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ANDY'S
TRAVEL TALES 2006
OzVPM
Director Andy Fryar recently returned from a trip where
he conducted volunteer management training sessions across
England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland
Here,
Andy shares his adventures and observations about volunteerism
during his travels.
The
most recent posts are listed first
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ADELAIDE,
AUSTRALIA - 3/6/2006
Well
back home again and I never cease to be amazed at
how fortunate I am to have the opportunity to travel
and observe volunteer management issues around the
world as a part of my work. As always, I have had
the opportunity to meet and work with many wonderful
people on this trip, and I have learnt many new things
along the way.
A
special thank you to CSV in London who I worked for
across the UK and who sponsored a lot of this trip.
My
site report tells me that many of you have again enjoyed
following my travels this trip and as always it has
been a great pleasure to share my experiences with
you.
...until
next time
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HONG
KONG - 31/5/2006
I
decided to break up my trip on the way back to Australia
with a stop over in the wonderful Asian city of Hong
Kong - somewhere I had not had the pleasure of visiting
before. Hong Kong is an amazing mix of thousands of
years of asian culture and its more recent colonial
heritage. The harbour area with its huge array of
skyscrapers is truly breathtaking.
While
I didn't do any volunteer related work in Hong Kong,
I have been watching the development of the sector
there from afar for a few years. The main driving
force in that country in relation to the development
of volunteerism has been the Hong Kong Agency for
Volunteer Service who appear to be doing some really
positive developmental activities in the Hong Kong
area.
Beautiful
Hong Kong harbour
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CARDIFF
, WALES - 26/5/2006
Martin
and I have spent the last two days conducting the
final training session of the 'volunteer magnet tour'
here in Cardiff
to a small but really enthusiastic group
of volunteer program managers. Amongst the participants
were staff from the Welsh
Council for Voluntary Action. WCVA is
the voice of the voluntary sector here in Wales whose
mandate is to represent and campaign for voluntary
organisations, volunteers and communities in this
country. Yesterday afternoon we also took some time
out to visit majestic Cardiff
Castle - an amazing historic facility
right in the heart of the city, where a Castle of
some description has stood for the last 2000 years.
1.
Some participants at the Cardiff workshop
2.
Time out at historic Cardiff Castle |
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LEEDS,
ENGLAND - 23/5/2006
Well
our tour has now moved onto Leeds
in the north of England, where we have spent the last
two days training around 18 more volunteer program
managers from a wide variety of organisations (pictured
below). It was interesting to learn more today from
participants about the role of volunteers in England's
police force. You can read all about the Special Constabulary
(who incidentally are nearly 200 years old) here.
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LONDON,
ENGLAND - 20/5/2006
Thought
I'd throw in a fun event I ventured along to with
some friends recently when I managed to catch a concert
by Richard
Ashcroft - formerly of the band 'The
Verve'. The show was at the Brixton
Academy - arguably one of the best venues
I have ever had the pleasure of going to. It was also
great to witness Oxfam
volunteers busy amongst the crowd recruiting new members.
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LONDON,
ENGLAND - 19/5/2006
The
past two days has been an amazing second session of
the 'Turn your organisation into a volunteer magnet'
series, here in (sometimes) sunny London. We have
been joined by around 30 volunteer program managers
over the past two days from organisations as diverse
as the Pre-school Working Alliance, the National Childbirth
Trust, Age Concern England and Amnesty International.
Below are some photos of participants in action. Next
stop Leeds...
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EDINBURGH,
SCOTLAND - 16/5/2006
Well
today marks the competion of the first two day seminar
in our series on the topic of 'How to turn your organisation
into a volunteer magnet'. We were joined by 14 participants
here in Scotland who were all very engaged over the
course of the two days we were together. For those
who have never been to Edinburgh, it is the most beautiful
of cities (of all the cities I have ever visited it
is actually my favourite) with the castle standing
tall over the surrounding city and country side. We
also took some time out to visit with Claire Stevens
the Director of CSV
Scotland who I met last year while training
in Glasgow. It was nice to again have the opportunity
to connect with Claire and learn more about the important
work CSV are doing in this part of the world.
Photos
below are:
1.
