On Tuesday I was in Birmingham for a meeting of the Community Sector Coalition, chaired for the first time by the Coalition’s new Chair, Amanda Greenwood from Community Development Exchange. It was the first Coalition meeting I have attended for a while and it was really interesting to see how things have progressed. There is a much higher level of activity being generated by Director Matthew Scott and his new staff team. We looked at a number of issues related to the Empowerment White Paper, Coalition communications, governance and funding and the Coalition’s involvement in the Leadership & Governance National Support Service.
Robin Simpson.
On Thursday I was back at NCVO to take part in an internal meeting of NCVO’s Services and Development department. This was a great opportunity to explain the nature of the voluntary arts and suggest ways in which NCVO might better connect with us and other less ‘mainstream’ parts of the voluntary and community sector. I talked about the importance of working through the multitude of focused, self-grown membership organisations and umbrella bodies which are recognised and trusted by small local groups. We identified a number of ways in which NCVO might work more closely with VAN and the organisations we represent.
Robin Simpson.
On Wednesday afternoon I was at the NCVO Board meeting where we discussed in detail the plans for a new ‘Members’ Assembly’ and looked at NCVO’s strategy for preparing for the next general election (whenever that might be!). We also heard an update on the transition to the new governance structure in which NCVO’s old-fashioned large Board of Trustees will be considerably reduced in size.
Robin Simpson.
On Tuesday I was in London to meet Caroline Diehl, Chief Executive of the Media Trust. We looked back at the amazing success of ‘Up for Arts’ – the pilot participation campaign run by Voluntary Arts England and the Media Trust in 2007 and identified key learning points. We discussed the possible development of a voluntary arts ‘zone’ on the Community Channel which would showcase voluntary arts activity and best practice. Plans were presented for a joint participation project in Liverpool to be undertaken by Voluntary Arts England and the Media Trust in partnership with BBC Radio Merseyside. We also talked about opportunities to run further ‘Up for Arts’ campaigns together. With so many exciting potential joint initiatives in prospect we agreed to draw up a formal partnership agreement between VAN and the Media Trust.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: arts, DCMS, politics, research, UK, volarts, volunteering
On Sunday I was at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London to address the Making Music Convention. I spoke about Making Music’s role in the wider voluntary arts sector as part of a session on partnerships which also featured Edward Blakeman, Editor of Live Music at BBC Radio 3, and Tim Lihoreau, creative director for Classic FM, who both announced new agreements to air recordings of Making Music member groups. Radio 3 will include recordings of amateur orchestras in ‘Performance on 3’ from October (weekdays from 7 pm) and Classic FM will showcase amateur choirs in ‘The Full Works’ (weekdays from 9 pm). We then heard from Baroness Neuberger, the Government’s Volunteering Champion, who spoke about the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Volunteering and the role of volunteering in the arts. She said the arts depended on millions of volunteers, most of whom didn’t think of themselves as volunteers. Baroness Neuberger quoted the ‘Our Creative Talent’ research launched at the Voluntary Arts England/DCMS/Arts Council England conference in July which identified 3.5 million volunteers supporting amateur arts groups in England. She said voluntary arts groups clearly bring vibrancy and creativity to communities: the Government’s role is not to be instructive but to encourage by not putting barriers in the way, providing financial support, creating an atmosphere of goodwill and saying thank you.
Robin Simpson.
Also on Wednesday I attended a meeting of the NCVO Executive Committee. We spent some time discussing the new format for quarterly reporting to NCVO Trustees which relates all activity to the high level outcomes in NCVO’s strategic plan. This brought up the perennial problem of how to ensure Trustees are sufficiently informed about the work of the organisation to exercise their governance duties without swamping them with information. We looked at the idea of just reporting potential problems or areas for concern, the difficulties created by Trustees relying on staff to identify these and the converse danger of Trustees becoming too closely involved in operational matters. This seems to be an almost impossible balance to strike for most voluntary organisations – and certainly one we regularly debate with the VAN Board.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: ace, arts, DCMS, DIUS, England, olympics, OTS, vcs, volarts, volunteering
On Tuesday afternoon I was at the Cabinet Office for my regular update meeting with John Knights and Sophie Chapman at the Office of the Third Sector. We talked about the London 2012 Volunteering Legacy plans to encourage participation (in the arts and sports as well as ‘formal volunteering’) and I encouraged OTS to try to co-ordinate this work with Arts Council England’s planned national participation campaign and similar initiatives being developed by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in response to the informal adult learning consultation.
Robin Simpson.
Cultural Playing Field 