TICKETS ARE SOLD OUT

Joining instructions should be with you by Monday 17 October. If you have not received them please check your spam or quarantine folder before emailing conference@volunteermanagers.org.uk

Can’t see member-rate tickets? If you’re an AVM member, please log in to access your discounted ticket. 

AVM’s annual conference for volunteer managers is back and online on Zoom, on Wed 19 & Thu 20 October 2022.

The AVM conference is always a highlight in our year. Even though we say so ourselves we believe it is the premier event in the UK for volunteer managers, leaders and heads of volunteering.

We aim to bring together some of the best speakers from our sector. People who are at the forefront of volunteer management and thought-leadership, and those from outside of volunteer management, who will challenge and provoke us to think differently.

Each day will feature a keynote speaker with Q&A, along with workshops to choose from on a variety of themes, live panel sessions, and networking opportunities.

Book now!

If you’re an AVM member, please log in to access your discounted ticket. 

Ticket sales will close at 5pm on Thursday 13th October.

Agenda

Day 1: Wednesday 19 October

• 09:15 Our virtual doors open for pre-conference networking, and an opportunity to meet our conference sponsors before the conference starts.
• 10:00 Conference opens with a welcome from Ruth Leonard, Chair of AVM
• 10:10 Keynote: How we give – our time, money and energy. Sarah Vibert, Chief Executive, National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
  Sarah’s keynote speech will be followed by a Q&A, with questions facilitated by Ruth Leonard.
• 10:55 Break and move to workshops
  All workshops will be running in different Zooms and you will need to leave the main Zoom and join your workshop’s Zoom link.
• 11:20 Workshops start 
  Each workshop will be in a separate Zoom meeting, hosted by a member of the AVM Board.
  Please book one workshop choice per day.
• 12:05 Break and come back to main Zoom for panel
  An opportunity for a cuppa and a comfort break after your workshop, before you rejoin the main Zoom
• 12:25 Panel Session – Future Trends in Volunteer Management with Rob Jackson, Karen Knight and Shaun Delaney
• 12:55 Closing remarks
• 13:00 Conference closes
• 13:00 – 13:45 Meet our conference sponsors after the conference 
• 14:00 – 15:00: Networking
  Join us on Zoom to network and share with your peers.

Day 2: Thursday 20 October

• 09:15 Our virtual doors open for pre-conference networking, and an opportunity to meet our conference sponsors before the conference starts.
• 10:00 Conference opens with a welcome from Ruth Leonard, Chair of AVM
• 10:10 Keynote: The Quiet Power of Kindness at Work. Graham Allcott, Think Productive
  (Graham is kindly offering a 10% discount on one of his upcoming courses to all AVM conference ticket holders. Details will be shared with ticket holders in due course. Terms and conditions apply, and AVM does not benefit from this discount.)
  Graham’s keynote speech will be followed by a Q&A, with questions facilitated by Ruth Leonard.
• 11:00 Break and move to workshops
  All workshops will be running in different Zooms and you will need to leave the main Zoom and join your workshop’s Zoom link.
• 11:20 Workshops start 
  Each workshop will be in a separate Zoom meeting, hosted by a member of the AVM Board.
  Please book one workshop choice per day.
• 12:05 Break and come back to main Zoom for panel
  An opportunity for a cuppa and a comfort break after your workshop, before you rejoin the main Zoom
• 12:25 Panel Session – HR & Volunteering with Angela Wilson, Lorna Muffet and Laura James
• 12:55 Closing remarks
• 13:00 Conference closes
• 13:00 – 13:45 Meet our conference sponsors after the conference 
• 14:00 – 15:00: Networking
  Join us on Zoom to network and share with your peers.

