Tell us your story and you could win a prize!

Does anyone know what the outcome of the competition is? I entered my story in December but have not heard any yet. Thanks

I feel it is important that people like jj1304, William and I warn others of the potential pitfalls there are to volunteering.
I too was unlucky enough to get involved in the same charity as jj1304 (Uxbridge United Welfare Trusts) where I too suffered victimisation and threats from the trustees of it. On their own they were bad enough but when they got together, there was no limit to how far they would go to destroy and eliminate anyone who dared to disagree with their unreasoned, and often unlawful, actions.
Unfortunately, the beneficiaries of the charity were not seen to be the priority in all this and while they lost out, the staff would gain. The figures for administering the charity (accounts published by the Charity Commission) show that as the grants went down, the staffing costs went up. During my time as a trustee, I tried my best to alert them to the situation, asking them to investigate why this was. They refused to listen and increased the staff salaries yet again, with no thought whatsoever of the detrimental effect this might have on a charity that was already spending a higher percentage of its income on administering grants, than the actual grants themselves.
I can empathise with William as I also worked tirelessly for the charity, producing documentation that was originally welcomed by the trustees and implemented by them as part of their administrative procedures. These were policies and documents that had never been produced before but were necessary for the board of any voluntary organisation. Health and safety procedures and a register of financial interests were just two of the early ones I spent a lot of time putting together.
When they unceremoniously booted me off the board this year, the trustees took great delight in telling me they would never be using my documentation again. The fact that they have, and they did, was because they have yet to produce anything from scratch to replace it. This was work which, as William says, is copyrighted to the person who wrote it, and in this case it was me. The fact that they have no right to it is another story.
As far as the trustees are concerned, they could not give two hoots who they use or who they trample over. They employ solicitors because they can afford the cost of getting someone to fight their battles for them, knowing you will likely not have money to burn in the same way as they have. There is a limit to what volunteers can do in that situation, but it doesn’t make them right and you wrong.
Yet another incident of abuse I suffered at this charity was when a member of the board thought it amusing to send a poison pen letter to my employers suggesting that I be disposed of on the grounds that my presence posed a danger in their employ. Fortunately my managers decided the best place for such poison was in the bin. The trustees decided not to try to find who the author of the letter might be, ignoring the fact that its content and style made it obvious who this was. One trustee even declared the letter to be entirely appropriate and reasonable!
Unfortunately the incidents that I, William and jj1304 experienced are far from being isolated ones. This was the conclusion reached by ‘Volunteering England’ in their 2010 interim report.
www.volunteering.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/742EBA26-A6CB-4531-BBBB-7C2A35CCE5D5/0/VE_volunteering_inquiry_FIN_web.pdf
There are references in that report to my experiences as a volunteer along with others who were similarly frustrated at there being no authoritative body to turn to when things went seriously wrong for them.
A few organisations have since committed themselves to an agreed standard of managing volunteers. It is a step forward that I, for one, would be delighted to see made a legal requirement for all organisations using volunteers in the workforce. Charities should not be allowed to retain their charitable status without proving that they are worthy of it in all respects; particularly on the important issue of how they treat their volunteers.

For many years I worked as a volunteer speaker at York Art Gallery. One day, I was asked to give an illustrated lecture to a local arts society. The subject was to be William Etty, the celebrated York artist. York Library holds the largest collection of the letters of William Etty extant, so naturally I decided to consult it.

I was dismayed at the poor condition of the letters, most of which were crammed into two old box files. There was no catalogue. Even the number of documents was unknown. I sought an interview with the librarian responsible. She explained that staff shortage meant that some things were necessarily neglected. I immediately offered to put the documents in protective sleeves and make a comprehensive catalogue.

My offer was accepted, and furthermore, I was asked would I make transcriptions of the entire collection. This was a huge task (over 600 documents), but realising the importance of the work, I readily agreed. For convenience, the collection was transferred to the City Archives. Happily, the City Archivist was most understanding, and the archive team very helpful.

