majority of our Trustee positions are for people who represent Cumbrian third sector organisations, although we are able to co-opt one Trustee who doesn’t but who might have particular skills that we are looking for. The deadline for trustee nomination returns is Friday 25 September 2015.

As always, I look forward to welcoming people with new ideas and energy to help ensure a positive future for Cumbria CVS.

Karen Bowen
Chief Officer