Workshops

• Workshop A: Creating a culture of volunteering across an organisation, Adrian Murtagh, Head of Volunteer Practice, Volunteer Scotland
  An organisation’s culture is created, nurtured and influenced by many factors including its people, leaders and values. It will grow and change with time and if not acknowledged and managed, an organisation’s culture can display behaviours and values that don’t reflect the intended employee experience and culture. Now let’s add volunteers, an area of the team that is often overlooked and its impact on an organisations culture underestimated. This simple yet powerful act of humanity has a massive impact on the culture of your organisation and it’s important that we understand what a volunteer culture means to everyone engaged in and with your organisation. This session will be focusing on your organisation’s volunteer culture and how broader aspects of organisational culture might impact upon someone’s experience of volunteering.
  In this workshop we will:
  • Explore what is an organisational culture and what does it mean for volunteering.
  • Discuss key aspects of a volunteering culture, beliefs, goals, purpose and values.
  • Share some top tips on how to create and nurture a volunteer culture within an organisation.
• Workshop B: Fixing the Digital Divide….Understanding the impact of Digital Exclusion and considering how our approach to volunteer management could lessen its effect, Hilary Nugent, Good Things Foundation
  The coronavirus pandemic has exposed and exacerbated digital exclusion across the UK. Millions of people in the UK don’t have the basic skills or access to devices and data that they need to thrive in today’s world, and are getting left behind. And yet as volunteer managers we have embraced the digital world. Going online allows us to be more efficient, and train and support volunteers more effectively from a distance.
  This session aims to introduce the importance of considering digital inclusion in volunteer management and challenges us to begin to think about what we could do to lessen it’s impact. In this workshop you will gain a better understanding of digital exclusion in the UK, who it affects, and how this is relevant to volunteer management. It will not provide “the answer”, but give a space for us to consider how as volunteer managers we may be inadvertently adding to the problem.
  You will also discuss ways that we could change our approach to make sure that we are not excluding volunteers because of lack of skills or access to the online world.
  Suitable for those who are:
  * New to volunteer management
  * Experienced volunteer managers
  * Leaders of volunteer involvement
• Workshop C: Resilience in Volunteer Management, Lindsay Marston, Chester Zoo
  The resilience in volunteer management workshop is an interactive group session where participants will work together to define resilience and identify helpful strategies to deal with challenges.
  The workshop will support volunteer managers to recognise their skills and abilities, giving them improved confidence to lead volunteers through growth and change. Participants can expect a mixture of group discussion, scenario based activities and digital interaction.
  In this workshop, you will:
  1. learn more about resilience and how to build it in yourself and others.
  2. identify practical steps and techniques to support volunteer engagement and positive change management.
  3. connect with other participants and learn from their experiences.
  Suitable for those who are:
  * New to volunteer management
  * Experienced volunteer managers
  * Leaders of volunteer involvement
• Workshop D: Build resilience and mental wellbeing, and reduce stress and burnout through Workplace Mindfulness, Karen Janes, The KJ Way
  These days people are experiencing so many changes and challenges in the workplace and beyond, that they are more stressed than ever. In the UK in 2020 the cost of poor mental health to UK business was £45billion. Recent research has shown 50% of workdays lost are through stress, and 1 in 6 workers experience mental health problems. Over time, stress can lead to chronic stress and serious health implications, as well as a sense of overwhelm and even burnout. Join this workshop to try out powerful, brain based, quick and easy mindfulness tools and practices that can help you to manage stress, build resilience and enhance your focus, effectiveness and wellbeing.
  During this workshop:
  1. Discover the neuroscience and evidence-based benefits of mindfulness
  2. Try out a range of mindfulness tools that you can immediately start using, both in your professional and personal lives, to create positive and meaningful change for yourselves and your teams – helping you when you need extra support, energy or relief
  3. Experience mindful movement to remove tension and stress from the body and manage your energy throughout the day
  4. Discuss ways to integrate mindful approaches into every day working life.All the tools and practices offered are secular, adapted to the workplace, and trauma sensitive.
  This session is appropriate for
  * beginners to mindfulness, as well as experienced practitioners.
• Workshop E: The Language of Volunteering, Karen Knight, Independent Consultant
  In this workshop, Karen will look at certain words used in the volunteering space that may (or may not!) be controversial, discuss how they are used and test some objective ways to evaluate their use. Filled with activities that will get you thinking in a new way about words that we use everyday, this workshop may not answer all your questions, but it will start productive conversations around how our language affects inclusivity and a culture of caring.
  During this workshop, you will:
  1. review the history of common words used in the volunteering world,
  2. learn how other people may view words that you’ve never thought much about;
  3. learn an objective tool for evaluating words that may be questionable; and
  4. learn how to avoid using words that may be controversial.
  Suitable for those who are:
  * New to volunteer management
  * Experienced volunteer managers
  * Leaders of volunteer involvement
• Workshop F: Building effective corporate volunteering partnerships, Helen Jones, Peterborough Citizens Advice
  Are you interested in building effective corporate volunteering partnerships that go beyond staff led fundraising events and painting the office walls? This interactive workshop will focus on how you can develop and maintain a successful corporate volunteering programme for your charity. During the session, we will discuss ways to identify and communicate with potential corporate partners; consider new and innovative volunteering opportunities that you can offer to local businesses; and develop strategies that will help to manage and extend your corporate partnerships. We will share our experience of building local corporate partnerships to demonstrate how this can be achieved in novel ways.
  During this workshop you will:
  1. Gain an understanding of how to find suitable corporate volunteering partners who can support your organisation
  2. Provide you with a diverse range of corporate volunteering opportunities
  3. Help you to actively maintain good relationships with your corporate volunteering partners
  4. Give you the opportunity to work through the barriers preventing you from creating a corporate volunteering programme
  Suitable for those who are:
  * New to volunteer management
  * Experienced volunteer managers
  * Leaders of volunteer involvement
• Workshop G: Thursday 20th ONLY: (Quiet) Leadership in the Volunteering Sector, Ruth Leonard and Graham Allcott
  Join Graham Allcott and Ruth Leonard for an interactive discussion about what ‘The Quiet Power of Kindness at Work’ means for volunteer managers.