Workshop participants debating the finer points of
volunteerism in Edinburgh
2.
Beautiful Edinburgh Castle
3.
You can tell I am not in Australia --- they actually
drink Fosters here! :O)
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LONDON,
ENGLAND - 12/5/2006
Another
interesting day for me as I had the opportunity to
catch up with colleagues at CSV Consulting (Community
Service Volunteers). CSV are the largest provider
of volunteer management training across the UK and
the sponsors of our volunteer management training
tour across the United Kingdom over the next few weeks.
Following
my visit to CSV I visited SCOPE, where I took the
opportunity to take a tour of their wonderful operations
and even volunteered my services in helping the organisation
to shortlist candidates for their vacant 'Head of
Volunteering Strategies' position. Scope is a national
UK based disability organisation focusing of the needs
and rights of people with Cerebal Palsy. If you are
not familiar with the excellent work Scope has done
with the rights of volunteers with disabilities take
a look at their excellent report - Tackling
Disablism
Photos
of my visit and volunteering effort at Scope
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BLACKPOOL,
ENGLAND - 11/5/2006
Today
was spend working at a conference for Volunteer Centres
North West on the theme of 'Change. No Fear!' which
investigated the theme of change in the not for profit
and voluntary sector. The conference examined ways
that volunteer management professionals and voluntary
organisations can progress through the constant processes
of change without being fearful or reactive to those
situations. Attended by around 120 delegates it was
a terrific event which I enjoyed very much.
Pictured
below are the trainers involved in the conference
(l-r) Martin J Cowling, Jody Delichte, Kerry-Lyn Stanton-Jones
and myself
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DUBLIN,
IRELAND - 8/5/2006
I
spent today conducting a full day training session
here in Dublin on the topic of what constitutes 'advanced'
volunteer management - or more particularly what make
a VPM an advanced practitioner. The day was hosted
by Volunteering Ireland, and was a great success with
participants from all parts of Ireland, Canada, Tanzania
and even Russia in attendance.
Following
the workshop I took the opportunity to have dinner
with the CEO and other key staff of Volunteering Ireland
to discuss a range of issues relating to volunteerism
both here in this country and further afield. I also
managed to sneak into a late tour of the Jameson Whiskey
distillery ...but don't tell anyone :O)
Workshop
participants hard at it in Dublin
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LONDON,
ENGLAND - 6/5/2006
A
quick update on my exploits in London this week. It's
been both a busy yet relaxing week here, and while
it has largely been scheduled as a period of 'down'
time, I have taken the opportunity to catch up with
some good friends and leaders in the UK volunteerism
scene.
In
particular it was great to spend a day with UKVPM's
founder and Volunteering England Regional Development
Manager Rob Jackson during the week. It was also fantastic
to have an opportunity to share a meal and re-connect
with Fraser Dyer, who many of you will remember from
his national tour of Oz last year. I've also caught
up with Kate Power who is about to take on a new post
as International Coordinator of Volunteers with Greenpeace
International, ex-pat Nikki Squelch the National Volunteer
Manager from Age Concern England and Kerry-Lyn Stanton-Jones
who is one of only a few people in the world authorised
to run training on Susan Jeffer's well know publication
'Feel the fear and do it anyway!' Kerry-Lyn and her
colleague Jody Delichte will be working at a conference
in Blackpool with us next week.
On
top of all that I managed to also attend a fundraising
'curry night' party to raise money towards Parkinson's
Disease research - luckily I managed to avoid wearing
my punjabi suit! ...more soon! |
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| ADELAIDE,
AUSTRALIA - 28/4/2006
I'm
about to embark on a training tour with good friend
and business partner Martin J Cowling across England,
Ireland, Scotland and Wales. I'll be working with
Volunteering Ireland in Dublin and the Bolton Volunteer
Centre in Blackpool before conducting a series of
two day 'Turn your organisation into a volunteer magnet'
workshops with Martin in Edinburgh, Leeds, London
and Cardiff.
As
always I am looking forward to the trip and to learning
more about volunteerism in the UK region. I am also
looking forward to sharing the experiences I learn
along the way with visitors to the OzVPM site. |
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