I worked most days on the project, either at the archives or at home, and acted as invigilator in order not to give the archive team extra work. After three years, I had put all the documents in order in protective sleeves. and placed them in ten large boxes instead of the original three. I had transcribed, annotated and catalogued more than half the collection. It was about this time that both the Librarian and the City Archivist retired.

The new Archivist had little interest in my work, and exercised a tighter control over the archives than had hitherto been the case. In particular she objected to me acting as invigilator, arguing that she and her colleague could manage quite well without my assistance. A disagreement arose when the Archivist decided to allow public access to the Etty collection. As I had not completed my catalogue this would have been contrary to best practice.

While acting as invigilator, I allowed access under my supervision, but felt that two busy archivists could not carry out their normal duties and invigilate. Public access to uncatalogued documents posed a security risk. I had already noted the loss of several documents. I pointed out that my catalogue was incomplete. Nevertheless, the Archivist demanded it, claiming that the Council owned the copyright on my work. We agreed to refer the matter to the newly-appointed Archive Manager, whom I had yet to meet.

In the meantime, I wrote to the Director to challenge the Council’s claim to copyright. The Director denied that the Council claimed copyright on my catalogue. I therefore assumed that the matter was settled. However, a few days later, the Archives Manager summoned me, and told me I had breached the code of “mutual trust” by writing to the Director. I was summarily dismissed. My work was shelved, and my catalogue, since completed and donated to the Archives, returned without thanks or acknowledgement.

As the Council has no grievance policy for Volunteers, and the remit of the Local Government Ombudsman specifically excludes representations from volunteers, there is no redress for ill-usage. Many, and probably most, volunteer recruiting organisations value and respect volunteers. But not all.
Since volunteers have no legal status, every volunteer recruiting agency ought to be required to have a
Grievance Policy. Volunteers who give their time and expertise in no expectation of reward deserve that surely?

William.

29 November 2011

Hi @jj1304 what a sad story and I'm so sorry to hear that you went through this. It's absolutely unacceptable that anyone should treat you in this way. Of course circumstances sometimes change and organisations may no longer require a volunteers time anymore, but the are ways of communicating this and ideally an alternative role would be offered if possible. Please be assured that not all charitiies operate like this and I am really pleased that it won't stop you giving your time in future. Can I suggest you enter this post into the competition? It's an important issue and it may help other volunteers who have experienced similar situations.

Since retiring in 2000 I have enjoyed volunteering when time permits. For many years I was an IT volunteer for Victim Support, I also assisted teaching English to foreign students at Uxbridge Adult Education College.

When diagnosed with prostate cancer I managed to raise £10,000 for the Royal Marsden Hospital who were treating me by completing, at the age of 69, La Marmotte, a 109 mile cycling challenge in the French Alps. I was rewarded for my efforts by the local community by being awarded the "Local Heroes Award" for my fund raising activities.

For the past 3 years I have enjoyed being an IT volunteer to a local charity the Uxbridge United Welfare Trusts. Again I found the experience challenging especially as I was required to update their web site, a completely new experience to me. I know I carried out all my duties in a professional and competent manner.

Imagine my disappointment and hurt when last week I tried to access the website to do some updating. The passwords had been changed, apparently for internal reasons my services were no longer required but the Trustees concerned did not consider it necessary to inform me of their decision.

How can the Big Society operate if Trustees are to treat volunteers in such an unprofessional and inconsiderate manner. What makes the situation even worse is that one of the Trustees is closely connected to Nick Hurd, Minister of Civil Society. I would have expected him to understand the need to treat volunteers with respect.

This is not the sort of post expected in this thread but volunteers must be made aware that not everybody appreciates their efforts and in many cases you are treated as a third class citizen.

However, my commitment to voluntary work will not be dented by such treatment, I am Treasurer of British Cycling Central Region and will continue in that role and helping out others who need assistance for as long as I am capable.