Meet our Sponsors

Our sponsors help AVM keep our conference affordable.

This year we’ll be offering an opportunity to ‘Meet the Sponsor’ before and after the main conference on each day. We’ll have a breakout room open on Zoom for each sponsor, and you can pop in and say hello.

So far for 2022 we have confirmed the following sponsors and partners. Find out more about our sponsors:

Assemble

Better Impact

Better Impact has been serving volunteer services and donor relations teams with program management software, since 2000. Small, medium and enterprise sized organisations across the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand utilise our solutions.

When you choose Better Impact, you receive more than intuitive, reliable, and secure products designed with your program needs in mind. The people behind Better Impact are an impressive extension of the product and of your team.

Visit www.BetterImpact.co.uk to learn more.

Email: sales@BetterImpact.co.uk

Rosterfy

Rosterfy helps Volunteer and Workforce Managers streamline their end to end volunteer and paid workforce management by replacing manual processes with automations.

Team Kinetic

Team Kinetic have been delivering volunteer management solutions for over a decade, with tools to help organisations of any size recruit, retain, and reward volunteers. 

The Team Kinetic system is continually developing based on user feedback and the latest trends in the third sector, serving clients in a range of markets. 

Team Kinetic were recognised for their work supporting the vulnerable, elderly, and self-isolating through volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic by the TechForce19 challenge, set by NHSx and the UK Government. 

To find out more about Team Kinetic, visit their website, read their blog, or find them on social media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube. You can also listen to their podcast, featuring two episodes with AVM!

Team Kinetic is AVM’s corporate partner.

Networking

When it comes to networking, we know that nothing quite beats in-person. However, as many of us have become accustomed to, online networking isn’t a bad second choice. We will be using a Zoom meeting to enable you to chat with other leaders of volunteering from across a variety of sectors and organisations during this conference.

This year we will be offering networking opportunities from 9:15am, before the conference starts. We will also be holding post-conference networking between 2 and 3pm each day.

Pricing

AVM members are eligible for a member discount on our Conference.

If you’re an AVM member, please log in to access your discounted ticket. 

We release a fixed number of early bird tickets: when they’re gone, they’re gone!

If you require multiple tickets, please contact conference@volunteermanagers.org.uk to see how we can help you.

Book now!

Ticket sales will close at 5pm on Thursday 13th October.

About our keynote, panelists and workshop speakers

Sarah Vibert, Chief Executive, NCVO

Sarah joined NCVO in January 2020 as director of membership and engagement. She agreed to be interim chief executive from January 2021, before being appointed permanently in March 2022.

Sarah has held a number of leadership roles in the voluntary sector, most recently as chief executive of the umbrella charity The Neurological Alliance. She also spent time in senior management roles at Epilepsy Society, In Kind Direct and The Prince’s Charities. She started her career in local government management, including working for the Mayor of London.

Sarah is a trustee of The Brain and Spine Foundation, a charity that supports people affected by neurological conditions by providing expert information, support and education. She also volunteers as a committee member of her son’s primary school Parent Teacher Association.

Connect with Sarah on Twitter.

Follow NCVO on Twitter.

Graham Allcott, founder, Think Productive

Graham is one of the laziest and most impatient people he knows. He hates anything that takes longer than it needs to and spending 5 minutes in a queue is a recipe for self-combustion.

Despite being the author of a book called “How to be a Productivity Ninja”, Graham’s own productivity is variable. He is allergic to detail of any description and will regularly do the exact opposite of the things he talks about in his book. He then remembers he wrote a book about it and follows his own advice again. Repeat cycle. Regularly.

For someone whose work often means putting himself and his ideas “out there”, he’s naturally a shy introvert. He hates the bragging of conference bios, hates sales and marketing and even hates writing about himself in the third person.

Graham is both terrified and bored by small talk and he’s the guy at networking events who has one really deep conversation and forgets to, y’know, network. Most mornings he switches off the internet, lets his emails go unread, puts his phone on silent and retreats into a kind of cocoon, which is where he does most of his writing and gets ideas. He calls this “going dark” and cunningly turns it into a ‘ninja tactic’ in his books so that no one suspects a thing.

Although his career to date can be disguised as a neat narrative arc, in truth he has still yet to decide what he wants to be when he grows up. Previous ideas include, in chronological order: fireman, footballer, aid worker in Africa, charity chief executive, folk singer, tea shop owner, author and the man who tells you off for checking your iPhone too often, jazz club owner. When he finally cracks it, he’ll be sure to let you know.

Graham will be talking about ‘The Quiet Power of Kindness at Work’.

Graham is kindly offering a 10% discount on one of his upcoming courses to all AVM conference ticket holders. Details will be shared with ticket holders in due course. Terms and conditions apply, and AVM does not benefit from this discount.

Adrian Murtagh, Volunteer Scotland

Adrian Murtagh has worked in the learning and development field for over 30 years as a trainer, coach, facilitator and consultant. His work has seen him develop and deliver learning solutions to the third, private and statutory sectors. Using a range of formats and methods, these mainly focus on behavioural change, workplace relationships, leadership and mental health. His volunteer practice experience includes chief officer of a volunteer centre, head of volunteer practice at Volunteer Scotland and volunteering for a number of charities. Recently he developed the national volunteer inclusion group for Scotland and manages a number of quality assurance systems to support volunteer practice. Prior to working in the voluntary sector Adrian was a psychiatric nurse, counsellor and therapist.

Hilary Nugent, Volunteer Manager, Good Things Foundation

Hilary has worked in volunteer management for over 15 years in both large national and small local charities. She has been the Volunteer Manager at Good Things Foundation, the UKs leading digital inclusion charity for 3 years.

Good Things is a social change charity, who help people improve their lives through digital, by working in partnership with thousands of community organisations across the UK. She runs training and information sessions for this network as well as developing volunteer schemes for corporate partners and running her own small team of volunteers.

She openly admits that before she started working for Good Things her understanding of the widespread and complex nature of digital exclusion was practically non-existent so she is keen to spread the word amongst her AVM colleagues!

Lindsay Marston, Chester Zoo

Lindsay joined Chester Zoo’s Conservation Education and Engagement team in 2019 to manage their award-winning volunteer team. She’s worked in the charity sector for over 15 years, managing volunteers and working with children and young people.

Lindsay is Chair of the national volunteer managers working group for the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) and enjoys connecting with volunteer managers to improve best practices and enhance the volunteer experience.

Like many volunteer management professionals, Lindsay adapted volunteer engagement during the pandemic, and despite challenges, she worked with her team to achieve the Investing in Volunteers Award and develop a new vision for volunteering. It was through the pandemic that Lindsay and her team were able to recognise what resilience means to them and what lessons they could use to help them overcome future challenges.

Karen Janes, The KJ Way

Karen Janes is a Certified Workplace Mindfulness Facilitator, and owner of The KJ way, delivering workplace mindfulness solutions to help organisations and its people to flourish and thrive.

Karen had 20-year career in the charity sector, working in senior volunteer leadership roles, and is a previous Director of AVM. Karen left the sector in 2020, and found mindfulness has been transformational in her life.

Karen’s business – The KJ Way – teaches people powerful brain-based mindfulness exercises that help them to reduce their stress, increase their resilience, and enhance their focus, effectiveness and personal wellbeing. Bringing the benefits of mindfulness into the workplace with tools people can immediately start using, both in their professional and personal lives, to create positive and meaningful change for themselves and their teams.

All the tools and practices Karen offers are based on the well-researched and proven Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme, and are secular, adapted to the workplace, and trauma sensitive. They are equally suitable for beginners as well as people with previous mindfulness experience.

Karen Knight, Independent Consultant

Karen Knight has been providing volunteer recruitment, engagement and training for not-for-profit organizations in Canada for over 25 years.

Through her passion for making a difference in the world, she has gained decades of experience in not-for-profits as a volunteer, a leader of volunteers and as a board member.

After many years working and volunteering with not-for-profits, Karen found that many leaders of volunteers have difficulty with certain aspects of their volunteer programs.

Using hands-on experience, combined with the extensive studying and research she has completed in the sector, Karen helps solve these challenges for not-for-profit organizations.

Fascinated with how the trend toward more inclusive language in our society and our workplaces is impacting the not-for-profit sector, Karen has studied the words that we use around volunteering, and has suggestions and ideas that you can implement in your own organizations.

Helen Jones, Peterborough Citizens Advice

Helen is the Volunteer Development Manager at Citizens Advice Peterborough, responsible for building and delivering the volunteering strategy as well as the recruitment, training and ongoing management of our volunteers. Helen works across the charity to ensure volunteers play an increasing role in the future work of the advice service, including our social policy, communications and advocacy. Helen leads on external promotion of the charity brand by building links with local businesses, attending events and conferences, and delivering a programme of corporate volunteering. With an environmental and teaching background, Helen is passionate about encouraging people to share their skills and experiences, especially through voluntary work. Helen strives to engage with people and businesses from a range of backgrounds to think about how they can support their local community. Helen has more than 10 years experience of managing networks of volunteers, both remotely and face to face, within the charity sector.

Rob Jackson, Rob Jackson Consulting Ltd

Rob Jackson is Director of Rob Jackson Consulting Ltd, a consultancy and training company that helps engage and inspire people to bring about change. Rob has almost 30 years experience working in the voluntary and community sector, holding a variety of strategic development and senior management roles that have focused on leading and engaging volunteers.

Rob has run his company since 2011 working with a wide range of clients in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the USA and Canada. Rob is co-author of The Complete Volunteer Management Handbook (DSC, 2012 and 2019) and From The Top Down – UK Edition (Energize Inc., 2015).

Lorna Muffett, Volunteering Business Partner, National Deaf Children’s Society

Lorna has been a full-time Volunteer Manager for over 13 years. She has a Level 3 qualification in Volunteer Management. Before this Lorna gained both volunteer management and training experience as a volunteer for Samaritans. She has managed volunteers in a range of settings including naval bases, a 13th century palace, police cells, a Victorian cemetery and the oldest continually running cinema in the country. Her work has included the day-to-day coordination of volunteers, setting up volunteering programmes as well as working strategically at a UK-wide level. She has run an accredited volunteer centre and a regional forum for Volunteer Managers. Lorna caught the volunteering bug years ago while still at school. This has included animal fostering, holiday provision for children, trustee positions, wildlife recording, all kinds of roles at Samaritans including answering the phones regularly for 10 years. She has been a magistrate on the Avon and Somerset bench for five years.

Angela Wilson, Head of Organisational Development, Versus Arthritis

Angela has worked, volunteered and lived (literally – through a London home-share scheme!) in the voluntary sector for over 20 years, mostly in roles which are about helping people and organisations to perform at their best. Anglea has been Head of Volunteering at Samaritans and the MS Society and have led organisational change across the UK in a variety of settings. Currently Anglea is Head of OD at Versus Arthritis. Her team are responsible for learning, internal comms and wellbeing, and we serve both staff and volunteers. Anglea believes we’re doing exciting stuff to build an integrated experience across the two audiences. Angela currently lives down South but hails proudly from the north (Hull), has two kids and a dog and enjoys a boogie round her kitchen of a Friday afternoon.

Book now!

Ticket sales will close at 5pm on Thursday 13th October.

Terms and conditions of ticket sales

Payment and cancellation terms

Payment must be made by the date of the event.

If you require an invoice, please ensure you book your place a minimum of two weeks before the start date of the event. After that we will only accept payment by credit card or PayPal.

Want to pay by credit card but can’t pay now? No problem! You can pay against an invoice by credit card: we will send you a link to do this online.

As you follow the online booking process – select the payment option at checkout “Request invoice”. If you need us to add a payment reference or purchase order number to the invoice – just add it in at checkout.

You’ll receive your invoice by email once we have accepted your booking. You can pay for your ticket by BACS or online with a credit or debit card. Please note we no longer accept payment by cheque.

We will check your membership status at time of booking. If you are not a current member – or have not applied for membership – you will be re-invoiced at the non-member rate.

We know things happen and that sometimes you can’t come to an event. If you are unable to come, you can pass your ticket on to a colleague, but if they are not an AVM member they will need to join AVM. If they don’t, they will be charged at the non-member rate.

If you have to cancel, please let us know by email.

• Cancellations received more than 20 days before the start of the event – before or on 29th September – regardless of date booked, will incur a 25% cancellation charge, whether the place has been paid for or not,
• Cancellations received 19–0 days before the start of the event – on or after 30th September – regardless of the date booked, will incur a 100% cancellation charge, whether the place has been paid for or not.

AVM will not accept liability for people unable to attend due to circumstances outside our control, such as travel disruption, work commitments, illness, or other personal commitments.

AVM reserves the right to take the necessary steps to recover unpaid amounts, which may include suspension of membership and the associated access, as well as engaging external debt collection agencies, as appropriate.

Where circumstances force AVM to cancel an event, the liability of AVM shall be limited to a refund of any fees paid for tickets to that particular event. AVM is not liable for any consequential loss, such as travel costs you may incur.

L&D organisational package holders are limited to 10 tickets per organisation for AVM’s annual conference. If you would like to make a bulk order, please get in touch.

Buying for a colleague?

If you are buying tickets for colleagues you can only buy your own ticket at a member rate, and additional tickets at the non-member rate. If you require multiple tickets for AVM members, please contact us at conference@volunteermanagers.org.uk to and we’ll be happy to help you.

We reserve the right to re-issue an invoice for any tickets for non-members bought at the member rate if they are not a member at the time of booking.

Join AVM now

You can join AVM online now to qualify for your event discount. As long as your application is submitted, you can purchase tickets for our events at the member rate. You will need to complete your membership payment, otherwise you will be liable for the non-member price for the event.

Disclaimers

Whilst the programme is correct at time of going to press, AVM reserves the right to change details of an event without notice. Alterations may occasionally be necessary due to circumstances beyond our control.

Views expressed by speakers are their own. AVM disclaims any liability for advice given, or views expressed, by any speaker at the event or in any documentation provided to delegates.

By attending AVM’s conference on Zoom, your profile information, including your name and profile picture, may be visible to other attendees. Your name and email address may also be visible to AVM – the account owner – and any staff, volunteers or contractors who are supporting the conference and workshops.

Your name, job title and organisation may be shared as a delegate list on a conference private web page, to facilitate networking. This will only be made available to those who have access to the event page: AVM staff and volunteers, event delegates, speakers and conference sponsors.

If you do not want your details in the list, please let us know at least three weeks in advance of the event. AVM will not sell or share your contact details, and delegate list should not be used for sales to our delegates, either during or after the event.